Mary Jane's market (and some shipping news): Previews Review sifts through some of the books hitting the shelves this week, and ponders Marvel's Mary Jane:

"It's interesting; I really enjoyed the first issue of MARY JANE but none of the ladies I talked to who read this issue seemed to have liked it at all. I'm pre-disposed to 'girly' comics and to the awesome art of Takeshi Miyazawa, maybe I'm not the best judge of that sort of thing, but yeah. None of the female employees or any of the customers I talked to at the store seemed to like it as much as I did, which is, well, it's interesting. I'm waiting to get some younger impressions, maybe the already-solicited collection of 1 through 4 will find a more appreciative audience...?"

I also enjoyed Mary Jane #1, but have yet to pass it along to any women to get their take. However, I think Alexander Danner might've hit the nail on the head last week with his evaluation of the first issue:

"... [Mary Jane is] an adrenaline junkie with bizarre taste. So bizarre, in fact, that I have to wonder who this book is really for. Let’s think about what she’s after here. What is Spider-Man?

"He’s the archetypal adolescent male power fantasy.

"And Mary Jane is, of course, the archetypal adolescent male sex fantasy. She’s the hot girl who desperately wants to date the 'empowered' dork that all us un-datable dorks so desperately wished we could be.

"This book is clearly NOT female romantic fantasy — it’s male romantic fantasy, but told from the point of view of the fantasy’s object. I submit as evidence the fact that while I thought the book was decent, if not my thing, my wife openly hated it. What we have here is a dating comic for adolescent guys. I don’t know if there’s a market for that. But I kinda want there to be."