Peter Parker: Spider-Man (Vol. 2) #12

Background

MJ's being stalked, Peter's in the dogbox, Senator Ward is clearly a very, very bad man. Meanwhile, the Sinister Six are back together.

Story 'Another Return of The Sinister Six'

Just to add a little spice, MJ's stalker starts letting off bombs in or near where MJ happens to be, and he calls the Daily Bugle for some extra advertising.

Meanwhile, Venom has joined the Sinister Six. Ock is on the run, trying to protect Ward. Spider-Man is all over the show. Venom leaves the Sinister Six, forcibly expelled by Sandman. Heh, he never was a team player.

Senator Ward starts glowing, and then pops scarlet energies all over the place. He explodes, disappears, and the Sinister Six and Doc Ock all skulk off... with Ock warning that they would all live to regret this.

The closing panel shows that Mysterio and Electro have custody of Senator Ward, who seems to be transformed into some glowing super-powered being.

Meanwhile, MJ evades the Federal agents who are protecting her, confronts her stalker, whups his ass courtesy of a little Mace, and a small incendary bomb. Scratch one stalker (and we never knew who he was!). Spider-Man turns up... just a little too late... and MJ is NOT happy. Peter was counting on catching her stalker to get himself back in favour. Now he's in deeper than before. Ouch!

P.S. There's a mini-story flashback at the back of this issue, explaining how the Wizard took William Baker (the adopted name of the Reformed Sandman we had seen over the past few years) and restored the buried psyche of Flint Marko, the Criminal Sandman from Spidey's early days. This ties up two loose ends - the alternate names, and why Sandman suddenly went bad after his Presidential Pardon and his new job working for Silver Sable. Nice to see that Marvel still cares enough to resolve these questions. Thanks guys.

General Comments

Electro has his dumb-ass blue costume that he got in Chapter One - no doubt because Byrne is involved in this book. Have to dock half a web for that, but otherwise... Action? Yep. Plot? Yep. Sub-plots? Yep. Character development? Yep. Questions answered? Yep. New questions asked? Yep.

Overall Rating

There's enough depth in here to keep most people pretty happy I would say. I mean, it's not going to change the way you think about comics, but there's lots of stuff happening and none of it is too stupid. Four webs, let's give out the kudos for now, until