(2008 Cover Date Issues - Most current first)

April 23, 2008

Ultimate Spider-Man makes a cameo appearance in Ultimate Fantastic Four #53.

Story
It's another nice little one-issue story in-between two long story arcs. The supporting cast is showcased for almost the entire issue, and begins in the classroom. Peter Parker and his ex girlfriend Kitty Pryde take place in a student project that involves "parenting" a dummy baby. When it is their time to present their project to the class, they have some bad news: The toy baby was destroyed, but how and why? This is where the scene changes to the offices of the Daily Bugle, where Peter still has a job doing web design. Peter's spider sense goes off just a bit when near the presence of a new janitor, and when there is a commotion in publisher J. Jonah Jameson's office, Peter makes the change into Spider-Man. The janitor turns out to be the mutant Omega Red, who blames Jameson for mocking him in an old article, and is now looking for some payback. It looks bad for Jonah until Spider-Man crashes through the window, and the fight begins. Omega Red is not much of a match for Spider-Man, but he trashes the Daily Bugle offices in taking him down. Lots of destroyed property, and Jameson is not too pleased with the results. Unfortunately for Peter, the office was not the only thing destroyed as a result from the fight. The toy baby was also destroyed, but try using that excuse to your teacher!

Art
Very Good.
Best Page: The page where Omega Red makes himself known to J. Jonah Jameson.

Continuity Police
No tickets given.

Spoilers
J. Jonah Jameson accuses Spider-Man of being "partners" with Omega Red.
The teacher ends up giving Peter and Kitty a B- grade after hearing his story of how the baby was destroyed.

April 16, 2008

Spider-Man appears in Avengers Classics #11,
Spider-Man makes an out of continuity appearances in Marvel Adventures The Avengers #22.

Story
During the snow-storm of the century, Spider-Man has recently saved a man named Dr. Rabin from some strange Mayan Archers. After taking Rabin to a local police department, Spider-Man goes to save Rabin's research assistants. On his way to saving the assistants, Spider-Man is greeted by a Mayan Deity responsible for the snow-storm. After they battle, Spider-Man finally locates the assistants, but discovers only one alive, with the other being used as a sacrifice to the Deity. Last issue ended with Dr. Rabin completely losing his mind and sacrificing one of the Mayan Warriors at the police station. Spider-Man and the Deity meet again to begin this last part of the story, as the Deity thinks that Spider-Man has brought him to his "sacrifice" in the surviving assistant. The Deity grows stronger after Rabin makes his sacrifice back at the police station, as he prepares to "bond" to his god and become the "Kuhul Ajaw", the god-king. To do so, Rabin must sacrifice a female at the holy altar at sunrise and shave his face, as the ancient Mayans would leave their faces ungroomed so as to repel the gods. Back to the battle, where Spider-Man is once again getting his butt handed to him by the Deity. Spider-Man attempts to flee the scene to make an emergency phone call to warn Carlie Cooper of Rabin, but obviously it's too late for that as Rabin soon shows up with Carlie as her his sacrifice to the Deity. With ten minutes to make his sacrifice, the Deity joins Rabin, Carlie, and Spider-Man. Just as it looks helpless for Spider-Man and Carlie, Spider-Man's friend from last issue Vern, and a group of his buddies comes to their rescue. The Deity goes to kill them all, but there is something about this group of men that the Deity detests. Within a matter of minutes, the Deity somehow becomes powerless and webbed up by Spider-Man. Spider-Man now takes out all his anger on Dr. Rabin, who is just about to kill Carlie. The time for the sacrifice to be made has just passed, and the Deity states that they must wait for the next alignment of the stars.

Very good story, probably the most entertaining one the "Brand New Day" stories thus far, although not the best "Spider-Man Story" as this story replied very little on the supporting cast or "Spider-Verse". The elements of this story could have been used in many a title across the Marvel line. "Long" two-week wait for the next issue, where we see the return of the Freak!

Art
Very Good.
Best Page: The page where the Deity is all webbed up by Spider-Man.

Continuity Police
No tickets given.

Spoilers
Vern's group of men are all unclean shaven, which repels the Deity.
The other Mayan warriors at the police station took their own lives.

April 9, 2008

Spider-Man makes an appearance in Fantastic Four #556.
Ultimate Spider-Man makes a cameo appearance at the end of Ultimate Fantastic Four #52.

Story
Wolverine guest-starred last issue, but he wasn't the main focus of the storyline. It's the "Storm of the Century", and after Doctor Strange had some strange warnings about the storm being the result of a mystical force, Spider-Man goes out and into the "eye" of the storm. What he found was some some mysterious Mayan archers were after a Doctor Rabin, a scientist. Spider-Man and Wolverine save the scientist, and last issue ended with Spider-Man beginning a journey into the snowstorm to hopefully save Dr. Rabin's team of engineers who were kidnapped earlier that morning. After a funny couple pages of J. Jonah Jameson in the hospital, we learn more about Dr. Rabin. The Mayan warriors from last issue are locked up in prison, very close to Rabin, who is being questioned by the police. Rabin states that he is just a "victim" who was attacked by the Mayan extremists, and then further explains that he spear-headed the development of a computational operating system using multi-dimensional algorithyms as base code. It was after the scientists published some of these findings, that they began receiving threats from the Mayan extremists, and that they believe the dimensions between the mortal realm and the land of the Mayan Gods is at it's weakest point so that deities are free to walk the earth. Elsewhere, Spider-Man appears to be wandering aimlessly in the snowstorm until he bumps into what appears to be one such deity: The Winter Solstice, a gargantuan monster with wings. Spider-Man does not have any luck in battling the monster, but tricks it into not killing him. Spider-Man eventually makes his way to save Rabin's research assistants, or at least one of them. The issue ends with a nice surprise ending that I will not spoil here.

