Sensational Spider-Man (Vol. 2) #23

Background

A new name for the Marvel Knights: Spider-Man imprint and a new creative team. After the events of The Other, spidey's life takes a new turn.

Story 'Cold-Blooded'

MJ has to be 'in make-up' for 6.30am so is up early doors. Peter and May are up with her and Peter apparently had a rough night battling the Vulture.

Meanwhile, Curt Connors is in his office, apparently now wining his battle against becoming the Lizard, and arranging to look at a rock belonging to someone called Dr Treyman.

Peter has gone on a photo assignment to the zoo where the animals have gone a bit crazy and killed themselves or each other. Monkeys and rhinos are lying in pools of their own blood.

At the same time, John Jameson has the alien gemstone that infected him (made him turn into Man-Wolf) in a suitcase. He stumbles across MJ who says they and Peter should get together. On her way off, she drops her scarf and John picks it up.

On a train, a puppy sets off Peter's spider-sense.

Later that evening, Peter (as Spidey) is talking on a mobile to MJ. After finishing, MJ walks back to talk to May, wondering if they should get her own place but finds herself with a knife in her hands…

Peter, meanwhile, is on the phone to Curt Connors, who says he may have hurt someone. He tells Peter his son is in the house before changing into the Lizard.

General Comments

My first thoughts were: 'when did MJ become a heroin addict?' The initial art on the title page is … wanting … to say the least. Compare the MJ from that page to the MJ from the final part of the The Other in ASM #528 and you're looking at a completely different person.

Also, where is Spidey's new costume? It gets a nice big Marvel launch and then he's back in the old red-and-blues here.

Anyway, as for the story itself, it is a good enough start. The mystery over the zoo animals killing themselves is a nice one, which I hope gets followed up well.

There are the same old continuity clangers (Does Connors know Peter's id, the Vulture's status after Millar's arc on MK:SM, John Jameson's status as Man-Wolf and the like) but, that aside, it's a pretty tight issue.

The art picks up after the initial intro page. It almost looks a bit early- 1990s, which is all right for a change.

It will be interesting to see where things go so, for now:

Overall Rating

A decent start. Three and a half webs.