the plot: Felicia Hardy, the jewel thief turned Spider-Friend, returns to New York, and runs into her old flame Spider-Man, who's hot on the trail of a man who caused an honours student at Midtown High to overdose on heroin. Eventually the two literally crash the pad of Hollywood pretty-boy Hunter Todd and his girlfriend Tiffany, who are both od-ed out of comission by the mysterious Mister Brownstone.

the review: Call me crazy but I liked this. Unlike a lot of the Spidey books that've been pretty hit and miss lately, this issue read like a slam-bang Spidey adventure of old. Icing on the cake would've been if Aunt May, Jonah Jameson, Robbie, MJ or any of the many oft-neglected supporting cast had shown up, but otherwise I thought this book was great. Smith has a real handle on writing Spider-Man, and writes a real genuine sounding Peter Parker, even if he is behind the mask the entire issue. I also thought his Black cat was quite good, even if he did milk the obligatory shower scene for all it's worth.

I also liked the fact that Smith tries to have the book fit into continuity by contributing to the core titles, rather than ignoring pretty well all together, as is the case with Quality of Life and Get Kraven. The fact that the story is propelled by a student of Peter's from Midtown High, and the reference to Peter and Mary Jane's marriage were nice, and welcome touches. Kevin Smith is a rarity it seems amongst the growing number of hot writers working at Marvel today; he actually seems concerned about continuity on the whole, and tries to work with it, not against it.

The artwork by the Dodsons was fantastic as always. I'm very pleased that they'll be doing the art on the core titles when this mini-series wraps up, since I've been a big fan of their work since Generation X a few years back. If you like their work here, then check out that series, especially since issues are probably going to be hard to come by soon (I recommend #39, 49, 55-57, 60, off the top of my head, and check out an early Dodson and Dodson rendition of Spidey over in Gen X #59.)

Without going on much longer, I'd have to say that I'm looking forward to issue two of this series. The set-up is strong and the creative team does a great Spider-Man. My only suggestion is to tone down the T&A, because this is the kind of book that can draw in new readers as well. By the way, did anyone see Kevin Smith proomoting this book on Leno. Wasn't that, like, twenty times more entertaining then that Spidey/Leno crossover Zimmerman did?

Spider-Man and the Black Cat: The Evil Men Do #1, gets **** out of *****. It's entertaining and has me interested in the next issue, which is more than I can say for some other books out there.

continued in Spider-Man and the Black Cat #2

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