I have recently been reading the Spiderman Omnibus Volume 1, which I purchased a few months ago after reading a biography of Steve Ditko and realizing that Volume 1 contains Ditko's complete Spiderman artwork.
While reading the stories I was reminded of how Mary Jane, up until recently the love of Peter Parker's life, was introduced and developed in the Sixties and early Seventies.
For years Aunt May tried to set Peter Parker up with Mary Jane, the niece of her best friend. Peter resisted at every turn, fearing that any girl Aunt May wanted him to meet would be awful. This subplot lasted all through the Ditko years.
It wasn't until shortly after Johnny Romita assumed the art chores that Marvel actually introduced Mary Jane to the book. This panel sequence at the end of one issue is Mary Jane's first appearance in Spiderman.
Earlier in the book, Peter is just beginning to realize that he has feelings for Gwen Stacey, someone that was also introduced after Ditko left. Yet Peter consents to finally meet MJ, only to discover she's a gorgeous woman.
For many more years MJ is just a flirtatious friend while Gwen is Peter's true love. Then after Stan left the book and Gerry Conway took over, Gerry wrote the death of Gwen Stacey at the hands of the Green Goblin.
The issue after Gwen dies, this page appears, the last page of the book and -- I think -- one of the finest pages to ever appear in comics. In this one page Gil Kane, Johnny Romita and Gerry Conway transform MJ from a lighthearted friend to a serious character and set her on the road to becoming Peter's primary love interest and eventual wife.
To tell you the truth, when I read this page some thirty five years later, I still choke up.
The storytelling, the facial expressions and recognition that words aren't necessary make this page one of the greatest moments in comics.
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