Sensational Spider-Man (Vol. 2) #33

Story 'Wounds'

We begin with May remembering how she and Ben first took on Peter – the phone call telling them that Peter's parents had been in a plane crash, then the trip to pick-up Peter and hearing him cry over his loss. Time then flashes forward to the scene from the end of issue #32 with Peter, in his Spider-Man costume, battered on the floor of their motel room from his battle with The Rhino as Mary-Jane turns up.

May and MJ help Peter on to the bed and May sends MJ off to the pharmacy to pick up some items to help. Peter says to May that he must seem pretty rough and she says she has seen him worse – such as the time she first discovered he was Spider-Man (well, second time I guess – the time back in ASM v2 #35 in any case), plus when he was young and fell out of a tree. She also tells MJ about her overnight wait in the hospital afterwards.

Meanwhile, Rhino is furious with himself because Chameleon has been arrested and he hasn't been paid for taking down Spider-Man. Fox News has coverage of the fight, saying Spidey took a 'well-deserved beating'. Meanwhile, Felicia is watching and not best pleased at the footage. She puts on her Black Cat costume and bids the Puma goodbye as she heads out.

Back at the motel and Peter has healed well. As May washes his costume, she reflects that his scars are hers and that life is just a culmination of a series of wounds. Let's just hope she stays away from the ledge.

General Comments

The first thing to mention is the gorgeous cover from Clayton Crain. Since being announced as one of Marvel's 'Young Guns Reloaded', his work on this title has been, well, as the title suggests, sensational.

As opposed to the previous MJ-centric issue, I quite enjoyed this one. For a start, more actually happened – even if it was only Peter healing and a Black Cat interlude. Incidentally, if the Cat is about to go after Rhino, as hinted at, then it's something I'm really looking forward to. Angel-Medina has used her really well since the title relaunched and the consistency of having her with Puma is refreshing.

I don't know why but I got an odd kick out of the news report referring to Rhino as Aleksei Sytsevich.

May's journey through the story is interesting enough to sustain the reader – if a little depressing - but I do get the feeling the last issue and this one is simply a bridge that links Civil War with the upcoming Back In Black storyline with little in the way of actual story. While Amazing Spider-Man is actually bringing the story forward, while Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man is telling a side story of its own, Sensational has stood still for two months – five if you want to count the previous 'Dangerous Foes' arc.

There are of course reasons for that. Civil War as an event had a fairly short gestation period from conception to reaching print, which is something that has had a lot of impact on the core books around it – such as this one. As well as Back In Black, there is also apparently another Spider-Man event in the works for late-summer 2007 as well. It just seems as if what's happening now is a filler until then, however.

That said, there's nothing intrinsically wrong with this issue, it's just a bit, well, plain. I think I enjoyed the Rhino / Cat interlude more than the core of the book, which perhaps isn't the best-case scenario.

Overall Rating

OK – just nothing out-of-the-ordinary.