Sensational Spider-Man (Vol. 1) #33

Background

The era of Spider-Man is supposed to be "ending." So with that in mind, the writers should be wrapping up loose plot threads and closing up stories so that there'll be a "clean slate" for the upcoming reboot/revamp/relaunching/retelling/rewhatever, right? Well, that's what you'd think. Apparently, the Spidey suits have something different in mind.

Instead, they chose to toss this brand-new storyline at us, and hope that the readers will forget all about the old plots and be enthralled with this new supernatural story.

Story 'Gifts'

Completely ignoring last issue's cliff-hanger ending, Override angsts over his wife while in the hospital. Annie (Override's wife) wakes up.

Meanwhile, Peter Parker's desperately trying to keep his attic dry, and webs up the leak in the roof. Turns out that the only things that got wet were a bunch of pictures. Peter looks at his Spidey pictures, and Mary Jane looks at her modeling pictures. In this scene, a few foreshadowing clues are deftly slipped in by Todd Dezago. In one panel, Peter's holding up a box titled "The Game of Life" and underneath it, another box with the words "Sorry" on it. Makes you think, doesn't it?

Anyway, this issue features another battle between Spidey and Override. Am I the only one who's getting tired of Spidey getting whipped by villains? Shocker, Kraven the Hunter II, Green Goblin, Hobgoblin, even the Trapster, for Pete's sake (pun intended)! Anyhow, Spidey gets whupped by Override (groan!), and only wins because Override makes a stupid mistake.

Of course, Override escapes the police. He has to, he's supposed to be in the Gathering of Five! Which, by the way, didn't take place this issue. Meanwhile, Peter goes off to get Mary Jane her $300 Psychology book for her upcoming class, only to be told that she doesn't want to go back to school and want to model instead (wha?!? I thought she had ALREADY signed the contract to become a model?).

And so endeths the final issue of "Sensational Spider-Man."

General Comments

While each issue individually (with the exception of the "non-scene" in PP:SM 96 and Spidey tossing an ordinary human towards a brick wall in Spec 262) might have been passable, the continuity between the 5 issues were terrible. You could've switched around SEN #33 and PP:SM #96 around, and the story would've actually made more sense! And worse of all, the "Gathering of the Five" didn't even happen in the final chapter! This was a cross-over that wasn't, and left me feeling a little bit ripped off.

Overall Rating

This is worth 2.5 webs. By itself, another decent story (I'd say 3 webs). However, when taken in consideration with Spec #262, this issue didn't make much sense.