Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane 20

July 11, 2007

Three little words set Mary Jane's world ablaze...and by page 22, Nothing Will Ever Be The Same Again...again. And This Time, It's Personal.

Sales - 214th, 6,482

Behind the Scenes: In January 2016, Sean McKeever tweeted a bit of behind the scenes information about the potential future of the series:

"In 2009, I pitched a SPIDER-MAN LOVES MARY JANE spinoff mini-series starring Firestar. It would have shown her path from the Hellions to the New Warriors to SMLMJ to helping the X-Men against Hellfire Club. I had Tak & Christina on board, but ultimately, as you can guess, it was passed on. Happens. But man, do I wish we'd gotten to do that one. What Marvel really wanted at the time was new SPIDER-MAN LOVES MARY JANE material, but I felt I ended that story. I had nothing more to say. Then 2 years later I did have more SMLMJ in me and so I one-paragraph pitched a story where it was winter, Peter & MJ were now dating......and new student Johnny Blaze was into MJ. And there'd be mystical stuff, and Spidey & Ghost Rider out in snowy NYC. But by 2011, the SMLMJ train had long left the station. There was no more interest in revisiting it. That, too, would've been fun to write."

https://twitter.com/seankmckeever/status/691326821833420801

https://twitter.com/seankmckeever/status/691327512115154944

https://twitter.com/seankmckeever/status/691327821621305344

https://twitter.com/seankmckeever/status/691329591105851392

https://twitter.com/seankmckeever/status/691329930555031552

https://twitter.com/seankmckeever/status/691330229726371841

https://twitter.com/seankmckeever/status/691330509712945152

In July 2019, McKeever repeated some of the same information in an interview:

"Interviewer: You know, I was going to ask if you had any unused plans but it looks like you answered that one for me.

SKM: Actually, I do have something on that. When I returned to Marvel from my DC exclusive, one of the first things I was asked is if I wanted to go back to SMLMJ. I still hadn’t had an idea at the time. I had Tak and Christina Strain on board for a Firestar mini-series that took place in the SMLMJ-verse, going from her beginnings to the Hellions to hanging with Spidey to the New Warriors to the Avengers, but I couldn’t drum up any interest at Marvel.

Well, a couple years pass and then I did have an idea for how I’d continue, at least to start: As alluded to in SMLMJ #20, it’s winter, and MJ is dating Peter. Spidey’s still a friend, but kind of distant regarding certain subjects, especially her dating life. Obviously, she would think Spidey’s jealous, but knowing what we know, it’s that Peter knows it’s wrong to play both sides like that.

The other element to the arc was going to be new student Johnny Blaze, who has a thing for MJ. So naturally there’d be some Ghost Rider action, too. I really wanted to have some cool Spidey-and-Ghostie-in-the-snow imagery."

http://www.adventuresinpoortaste.com/2019/07/15/interview-sean-mckeever-talks-about-the-making-of-spider-man-loves-mary-jane/

Other Links

http://marvel.com/comics/issue/15949/spider-man_loves_mary_jane_2005_20

http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=9959