Mary Jane Watson: Reincarnated

Everyone dies: that's a fact of life. And sooner or later, everyone dies in comics: that's also a fact of life. For some characters, that's the end. Their bodies crumble to dust, memories of their exploits fade, and even their creators are forgotten. As in life, this fate befalls all heroes and sidekicks, no matter how powerful or significant. 

Recently, I've been enjoying the exploits of a character called Mantra. She was one of a special group of superheroes called Ultras. She and her fellow superheroes endured hardships, and enjoyed such spectacular adventures, that Marvel purchased Malibu Comics, the company that published their adventures, back in the mid 1990s. For a time, authors such as Robert W Barr, and artists like Dave Roberts, thrilled readers who made titles like Mantra a part of their lives. The Ultras even ventured into toy stores, and enjoyed a brief run in the TV series "Ultraforce." Sadly, the Ultras, and all memories of their exploits, faded away, when Marvel decided to close Malibu Comics, and stopped publishing their adventures.

Had readers banded together in great numbers, and insisted Marvel publish more of the Ultras' exploits, perhaps their fate would have been different. But no matter how much people loved and admired them, they just didn't care enough about characters like Mantra, and in sufficient numbers, to convince Marvel to continue their adventures.

Stan Lee envisioned Mary Jane Watson as the pretty, wholesome girl-next-door whom Aunt May wanted Peter Parker to date in the early days of "Amazing Spider-Man." Elsewhere, I've mused upon his inspiration for the character. Like Dr John Watson, a man who shares a similar name, Mary Jane has enjoyed a long life and career in comics. Or, perhaps I should say, many lives and many careers. At times she's pursued journalism. At other times, acting. In some eras, she was the girl who loved Peter Parker from afar. In others she dated him, or was his wife. Now she's a new incarnation, no longer living in New York, but in Chicago. She's a former supermodel, and has just opened a nightclub. From the cover of Invincible Iron Man #4, it seems as though she has consigned any hopes of life with Peter Parker to the past. So what's she doing with Iron Man? You'll have to read the issue to find out, won't you? 

One thing's for sure: some characters never die. We care about them too much to let their bodies crumble to dust, and let all memories of them fade away. Spider-Man and Iron Man are two heroes who seem destined to live forever. Mary Jane Watson, a woman without lacking any superpowers, is another person who continually rises from the ashes of her former existence to remake, recreate, and reincarnate herself. 

How do we embrace each new day? Do we continually look to become someone new? Or do we continue long journeys toward the realization of long-held goals? I suspect Mary Jane Watson does both equally well. Perhaps that is the reason why she refuses to die, and why we keep on insisting that she live.

Dragon Dave

Related Dragon Cache entries
Stan Lee's Inspiration

Greg Land: Sojourn's Movie Poster Cover

For Sojourn's first trade paperback edition, penciler Greg Land drew up a thumbnail sketch, then worked out a layout with a montage of the characters from the series. 

When he completed his work, he turned to Justin Ponsor to do the coloring. Here's Greg Land on Justin's contribution to Sojourn Volume 1: From the Ashes:

The trade cover was built around a fully rendered pencil drawing from me, as opposed to the hard-line work that I submit to an inker. So this was about using tonal values to create shape and form. Justin Ponsor then added computer painting techniques to enhance the tonal drawing. We talked a lot about overall color scheme and atmospheric effects, and then he went to town. 

We were going more for an image you might see with a movie poster, with dramatic lighting, and I feel that Justin did a very good job of achieving that goal. Lighting creates a drama in itself, and Justin nailed it.

A villain with a skull for a head, two beautiful heroines, a troll with horns (As opposed to a horny troll), and an army heading into battle. Who wouldn't want to watch an epic fantasy movie like that?

Dragon Dave

One Invincible Cover

My friend Justin Ponsor is one of the premier colorists at Marvel Comics. So when I saw that he was helping launch the new series of Invincible Iron Man, I had to check it out.

The first issue I picked up had a pretty awesome cover. It made me want to look inside, so I did. Then I saw this bad boy. I quickly discovered that Justin had actually colored this cover, which instantly made it more special. Given the level of detail required, covers usually take much longer to color than interior pages. So if Marvel asked him to do the issue and the cover, the management is going all out to produce a spectacular first issue.

From what I can tell, there are actually eleven different variant covers floating around out there, so there are a lot of fans hungry to pick up this first issue of the new Iron Man series.

Here's another big surprise. Open the cover, and there's another whole cover for you to enjoy, this time without all the print to obscure the detailed drawing. Another plus: for this first issue, the outer cover is much thicker than usual. So it feels more like a real book, instead of a flimsy comic.

I don't have many wraparound comics in my collection, so when I noticed that the back continued the story begun on the front, I was even more impressed. That's twice as large a beautifully drawn and colored image as I was expecting. And just as the first page reproduces the cover without the titles, the last page reproduces the back cover on interior paper stock. So you not only get a full issue, but two wraparound covers! 

You know, If you were so inclined, you could separate one of the covers from the issue, and put it up on the wall. It's perfectly suitable for framing. But that might be going a bit too far. After all, what true comic lover would dare take apart a beautifully made comic like this, even if it was colored by Justin Ponsor?

Dragon Dave