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

Story: We start with a flashback of Uncle Ben and Aunt May walking in the city with young Peter Parker. Uncle Ben hands Peter some money to give to man who is homeless. Peter is reluctant since the Parker’s needs all the money they can to pay the bills, but Uncle Ben gives him wise advice that they will manage where as some people can’t. Cut to the present where some man in a fancy suit is assaulting a homeless man and Spider-Man comes in and saves the day. Spidey calls new best cop pal, Detective Sebbens to come on by and arrest the perp. Spidey informs the homeless man to head over to F.E.A.S.T where they are doing their grand opening. Over at F.E.A.S.T. Mary Jane finds out from Aunt May that her insurance won’t cover her medical treatment for her cancer and informs May that they will find a way to help pay the bills, even if they have to crowdfund it. May makes a speech at her grand opening that even impresses Marine aka: The Rumor! Next thing you know more suits show up to crash the party, saying that F.E.A.S.T. will only hurt the real estate business of the area instead of helping it. May holds her own against the greedy suits and even The Rumor is impressed.

Later that night, Randy receives a silent alarm from his phone that F.E.A.S.T. is being robbed and Peter runs out to assist as Spider-Man. Fred Myers has not intention of helping until Randy informs him that if he doesn’t, he may need to find another room mate that can tolerate his behavior since Randy will be unemployed. Fred doesn’t want his gravy train to leave so he runs out to assist as Boomerang. Spider-Man shows up to the scene to discover that The Prowler is robbing F.E.A.S.T.

Analysis: Taylor is having a lot of fun writing these characters and it never seems like he’s tired of writing them. He pens Aunt May, Randy, Mary Jane, and the rest of the supporting characters very well, but I love how he’s writing Spider-Man/Peter and Boomerang. His focus is still the theme of this book. The events that are happening in Spidey’s neighborhood. Dare I say, he may be having more fun than Spencer over at Amazing. It’s unclear since both men seem to be having a ball writing Spider-Man and writing both him and his supporting characters CORRECTLY! It’s been a real joy to read and having the feeling of excitement of picking up these titles at the comic shop has returned to me.

THAT’S LIFE SPIDEY, IT LIKES TO PUT DENT IN THINGS!

You all know me, story is important, but if you have artwork that easy to follow along with it just makes the story even better. Ken Lashley brings his talents this issue and you may remember him during Spencer’s run over there in Amazing. ASM 18 HU, the tragic Gibbon story. His art style fits here with Spider-Man but what I really dig about it is his background on characters. In a panel if there is one focal point, he puts the time and effort in the characters faces that are standing in the background. Obviously you can’t put THAT much detail in characters that are too far away, in the panel below…look at Aunt May, Peter and Mary Jane. They aren’t blank faces, you see some detail and effort in it.

Don’t ask me what’s Lashley doing with The Rumor’s hair…too much hairspray maybe..

Speaking of The Rumor, I’m pretty sure that Marnie and May are gonna become best pals. I can actually see Peter approving of them and making a lame joke about seeing them together and calling them M&M. One of the things I loved about this issue is that Spidey has put himself in a situation where HE looks like the bad guy. Taylor seems to be love writing that Spidey can’t catch a break. Fred Meyers per usual is HYSTERICAL and I really can’t get enough of him.

My guess is that Prowler is working for the suits in ways to find out how to shut F.E.A.S.T. down. Peter suspects it’s Hobbie Brown, but we’ll see about that next issue, along who he’s really working for. For me, this issue was worth the money and reminds us all on how Spider-Man is grounded and so relatable. The primary focus of this issue is Spidey’s Neighborhood and the events are are taking place in and around it.