the plot: After May Parker's friends at Midtown High discuss the seeming return of Spider-Man, May hits the town as Spider-Girl, encountering the new Spidey who questions May's status as a powerless Spider-Girl. Doubting herself, May finds confort in Brad, and then her one-time basketball rival Nancy Lu and then heads after Spidey who accidently knocks May into a generator which triggers her powers back and the novice retreats back home to his mother who tells him he will be the next Spider-Man.

the review: As usual in Spider-Girl, Tom DeFalco turns out another amazing tale here, chocked full of so many tantlizing sub-plots that Stan Lee would blush. Moose and his struggle to get back on the football team, Phil dealing with May having Raptor as a mentor and even May herself, questioning if she's up to being a powerless hero. Mr. DeFalco manages to actually balance the sub-plots though, and leave enough room for the main slug-fest between the Spider-People. It's an interesting twist that a new Spider-Man has shown up with not only the original's powers, but also with Peter's philosophy. This is an interesting development, and since the book has been extended past issue 38, this should lead up to an interesting conclusion, just as was the case with the powerless-Spider-Girl storyline, that concluded this issue.

The artwork, by the always excellent Pat Olliffe, looks particularly good due to the new and beautiful coloring and the inks of Livesay, which add a new texture to Olliffe's pencils. Clear, detailed and dynamic, that's how I can sum up the art in this book, by one of comicdom's more underrated pencilers.

An interesting storyline with an interesting and likeable cast, shown via great art...what more could you want?

Spider-Girl #33 gets a well deserved *** out of ****. It's not the greatest story ever told, but it's pretty darn good anyway.

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