Peter Parker: Spider-Man (Vol. 2) #21

Background

Having made his peace with his Uncle Ben and rediscovered a part of himself that he had lacked for some time, his sense of humor, Peter Parker makes his first tentative steps towards getting his life back on track.

Story 'A Day in the Life'

Sometime around breakfast: Peter Parker and Randy Robertson inspect their refrigerator, searching for breakfast. Peter's side of the fridge is eimpty except for a piece of moldy cheese at which Randy pokes fun. Randy invites Pete to join him the club tonight, but Pete refuses, since he's still dealing with MJ's death. Peter mentions to Randy something that he had wanted to do for MJ, but then she died and he never had the chance. But Pete feels that now might be the time...

Early afternoon: Spider-Man is swinging across the city in search of lunch, when he finds instead a pair of mooks holding up an old couple in an alley. Spidey makes short work of the pair, spouting jokes the whole time, and after the crooks are safely webbed up, the old lady smacks the wall-crawler with her purse, which is his cue to leave.

Late afternoon: Peter has gone to Queens and joined his Aunt May for lunch. As she's doing the dishes, Pete puts on a record and asks her for a dance. They dance, and have a nice chat about Uncle Ben as they do so.

Somewhere around quitting time: Spider-Man encounters a gang of mimes, complete with a "Mime-Mobile", involved in a shootout with the police. Spidey swings into action and uses some terrific mime jokes before webbing them up and swinging off.

Early evening: Spidey has met up with the Human Torch to talk shop and catch up on things. Spidey broaches the same topic that he brought up with Randy this morning, saying that he had wanted to do this thing for this "person" he had lost, and Johnny told him that he still would be doing it for her, and to go for it.

Way past bedtime: Peter sits in a dark room by himself, sweating nervously and trying to psych himself into doing this thing. His name is called and he steps out onto the stage of a comedy club on open mike night. He nervously tells his first joke of the night (a mime joke), and is met with no laughter. Pete hangs his head and thinks, "So much for new material."

General Comments

After their near-perfect debut issue, Mr. Jenkins and Mr. Buckingham are back this month, and they've somehow managed to top it. Sure, Mackie did the "day in the life" thing a few months back, but this one was just... better.

This issue had nice art by Buckingham, but it's over-shadowed here by Jenkins' terrific script. The story is touching and genuinely funny, with some nice little touches, like Peter and Aunt May chatting about some of the things about Uncle Ben that Peter had reminisced about last issue. This seems to make the series flow very smoothly from issue to issue, making it seem more real.

Reading this issue, I was laughing out loud (especially during the mime scene). I haven't enjoyed a Spidey comic this much in awhile.

Overall Rating

Action, drama, and more mime jokes than you can shake a stick at. How could you go wrong?