I think I’m going to start giving these issues “Friends” episodes titles (they fit, though they do get a little long). This one could be called “The One Where Gwen Moves in With the Parkers, Then Peter Tries to Talk Logically to Mary Jane and She Dumps Him.”
She doesn’t just dump him over Gwen, but also because his Spidey lifestyle is giving her nightmares. It’s a “well, duh” moment and I can’t believe it didn’t occur to Bendis sooner. We’re thirty-two issues into the comic. This revelation belonged around issue twelve.
There’s also Peter beating up his impostor (not visibly Hispanic and not Ultimate Mysterio either) and Bendis losing control of the dialogue. He’s got to do regular declarative comic book dialogue and he bombs completely. The rest of the comic, the talking, it works. That scene gets painful though.
While it’s dramatically effective, the issue’s very problematic.
