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

Story:  Aunt May tells Peter that she has cancer and boom goes the dynamite.  She wants Peter to come with her to the hospital for her first round of treatments, but Peter states that he already has plans.  He doesn’t have plans, he just needs time to process this news so he suits up to do some Friendly Neighborhooding and run into a car thief.  Spidey knows who the kid is that stole the car and his name is Miquel, who stole the care form his mom’s boyfriend because he wanted to get away.  Seems like Miquel is the subject of child abuse and Spidey knows he needs to step in.  He takes the kid to Dr. Strange to repair the Miquel’s wrist that Spidey accidentally broke.  Oops.  Some playful banter with Dr Strange and the kid is healed and social services are called.  Issue ends with Peter showing up to be there for Aunt May when she does her first round of chemo.

Analysis:  There are many Aunt May events that come up in the comics.   Powerful, meaningful ones that have an impact on her characterization and the people around her.  Amazing Spider-Man #400 comes to mind where she “died” only to be “undone” because of bad editorial mandate.  JMS did a wonderful job writing a core to the character driven story where Aunt May found out Peter was Spider-Man, only to be “undone” again, because of bad editorial mandate in volume 2 of ASM.  She’s been married to Jack Jameson (because of reasons), almost married to Doc Ock (it was the 70’s, kids..), but she had some bad ass moments too!  Like tricking and poisoning the Chameleon and telling Kingpin off.  In a issue that you would assume would be another centric Aunt May issue, it’s actually all about Peter and how he’s dealing with that.  Tom Taylor does something surprising here, show’s Peter’s fear.  He’s scared and doesn’t know how to deal with the fact that he would be losing Aunt May.  That’s his mom!  The woman that raised him to be the man he is today and even though he pulls a “I’m kinda busy” excuse on her, she understands.  Honestly, I almost put the book down and said “I’m done!” because of Peter’s response to his Aunt.  To me, that’s out of character for Peter.  I didn’t like that, but glad I stuck around to finish the issue.  Taylor writes Peter as if he’s finding a way to cope with this bombshell that’s been dropped on him. 

He wants to be there for his aunt, but doesn’t know how.  Is there a better way to examine this or just think about it?  He doesn’t want to go through this, I mean that is his mom!  All these emotions and thoughts are going through his head and Aunt May is the one being brave for it!  I can see the relationship that Taylor is doing with these two characters.  I would have preferred a different approach, but Taylor has been doing a good job on this book so I’m not to picky.  It’s good to see the Peter knows he has to face this problem wether he wants to or not.  It’s tough on him, but damn it, he’s going to be there for his aunt, I mean that’s his MOM!.  Why wouldn’t he?

Another thing to talk about is the conversation he had with Dr. Strange.  It’s good to see that Taylor hasn’t lost his touch when keeping Spider-Man funny, especially around other Marvel heroes.  Five issues in and Taylor has found his stitch when it comes to Spider-Man and how he should act.  I would be a fool not to bring this point up.  The panel is oozing with it.  OMD and OMIT have made subtle hints that they are being addressed.  I don’t need NOR WANT to recap OMD and I have very less love of OMIT, but in that particular story, Dr. Strange cast a spell to save Aunt May, in exchange…memories of Peter being Spider-Man are wiped, the marriage didn’t happen, other stupid crazy stuff that lived on in the comics for a decade that editorial mandate thought we would forget, but we never did.  We get a “round two” of  Spidey asking Dr Strange and he replies what he should of said a decade ago.  Some things you can’t change, Peter.  There are costs and it’s better to just avoid that!  “Magic always comes with a price.” is a better explanation than “Magic, we don’t have to explain it.” . Yildiary Cinar, steps up to the plate in replace of Cabal.  His artwork is fluent and smooth and easy to follow along with.  I’ve said this many times myself, if the story is written good the issue is only better when the artwork is easy to follow along with.  Cinar delivers the goods here. 

Final Grade: A–