the plot: Having been turned away by Ezekiel, who had offered Spider-Man a place to hide before, Spider-Man goes after the rampaging Morlun, and saves the life of a small boy. Spidey proves to be no match for Morlun yet again and his webbing provides no help in slowing him down. Tired and out of options, Spider-Man calls in sick to his new teaching position and saves the life of another of Morlun's hostages, and manages to elude Morlun once more. Ezekiel, a very wealthy man with similar spider-like powers, sits in a boardroom meeting, his attentions drawn away by through his worry for Spidey, who is now battered and beaten, and realizes he might very well die at Morlun's hand. Spidey calls Mary Jane and Aunt May to say goodbye in case the worst happens and prepares for a final showdown with Morlun at the New York harbor front, though this encounter is shortlived when Ezekiel arrives and manages to actually get in a clean shot at Morlun, causing his nose to bleed. The victory against Morlun is brief though, as Morlun retaliates and sends Ezekiel plunging into the water to his death. Satisfied with having fed off Ezekiel, Morlun leaves to drain Spidey's lifeforce later, while Spidey begins forming a plan of his own against Morlun, using a sample of his blood to bring him down...At a nuclear power plant.

the review: The Morlun/Ezekiel storyline continues to chug along, though it appears that Ezekiel may be out of the picture. But considering that this is a Marvel Comic, and a Spider-Man book at that, it's very unlikely we've seen the last of him.

I liked the tension being built up too. It appears that there's no way to defeat Morlun and his change of pace, trying to bring Spider-Man to him, was interesting though repetitve. John Romita jr. once again turned in some excellent artwork, very emotional and detailed. Romita seems to be getting along very well with J. Michael Straczynski as a team and it'd be interesting to see what they do next when this storyline is over.

I also really liked that the first person Spidey wanted to call was Mary Jane. It showed that even though they've broken up, they still love each other and it made absolute sense. Sure Peter called Aunt May next but I applaud the fact he called Mary Jane first, as any husband would.

As much I like things so far, a pattern seems to have falled in place. The first few issues were high on story, low action and this issue and #33 seem to be following an opposite pattern. I hope that issue #35, which I'm sure will mostly be action, at least has some of the subplots for a few pages, otherwise we'll just be retracking the last two continuous action-filled issues.

Amazing Spider-Man #34 was a fun book, with a lot of action against a very powerful foe. It gets ***1/2 out of *****, with an extra half star for the nice Mary Jane moment.

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