By Dante' Maddox

This is the third installment of Amazing Spider-Man under its new three times a month publishing schedule. After three issues at the helm, team ‘Civil War’ has hit the ground running, telling Spider-Man stories as if they were born to do it. So far.

In all fairness, "so far" is a reference that can apply to any creative team working on an ongoing comic, with one exception. I don’t know how long this current arc of Spider-Man has to go before the sense that this is all on borrowed time subsides. I must say as well that the anticipation for some kind of sign post of things to come is one of the things that keep me reading.

For a good chunk of years there were several Spider-Man books that covered different facets of his adventures. Some books focused more on his dealings with organized crime (featured villains were the Kingpin, The Rose, and Tombstone) while others dealt with his interaction with the super human community with lots of guest stars and more ‘big league’ villains. I can’t say that this was done intentionally; it could easily have just worked out that way naturally. Whatever the reasons, having only one Spider-Man book means that all those different facets have to eventually make their way into the new core title. Within the first three issues there have been a lot of developments to suggest that all the aspects of the Spider-Man books will be incorporated over time.

By issue three, a number of things have been established. The organized crime element of the Spidey books is reacting to the events that have taken place in New Avengers, and have forged a new dynamic with the lead character going forward. The newest villain on the scene is a mix of the old and the new. Mr. Negative is a criminal mastermind with ties to organized crime, but he also has super strength, and he has ties to Peter’s personal life (yep, that old chestnut). While I could have done without yet another villain that literally hits Peter close to home, it does make the story more compelling with little effort. It’s this kind of mix, the realistic and the fantastic, that will keep this story fresh and interesting.

One of the things that make Spider-Man so great is all the circles he can walk in. No matter what the situation, Spidey seems to be right at home, and right now his own book properly reflects that, which can be a difficult thing to consistently accomplish without the story becoming stale. While there are still some aspects that I’m nervous about (I’m really not digging superhero Mary Jane so far) all in all this new direction for Spider-Man as about as much as I could hope for as a comic book fan. In the end, I’m never sure what’s going to happen next, and ultimately that makes for great comics. If I can see it coming then I might not want to read it. Way to go Marvel, so far so really good.

Writer: Dan Slott
Pencils: Steve McNiven
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Cover Price: $2.99

CraveOnline Rating: 7 out of 10