Amazing Spider-Man #28 synopsis
Amazing Spider-Man #29 synopsis

the plot: Spidey was mysteriously drawn to an abandoned coffee shop in New York and upon arrival found Mary Jane, alive and well. However he was suddenly struck down by her unnamed stalker, and when MJ came to his defense she was struck down and placed in a comatose state by the telepathic Stalker. Confronting the Stalker, who wanted to take over Peter's life, Peter was spared the Stalker's wraith when the Stalker chose to take his own life rather than kill Peter. MJ's mind restored, she and Peter were reunited. So...where do they go from here?

the review: First off, I would be remiss if I did not note the beautiful cover by Kaare Andrews (go ahead...check out kaareandrews.com). It presents a photo quality rendering of Spidey and Mary Jane in a passionate embrace, and can be viewed better by clicking on the image above. It's really one of the nicest and most beautiful covers I've seen in some time, and Kaare can give Alex Ross a run for his money when it comes to making comic characters come alive. I usually don't show covers to my friends (since they usually don't care), but I wanted each of them to take a look at this piece of art. It's worth the $2.25 alone.

Now on to the story: Paul Jenkins, a talented Spidey writer contributes the third chapter to Howard Mackie's swan song storyline, that also features the return of Mary Jane to the fold. While I'm not sure how much of the storyline is Jenkin's work, his heart in the story is obvious. Witness Peter's struggle to get help for his comatose wife, Aunt May's reaction to the news Mary Jane is alive or Peter and Mary Jane's embrace at story's end, where nary a sentence is spoken. Peter's words "Are you real?", spoken through teary eyes, really exemplify what Paul Jenkin's run is about. The man behind the Spider-Man, and while the matters of the heart have been dealt with by Howard Mackie in the two earlier chapters, they really tug at your heart strings here.

In terms of the actual storyline here, the story falls short. Not only do the Stalker's intentions seem half-baked, but we're not even privy to learning his name, even as he blows him self up. This didn't seem to make much sense to me. Hasn't the Stalker been blown up before, only to return unscathed. Who's to say he hasn't done that again. And where does the explosion come from. Not only that but it's hard to care for the Stalker's sacifice, since where not given enough backstory to care for him anyway. But perhaps that was intentional. To focus less on the Stalker, and more on Peter and MJ's reunion. Whatever the reason, the Stalker remains very enigmatic and as a result it becomes hard to care for him and his struggle.

Pinch-hitting for regular artist Mark Buckingham, Charlie Adlard does a fine job on both pencils and inks. His visuals are decent and his characters look both realistic and cartoony at the same time. His attention to detail is also appreciated as well. Adlard does a nice fill-in job, and with any luck will be showing up around the Spider-books in the not-to-distant future.

So, the final fate of the Stalker is revealed, but more importantly Peter and Mary Jane are reunited after a 16 issue separtion that should have never happened to begin with. But like I said at the start, even if you don't want the issue, the cover alone is well worth the price.

Peter Parker: Spider-Man #29 gets ***1/2 out of *****.

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