the plot: May Parker is shaken after her back pack containing her Spider-Girl costume was stolen from her locker. Felicity Hardy, the daughter of the Black Cat, decides to follow class clowns Ralphie and Turtle, while May's friends Courtney and Moose decide they'll crack the case. May does some investigating of her own by talking to other students who's bags were stolen, but they seem to be hiding something. May figures out what this is soon enough, when she goes to a place called the Spider Shoppe, dealing exclusivly in Spider-Man and Spider-Girl clothing, and she sees the other students there.

Meanwhile, May's parents remain busy as well. Mary Jane Parker is meeting with Felicia, Felicity's mother, and they discuss their daughters, while Peter Parker is in the midst of receiving a bionic leg from the Fantastic Five in order to become Spider-Man again.

Later May sees Turtle get pulled into an alley by a fake Spider-Girl, who's questioning him and warns him to "do the right thing." The fake Spider-Girl leaps off, and May helps Turtle down. The next day at Midtown High, May finds a note attached to her returned back pack, telling her to go back to the rooftop from yesterday, and upon doing so, May finds the imposter Spider-Girl, and her suit. The fake Spidey unmasks herself as Felicity Hardy, and she reveals she figured out who the locker thief was. At that same moment, Courtney and Moose are talking to the vice-principal about how they think Felicity did it, but the vice-principal tells them that Turtle confessed to it earlier. Ralphie tells Courtney and Moose that it was all a joke, that Turtle had planned to steal the bags, and return them later as a way to meet girl.

Back on the rooftop, Felicity tells May that she thinks they should team up, like their parents did years before, and Felicity leaps off to plan things out before May can turn her down. May doesn't get to rest then, because she gets a call from the Avengers, telling her that Angel Face and Funny Face, the mother and son criminal team, are on a rampage on the west coast, and May was the one who let them go! And if that's not enough, Kaine, the first failed clone of Peter Parker, is back, and he wants to locate Alison Mongrain, the woman who kidnapped May back when she was a baby.

the review: The "overlooked middle child" to the core Spider-Man and Ultimate titles, Spider-Girl remains, nonetheless, one of the best books being put out today by Marvel. Tom DeFalco and Pat Olliffe really know what they're doing, and I'm going to skip the usual review and simply say that if you're not reading this book you should. It's a consistently good read, that's a lot of fun for all ages. I strongly recommend Spider-Girl #45.

Spider-Girl #45 gets a solid ***1/2 out of *****

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