The Amazing Spider-Man #594

So, the short version of this is: Spider-Man clashes with the latest version of The Vulture, discovers who has been looking after his apartment, and Aunt May makes a big decision.

In other words, it's just another issue of The Amazing Spider-Man: not bad at all, but nothing particularly memorable. The art by Barry Kitson and Mike McKone is good - professional, if not terribly flashy. Writer Mark Waid has a good touch for Spidey's dialogue, but this issue doesn't do much to advance the story. If anything, it feels like they're marking time until issue #600.

And as long as I'm griping, boy do I not understand the cover of this issue (or the one before it, for that matter). Both are by the talented Joe Quesada, but here he seems to be trying to obscure who the hero of the book is and which comic you're looking at. Last issue the logo was almost completely obscured, and this one stars Mr. Mattress, a billboard that an incredibly tiny Spider-Man s swinging past. Covers should catch your eye and urge you to buy that comic. Both of these covers fail in that job.

But is change in the wind for Spidey? It's interesting to note that the newspaper strip changed to match the "new" Spidey (namely, it moved to an earlier time period and put Peter Parker back in college, dating Mary Jane. But this Sunday, the strip reverted back to the "present," and has Peter once again married. According to the strip, the return was made in response to "hundreds of letters." Is it a preview of what's coming in the comic book?

We can only hope!

Grade: B-