GOOD

Stan Lee and Marcos Martin's two pager continues to entertain and brings Doctor Octopus into the fray.  I know it's silly and only two pages each issue but both Lee and Martin manage to tell a lot in the two pages they are allowed.

As with last issue, Paolo Rivera delivers an absolutely fantastic cover.  I might even like this one better that last issue's.  The whole wedding cake theme is great in itself, but the bloodied knife cutting not only into the cake but also into the foundation that Spider-man and MJ are standing on makes really adds a lot to this cover.
As for the rest of the art, Joe Q's portion of the book are again what I would describe as "not bad".  Probably even a little better than his contributions last issue.  Rivera really knocks it out of the park with his portion of the book.  I'm not sure if its simply because there is far less meshing with art from previous issues or what, but I though Rivera's art was far better this issue than last, and I liked his art just fine in ASM 638.
The story for this issue starts out much stronger that last issue as well.  Peter and MJ continue to reminisce about what went wrong with their relationship, picking up where last issue left off.  Peter is searching for MJ to try and work things out.  He finally finds her waiting for him in his apartment, which seems like it should have been obvious, but then again he has had a rough night.  They proceed to argue and MJ tells him she will only marry him if he quits being Spider-man.  Of course he can't do this, and MJ leaves, presumably never to return.  This whole scene was very well done and really captured some good moments between Peter and MJ.  It was believable considering the circumstances and the fact that Peter was a bruised and bloody mess throughout really seemed to add to the tension and sadness.  This sequence is easily the best written and most believable part of OMIT in the first two issues.
After their fight, MJ continues on with her life but struggles with seeing Spider-man's face everywhere. After lunch with her Aunt Anna, she decides to go back to Peter and talk thing out. MJ shows up at Peter's apartment, and there is another good MJ moment as she tries to explain her feelings to the door of Peter's apartment, not even sure if he is inside listening. As it turns out, Peter is inside, and has not left his apartment other than to perform his duties as Spider-man. This was another well written and emotional part of the story, however, it also marks the spot where the issue completely falls apart.



BAD

MJ goes on to explain that she wanted to marry Peter because she wanted to have kids.  Not because she loves Peter and wants to spend the rest of her life with him.  No.  She only wanted to marry him because she wanted to have kids. She does go on to say how much she love Peter, but that she could not possibly bring a child into a marriage with him because of his lifestyle.  This would all work out just fine, if she did not go on to say that while they can never be married, she wants to stay in a relationship with him.  So let me get this straight.....MJ wants kids so bad, that she won't marry Peter.  However, she will go ahead and stay in a long term relationship with Peter....but still not have kids.  This does not in any way make sense.  It basically implies that all married couples have kids....I mean, why can't they still be married and not have kids?  And if she wants kids that bad and it is that important to her, why stay with Peter?  It simply does not make sense.  The only logical way this makes sense is if she does not want to marry him so that she has an out if she ever decides to be with someone else.  This is not the case, however, as she makes it very clear that she wants to stay with Peter forever and will never leave him.  So I guess kids weren't that important to her?  I don't even know......
We then flash forward to the events of OMD, with Aunt May being shot and Peter consulting everyone to try and save her.  While talking to MJ in the hospital, Aunt May crashes and the doctors are unable to do anything to save her.  Undeterred, however, Peter goes and performs CPR on her for a few seconds and brings her back to life.  Lets ignore the fact that Peter should have shattered every bone in Aunt May's upper body the way he is pressing on her chest.  What I can not ignore, however, is the fact that every brilliant mind and sorcerer in the Marvel Universe and a whole team of doctors could not save Aunt May, but Peter performing CPR is able to save her in a matter of seconds.  I grasp that Mephisto is probably responsible for this, but come on, you have got to come up with something better than this.  Under normal circumstances these portions of the story would be unacceptable.  With  the controversy surrounding OMD and the amount of time Joe Q and company have had to come up with a good and plausible story, this is simply insulting.  Granted, it is not nearly as insulting or in your face with a big F YOU like Peter missing the wedding because a fat guy fell on him, but it is still pretty bad.

OVERALL....

This issue was significantly better than last issue.  Unfortunately last issue was so bad that a drastic improvement does not necessarily mean much.  Thus far OMIT has been a huge disappointment, as the big reveal with MJ's whisper was basically nothing, they came up with a terrible story as to why Peter missed his wedding, and much of the events after the wedding don't make much sense.  Right now I feel as if they could have simply told this story in one issue and left a lot of the content from this issue up to the readers imagination.  Unless the next issue really knocks it out of the park and can add something to these past two issues, OMIT is going to be a HUGE failure in my book.

MY RATING: 4/10

http://cmacscomics.blogspot.com/