Most mainstream comics are ostensibly about superheroes and supervillains punching each other a lot. Still, for all that these people go around in spandex and, in the real world, probably couldn't even get a date, there's a lot of romance in comics. Some, like Clark and Lois, are enduring. Others, like Ollie and Dinah, are tumultuous. But none in my opinion has been as well handled or fully developed as the love that grew between Peter "Spider-Man" Parker and Mary Jane Watson.

Marvel Comics has made some bonehead mistakes over the years, and one of the biggest in recent memory was the decision to sunder this great comic-book couple. For whatever reason, the creative and editorial teams decided they just couldn't tell good stories about Spider-Man if his alter-ego was married. Sounds like a copout to me, frankly; the good story arcs in the wake of the big breakup have had little to nothing to do with Pete's marital status. Sure, they've made some jokes about how much his secret identity makes dating difficult, and they've let Pete get laid a few times, but otherwise, there was no reason to cut MJ out of the picture.

In an effort, I suppose, to prove that they still care about the rich backstory these two characters have, Marvel released You Just Hit the Jackpot, a collection of tales from Pete and MJ's courtship and marriage. Oh, those wacky kids! Remember how hard they avoided meeting each other, back in the day? Sure, recent revisions from the Ultimate Spider-Man line and the adorable Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane series have told us they were in each other's lives from wayback in high school, but the original storyline -- before the days of revisit and reboot -- had a much longer and harder road before these two got together.

A lot of it is here and it's a treat to read again, even if that "hep" 1960s and '70s lingo -- to say nothing of the fashions -- is a little hard to take sometimes. And, while every Spidey fan knows Peter's history backwards and forwards, some might have missed the details about MJ's own troubled past.

Frankly, this collection wastes far too many pages on battles between Spider-Man and villains such as the Rhino and Spider Slayer. Editors pulling together decades of material should have kept the focus firmly on the relationship in question and excised the extraneous details. Heck, perhaps -- given that the Pete and MJ story unfolded in the midst of so many other epic storylines -- these historic pages should have been given to a contemporary team to streamline and refresh, giving the full, unvarnished story without long-winded intrusions from J. Jonah Jamison and Alastair Smythe.

Still, it was nice to take this little trip down Memory Lane with my favorite comic-book couple. It's sad, though, especially after rereading their rich background, to realize how much was lost when Marvel showed Mary Jane the door and erased all memory of their marriage from the entire Marvel Universe population. C'mon, Marvel, it's not too late to undo your mistake. You can say it was all a dream and, just this once, we'll believe you.