Art
Very Good.
Best Page: The page where Spider-Man begins to battle the Deity.

Continuity Police
No tickets given.

Spoilers
Rabin's "math" proves that other realms and dimensions exist.
The one assistant that was alive alert Spider-Man to the fact that Rabin killed the other assistant.
Rabin turns out to be an insane man who kills at least one Mayan warrior on the last page.

Story
For the first time in months, the Hobgoblin and the race to find the Kingpin's secret files aren't the focus of Amazing Spider-Girl. Rather than move immediately into another long-term storyline, we get an (apparently) single-issue story. This pits Spider-Girl vs. Spider-Girl, or, more accurately, Spider-Girl vs. another young female hero with spider-powers -- Arana. Arana is much more cynical, hard-edged hero than Mayday Parker. She wants to recruit Spider-Girl into her crime-fighting group and take down the Black Tarantula. But first, she has to but our hero to the test -- and the battle is on!

Please note: There is also a "Skrull" Variant to this issue that looks very much like the original cover.

Reviewed by Bruce Buchanan.

Art
Another good, solid consistent effort.

Best page:  The page where Mayday is watching her boyfriend Gene Thompson at football practice. It's a nice, humorous bit of storytelling.

Continuity Police
This issue is numbered #17, even though it really is #19.

Spoilers
Spider-Girl defeats Arana and says she wants nothing to do with her.
Arana says she still thinks Spider-Girl will be useful to her.

April 2, 2008

Spider-Man appears in Secret Invasion #1.
Spider-Man appears in Spider-Man Family #8.

Story
"Brand New Day" is now in the "home stretch" as far as it's first run through it's initial four creative teams, as Zeb Wells and Chris Bachalo take over for three issues. The story begins on a snowy day in the home of Doctor Strange, where Spider-Man and his New Avengers teammate Wolverine are having breakfast. Doctor Strange appears before them to give the two some weather predictions for the snowstorm. Strange states that "the storm comes from the void, from darkness' mouth. There is no time, the end is near., in blackness dies all we hold dear. From the snow, a threat emerges, eyes of red, with murderous eyes", and he continues to sound like Nostradamus until he faints, but he does indicate that "A protector fights to seal the lock. Right here tonight at four o'clock". Spider-Man then swings away to his job at the DB, before making his way over to Bleeker street where he thinks some of Strange's predictions may come true. Within a short period of time, things start to get wacky, when a group of ancient looking archers wearing some type of wicked death masks appear before him. These archers are confronting an unknown man, and they all have "murderous red eyes", so Spider-Man gets involved. Spider-Man saves the man from the archers, but when he appears to have his back to the wall, Wolverine joins in on all the fun. In only a few more pages, the two take down every single one of the silly-looking archer dudes, and then part ways. Spider-Man then begins to brings the unknown man to a police station for help before he asks the obvious question of how and why he was confronted by the bad guys. The answer leads Spider-Man on a beginning of a journey into the snowstorm, where he very well may freeze to death before he finds what he is looking for.

Art
Very Good.
Best Page: The almost-full page shot of Wolverine joining Spider-Man to battle the archers.

Continuity Police
No tickets given.

Spoilers
The "Unknown Man" is an engineer who studies algorithyms intuited by the Mayan culture 300 years ago.
As their work progressed, the man an his team has been receiving threats from Mayan extremists.
The man's team of engineers were kidnapped and sent to a lab to retrieve the algorithyms that morning.
Spider-Man attempts to go and save them at the end of the issue, before the men freeze to death.

Story
How can a villain that is comprised of bees not be interesting? The character of Swarm was not exactly taken too seriously when he was introduced back in The Champions #14, but he was brought back to face Spider-Man in Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man #36 just a short time later. Swarm has not been seen much over the years, other than some small appearances, but he is the feature villain this issue! The issue opens up in Queens, where an abandoned ice cream factory is currently housing Swarm and his countless bees. Swarm sends his bees to attack a nearby construction site, just as Peter Parker is walking by. Peter changes into Spider-Man, and he is quickly confronted by Swarm. The fight is quick however, as Swarm escapes to make "preparations" for some unknown reason. Back at the ice cream factory, we discover that Swarm is constructing some sort of huge beehive to process honey, obtain limitless power, and prepare for the coming of the "queen". The next day, Peter chases after Flash Thompson and his friends, who stole Peter's backpack away from him. The kids end up in the ice cream factory of all places, and everyone except Peter ends up as a prisoner of Swarm. Peter changes into Spider-Man once again, frees the other teenagers, then goes back into the factory to finish his battle with Swarm. In the end, no more giant beehive, no more queen, and no more Swarm.

Art
Very Good.
Best Page: The full splash page with Swarm battling Spider-Man.

Continuity Police
No tickets given.

Spoilers
Spider-Man defeats Swarm by "sticking" him into tar.
Spider-Man destroys the beehive, and drops the queen in a garbage truck.

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