Writer: Tom Taylor  Artists: Juann Cabal  Editors: Nick Lowe  E.I.C: C.B. Cebulski   Crawlspace Staff: Chi-Town Spidey  Crawlspace E.I.C:  Brad Douglas

Recap: Spider-Man and the Rumor make our very own JR suck it, when they Marvel Team-Up.  Rumor takes Spidey the “Under York”.  Mirror city of New York, but underground and called “Under York.” where Leilani is being held captive.  A trip in a tripped out elevator they arrive at their destination.  Rumor and Spidey rescue Leilani from her own father who wants his grandkids, but Spidey get’s shot in the process.  Bleeding and in pain they escape by crashing through a window and reach the elevator that’s supposed to take them back to New York.  It’s down for repairs at the moment, so Spidey does what he does best and has the ladies hold onto him while he scales up to the surface, all while being shot.  Reach destination and he falls to the floor.

The Story:  A Spidey narration flashback of Peter telling us how great Uncle Ben and Aunt May were as people that raised a scared little boy and make him feel safe again, no matter what the cost.  On that happy little note we return to the present where we see Leilani holding her kids in a loving embrace while a satisfied Human Torch, Rumor, and gun shot wound Spider-Man watch the tender moment as the family is reunited.  Spidey makes a quick call to his new bestie detective on the police force letting her know that trouble is coming and all hands are needed on deck.  Detective Sebbens informs her Captain of what’s to come, but he informs her that all units are ordered to stand down.  She ignores the order and heads out anyways.  The Under Yorkers start to invade with Leilani’s father making demands on wacked out mega horn.  Spidey quickly yanks said wacked out mega horn away and retorts back.  A fight starts out and Spidey quickly handles the handful of Under Yorkers with ease..and then gets punched in the face, don’t you hate it when that happens..  Apparently Hale is very strong and is about to deliver the killing blow when Rumor shows up with all the people Spidey knows in his neighborhood to defend our hero.  Sebbens shows up ready to put the arrest on Hale, when Wilson Fisk shows up.  Spidey quickly takes advantage of this situation by informing Hale that his daughter and grandchildren are in another dimension where he won’t find them (they’re not) and playing politics with Fisk forcing him to have Hale and his Under Yorker’s go back home.  Issue ends with Aunt May waiting for Peter back at his apartment. 

Analysis:  Tom Taylor has seem to have found his comfort zone.  He strikes a cord in his characterization of Spider-Man.  Peter knows what he needs to do to get those two kids reunited with their mom, hence the flashback.  The cost is that’s he’s been shot and is bleeding out, he’s scaling the wall with two people on his back up an elevator shaft to get to the surface to reunite the family.  He’s bleeding, in a lot of pain, pass out once he reaches the top.  “If an innocent needs help, you take them in.”.  Seems to be all worth it when the he witnessed the loving embrace and a family reunited.  Taylor gets that in Spider-Man and has written that part very well.  He also understands and nails the relationship of Johnny Storm and Spider-Man.  The humerous friendship banter is there with a sprinkle of a video game pop culture reference.

Who Spider-Man is, his banter with his friends and allies, but Spidey also knows how to kick arse <-Brad Filtered!  Cleverly written by Taylor, Spidey’s inner-monologue in multi-tasking through a fight is a treat to read, but not as much as a treat as Cabal’s artwork makes that two splash pages stand out.  I have said this plenty times before.  Reading a good story is fun, but what really makes it great is the the artwork and Cabal does not disappoint.  It’s smooth and easy to follow along with and a team effort done extremely well.  Next up is the humor and Taylor delievers the goods, especially when Spidey yanks the mega phone from Hale.

Seems that the Kingpin angle is still there.  He’s still mayor and has some of the cops on his payroll.  Detective Sebbens Captain, for example.  I bet we are going to see much more development in that in future issues along with the ties of Kingpin and the Under Yorkers.  Oh, and we haven’t seen the last of Hale and the Under Yorkers either, when they left, Hale had the classic villain look of “I will have my revenge”, but mostly for Fisk.  One of the great things about this book is that Tom Taylor never looses the FOCUS of his direction.  He wants to know about Spidey’s neighborhood.  Neighbors coming to Spidey’s aid and Peter recognizes them.  They know him (as Spider-Man) and consider him their hero.  “That’s OUR hero, back off!”  I love it!  You could say that the writing reflects a bit off of how Harlem sees Luke Cage.  This is Spider-Man’s neighborhood and these are his people, you mess with them, you mess with him and vise versa!

Lastly we come to the what’s been on everyone’s mind since issue number one.  The Talk.  Aunt May waits for Peter and Taylor really brings out the human emotion.  Ever have the feeling where you KNOW something is wrong and you are about to hear it.  For us non-powered peeps is our Spider-Sense.  For Peter it’s his Human-Sense.   There are MANY theories on HOW this can go down and I have my own.  I’m thinking Spencer and Taylor are up to something in both titles and Aunt May will die and some point.  A potential story that may bring Peter and Mary Jane even CLOSER together. 

Final Grade: A

Special Thanks to Mohammed for covering FNSM 3 for me while I was gone.