the plot: After eating breakfast with Aunt May, where Peter reflects on his meeting his Ezekial, the man with spider-powers similar to his, and by Aunt May's suggestion decides to apply for a teaching position at his old high school Midtown High. Ezekial meanwhile spends his morning as the head of his own corporation where he discusses how to deal with Peter. The mysterious Morlun and his lackey Dex notice Spider-Man webslinging and Morlun does something to Spidey that throws him off balance and hiding in the shadows. Peter finally arrives at Midtown High and applies, but it thrust into the familiar role of hero when a student begins to open fire in the school hallways. Putting on his Spider-suit, Peter leaps into action and stops the gunman, who turns out to be a student, driven over the edge from being picked on. In the aftermath a science professor quits making way for Peter to step up to bat.

the review: After the curious set-up in Mr. Straczynski's premiere issue of Spider-Man, ground work for future issues is laid here. The contiued presense of Morlun and Ezekial should, with any luck build towards an interesting climax, though it would be nice if some of their secrets would be revealed soon, as despite the fact I am a big fan of a nice long build up and fullfilling conclusion too many questions have been posed all too soon. If Straczynski had waited to bring in Ezekial or Morlun then it would have been all right if the wait for information were extended, but since too many questions have been asked right away some answers now would be nice. I think it's a credit to Straczynski's writing though that two characters that have appeared in only two Spider-Man comics, one of them very briefly, have piqued my interest so much.

Also set up in this issue was Peter's return to Midtown High as a science teacher. Had it not been stated in this issue, I would not have known that Peter wasn't coming in to teach last issue. It actually seems kind of convienent that he was there last month considering what happened now. In fact all of the events surrounding Peter's return to Midtown have been convient or forced. Aunt May's diologue leading up to Peter applying at Midtown was stilted, and the fact that at the very day that Peter came back to Midtown to teach, a student opens fire, the most overdone cliche when it comes to inner city schools. Come on Mr. Straczynski! Give us something new!

On the art side John Romita jr. shows off why he is going to go down in history as one the classic Spidey artists. His work in this and last month's issue is nothing short of amazing. You can sense the emotion from his pencils and feel like you're really there with what's going on. Some have said that his art has improved since the March departure of long time writer Howard Mackie, and I agree. He's found new life in these two issues and it shows. Great artwork here folks.

So, while there are some flaws with Straczynski's writing, the amount of new life breathed into this title via his new ideas make up for them and provide what will hopefully lead up to an exciting and conclusion, drawn, of course masterfully.

Amazing Spider-Man #31 gets *** out of ***** for some great ideas weighting out the story flaws.

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