40. The Life & Death of Spiders

The Life & Death of Spiders by J. Michael Straczynski
The Amazing Spider-Man, Vol. 4

Pages: unpaginated
Finished: Feb. 18, 2009
First Published: 2003 (contains previously published comics)
Genre: graphic novel, superheroes
Rating: 4/5

Reason for Reading: Next in the series.

First sentence:

So let's run a summary of the week's work, shall we?

Comments: Once you get to this point in a series it's hard to summarize without giving away what happened in previous books. To keep it brief, the issue with MJ is resolved in this volume. Spider-man discovers he was followed from the astral plane by a creature out to destroy him and Ezekiel shows up again with lots of information on the early folklore of the Spider-Man.

This was a great volume, probably the best so far, with plenty of villains and appearances by old favourites. The Fantastic Four make a cameo appearance as does Captain America. We also see Dr. Strange and Dr. Doom make appearances. This is a good volume to showcase what Spidey is all about also showing his conflicting emotions with doing what is right over his natural instincts. If you are reading the series this one is great. Can't wait for Vol. 5.