Classic Comics Cavalcade: Get To Know The Parkers In ‘Amazing Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows: Eight Years Later’
by Tony Thornley
If you couldn’t tell, I love Spider-Man. Having grown up in he nineties, I’m very attached to the version of Spidey married to Mary-Jane. That meant 2016’s Amazing Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows was a series I latched onto, despite the unwieldy title. As we continue our November look at comics families, I realized I was way past due to look at this series again.
Renew Your Vows came at a perfect time for Spider-Man fans, who had been missing Peter Parker and Mary-Jane Watson’s demon-erased marriage for years. The concept was introduced in a Secret Wars miniseries, revealing Peter and MJ’s daughter, Annie, while the trio fought a villain that had taken over New York.
The spin-off series picked up in their alternate timeline a few years later, giving a glimpse at a Parker family who were a family of superheroes- Spider-Man, Spinneret and Spiderling. The first year of the series focused on the Parkers getting used to being a family of heroes, with Annie going out in costume for the first time at seven years old. After that initial year ended, the series brought on a new creative team and a new status quo, eight years later.
Jody Houser, Nick Roche, Ruth Redmond, Joe Caramagna and cover artist Ryan Stegman found the Parker family on the last days of summer vacation before Annie’s sophomore year of high school. The story arc didn’t do tons to set-up a lot of changes, because frankly there weren’t many. And that’s refreshing, because it’s more about how the characters changed and grew as people rather than extreme superhero changes.
I really enjoy this story. Spider-Man at his best is a character-driven soap opera. It’s fascinating how changing two things about MJ- her job as a small business owner and giving her superpowers- changes the dynamic between Peter and MJ. There’s still a tension between them but it doesn’t feel as manufactured as most interpersonal drama did in the past.
Annie doesn’t get as much page time as her parents, but that’s just part of ongoing storytelling. She does get some sweet moments with each of parents out of costume, and the trio’s team-up in costume is a lot of fun. Houser does make Annie distinct from Peter’s other alternate reality daughter- Mayday Parker of Spider-Girl– and the series is all the better for it.
The plot is simple- a creepy ringmaster kidnaps monsters and the Lizard escapes to recruit the Parkers. It allows for a lot of character interaction, which makes this series in particular work.
Roche’s art is a lot of fun. It’s a very clean, cartoony style. He makes the characters incredibly expressive. It helps make them more relatable as they go through their day to day. He’s also good with the action, giving each of the characters room to move through the action scenes while also choreographing the action so it flows through the page.
This series was a bright spot for any Spidey fan that missed the days of Peter and Mary Jane Parker, and it’s worth revisiting.
