written by Gerry Conway
drawn by Ryan Stegman
colored by Sonia Oback
About a year ago, I genuinely enjoyed the work of legendary Spider-Man scribe Gerry Conway on a five-part story-arc in the pages of The Amazing Spider-Man called "Spiral" which pitted Spider-Man against his one-time ally, the Wraith, a policewoman who also moonlighted as a costumed crime fighter, whose methods were becoming increasingly brutal (hence the title, implying her "spiral" into darkness). It was a satisfying read, and I honestly marveled at how sharp Conway, who's gotten on a bit in years, still was in terms of both his plotting and scripting. This is the man who killed Gwen Stacy over forty years ago, after all, but his dialogue is nicely updated and he still has a good handle on what makes Spidey tick.
In "Renew Your Vows" Conway revisits an alternate universe first imagined by regular Spider-Man writer Dan Slott several years ago, a reality in which Peter Parker and Mary Jane remain married with a daughter, Annie May Parker. In the first series, Spider-Man and his family faced off against Regent, a terrifying villain who, through a dazzling array of technology was able to absorb the powers of, and consequently defeat, several of the Marvel Universe's most powerful hereoes.
Here, Peter still takes pictures for the Daily Bugle rather than run his own company, though at least this time he's upgraded to a drone camera that takes better shots, while Mary Jane is an entrepreneur-cum-fashion blogger. In the first two issues of this new series, the Parkers face off against two opponents, Norman "Normie" Osborn II, who has bought the land where the vanquished Regent conducted his experiments, and all of the remaining technology on it, and the Mole Man, who can't really be bothered with the legal niceties of actually acquiring Regent's leftover tech and decides to take it the old-fashioned way: through monsters and moloids. Having used Regent's technology, Peter is able to transfer some of his powers to Mary Jane, and as a result, the Spider-powered family is all that stands in both Osborn's and the Mole Man's way.
It's gratifying that a writer who can claim as one of his career-defining moments the fact that he killed one of Spider-Man's supporting characters has managed to continue a story that brought back to life something which Marvel had long put in its grave: Peter Parker's marriage to Mary Jane Watson.
This is still very much an "alternate universe" story given that the mainstream Spider-Man over in the main title and its current event book, The Clone Conspiracy remains notably single, but it reads like the kind of Spider-Man book that I grew up with, though I confess I'm not much of a fan of Peter relying solely on his Spider-Man pics for his income. After all, over 15 years ago, J. Michael Straczynski had Peter take on the job of a high school teacher, and that run was well received, both critically and commercially. The whole photojournalist thing, after all Peter's been through, feels too much like a forced regression, even for a different reality. Still, Conway runs with it; the notion of a drone snapping pics is a winning idea, though one wonders why no one else seems to have thought of it. It's not earth-shattering stuff for the webslinger and his family, but these issues were an entertaining read just the same.
Stegman, whose art was a hit-or-miss affair for me back when he was drawing Superior Spider-Man appears to have greatly improved his craft since then, and although I'm not a fan of his design for Mary Jane's Spider-costume (assuming it was his), I generally enjoyed his work here, which looks a lot cleaner than it did when he drew the adventures of Spider-Ock.
Interestingly, sales for this book, or this "reality" seem pretty robust so far, so one wonders if Marvel has any plans to further milk this cow, and how long they'll do so.
8/10 for both issues
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