What happened to The Amazing Mary Jane series?

The series was written by Leah Williams with art by Carols Gomez, Annapaola Martello, and Lucas Werneck.  Reviews where covered on the Crawlspace by myself and KayDay, but after issue number six.  It stopped.  Was in canceled?  Short answer is “YES, but not officially.”  Why?  Pretty simple…Covid 19.

To stop the spread of the virus, Diamond Distributors closed down their factory and kept everyone at home.  For months, comics were not shipping.  No new titles came on Wednesday and it was an event like no other.  Even local comic shops in your area closed down.  Marvel did take a hit (like everyone else) and of course in any kind of business, you have to make cuts to strive.  Let’s remember, even though they have the scripts and the artwork to series, they still need to make a profit out of it.  A suggestion was that they go digital for awhile, but Marvel did that for some books, so they choose to wait it out.

Diamond Distributors went back to work.  D.C. Comics went a different direction, but that’s a whole other story.  So now with Marvel’s core titles rolling on in, to save money that had to cut back on spinoff series.  Again, it wasn’t announced that The Amazing Mary Jane was canceled, but nothing was coming in and future Solic’s didn’t mention it.  You could say it was silently canceled.

A little backstory.  The Amazing Mary Jane was only supposed to run to five issue.  The first five focused on Mary Jane going to California to make a movie with Mysterio as the director.  Events that sprang from The Amazing Spider-Man that would later conclude with MJ heading back home to Peter.  Variant covers galore and Marvel was spotlighting Spidey’s lovers at the time with their own series, the sales were decent that Marvel decided to run the series for a total of ten.   Leah Williams had fond memories of summers in Montana so that was where she was going to take Mary Jane for the next five.  Basically MJ witnessed a murder and to get her safe from said murderer, she was put under witness protection and sent to Montana.  That was in issue six and then Covid19 struck.  I was *lucky enough to talk to Leah Williams at C2E2 2019 before Covid struck.  Here’s what she had to say.

So the question is…will this title be coming back?  Mary Jane has returned in Amazing Spider-Man, which quite frankly is where she belongs, and with ASM 60 coming up that supposed to focus very heavily on Peter and Mary Jane, it’s very unlikely.  Again this is a “silent cancellation” so nothing is official yet and with the Instagram art that ZE CARLOS as been posting, you shouldn’t count it out.  He actually put some preview art of issue number seven in there!  Check it out.

Here’s a solicitations of what issues that WERE planned.

THE AMAZING MARY JANE #7
THE SPOTLIGHT BECOMES A TARGET!
• Disaster strikes while Mary Jane is promoting her (and Mysterio’s) big movie!
• Is this terrible luck or part of someone’s dark design?!
• It’ll take some drastic measures to keep her safe! We’re about to put MJ waaaaay out of her comfort zone

THE AMAZING MARY JANE #8
THE REDHEAD WITH NO NAME!
• Mary Jane’s homecoming is cut short when she’s the sole witness to a crime, and the suspect is known for eliminating witnesses!
• It’s up to MJ to bring this killer to justice, but she’s got to stay alive long enough to do it!
• She’s headed someplace where no one knows her face or name. She’ll have to watch her own back when trouble comes calling…

THE AMAZING MARY JANE #9
• There are snakes and serpents everywhere in Anaconda, Montana, some you’ll recognize, and some hide in the shadows.
• If a battle can be won with positivity and force of will, you know Mary Jane Watson is up to the challenge!
• But what if someone comes packing a grudge and some literal–futuristic–firepower?

THE AMAZING MARY JANE #10
Unknown…but hey, Mary Jane in a Star Wars Metal Bikini on the cover.

* Editors Note:  Going to conventions isn’t the same anymore, I’m afraid.  I’m speaking from post Covid-Crisis perspective when it comes to writers and artists.  In conventions THEY are the celebrities.  I was lucky enough to talk to Leah, but she wasn’t at her table, mostly due to the Marvel Panel schedules, signings at the Marvel booth, and touring the sites of the city that occupied her time.  Your best bet to talk to any writer and or artist is the last day of the convention.   Don’t think they’ll be there right when you walk onto the show floor and of course some bring “handlers” with them and that can be a hurdle.  I may be too old, but I remember the days when you walked into a con floor right when it opened and they were at their table waiting for you.  This of course is not a spite to the convention and the people that run them.  There is PLENTY to do, see, and witness which is worth the price of an admission ticket.  However, if your focus is to zero in on artists and writers, no need to get there early unless you have time to kill and want to get a good parking spot.