Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #23 Review

FRIENDLY NEIGHBORHOOD SPIDER-MAN #23
Written by Peter David
Art by Todd Nauck

This is, sadly, the last issue for Peter David and crew and it is probably his best issue to date. I honestly was not a fan of the evil Uncle Ben or future Goblin storyline and had not been overly impressed with PAD's run on FNSM with the exception of the Mysterio arc. This is not his fault, though, as Marvel is solely to blame. The very first issue of this book was forced to tie into the horrendous The Other storyline and Civil War followed that and Back in Black after that. This book simply was not given any chance to establish itself or build an identity for itself. Every ounce of momentum was killed with the next big crossover. In the case of Back in Black, only JMS' Amazing Spider-Man was allowed to really do anything with the storyline and the other titles were forced to tread water so that JMS could tell his story and not have anything spoiled. For this reason alone, I am glad they are cancelling all the Spider titles in favour of a thrice a month Amazing Spider-Man.

All that taken into account, I am sad to see PAD go. He was one of the few writers to even try to establish a working supporting cast outside of Aunt May and MJ. This is definitely the best Spidey book in a long time and very self-contained. Lots of great moments in this issue as it focuses primarily on Peter and J. Jonah Jameson in the fallout of his firing Robbie Robertson.

This issue is the first to truly deal with how JJ has taken Peter's "betrayal" and his revealing himself as Spider-man. A true character piece that harkens back to the glory days of Spider-man when the book was about Peter Parker and his friends, not Spider-man and his enemies that today's books focus on.

The best issue of PAD's run and sadly his last. I recommend this issue for any fan of Spider-man, new or old, and anyone in general as it is a great comic book that anyone can enjoy.

Verdict - Must Read

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