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

Hey Everyone, Mohammed here, I’ll be doing the review for third issue of Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, Chi-Town Spidey is currently on vacation with his family visiting one of the Disney Parks to hang out with Princess Jasmine.

Recap: We last left Peter taking care of a couple of “orange kids” that were hidden away by their mother in his room in order to keep them away from the thugs that came after her, unfortunately she was not that lucky and was taken away by them, and ever the responsible Spider-Man, Peter promised to get her back, only what to do with the kids, luckily he has friends for such an occasion, so who does he call, Mary Jane, Black Cat, Aunt May, no, scratch her from the list, she doesn’t know Peter is Spider-Man, maybe Fred his ex-villain roommate can babysit, nope, definitely not, considering his current attire, I feel sorry for Marnie of apartment 71 to have to witness such and “inadequate” sight, no, there’s only one person he can call on, and that’s Johnny Storm the Human Torch and and when as he arrives, with some assistance from Marnie. Peter goes off to find their mother, leaving Johnny Storm to babysit the little tykes. And after a tussle with one of the orange goons, who escapes, he’s able to find where they live with the help of the new New York Detective Shari Sebbans, the wife of the man he saved in the first issue, and a license plate he managed to grab off the goons car. After he arrives at said location, which turned out to be an abandoned consulate/embassy, he goes a second round with the same goon going all out, only to be beaten to punch by Marnie from apartment 71 as he watches her totally lay the guy out onto the ground and not only reveal herself to be “The Rumor” but that she knows Peter is Spider-Man! Whaaat!!

The Story: We find ourselves inside the abandoned embassy watch as Peter and Marnie catch up with happened to his neighbor Leilani’s children, and he informs her that Johnny Storm is currently taking care of them, and that he would trust him with his life, we then cut over to Peter apartment where we see Johnny Storm looking down on a mobile phone ringing with the caller ID showing Aunt May on the screen, now what might be she wants to talk about, which is later interrupted by one of the children asking to go to the bathroom, and after making sure the hallway’s clear proceeds to take them, only to be caught by Fred exiting his room and after it is discerned that Johnny isn’t here for him, Fred back away back into his room to stay and wait things out in there. We now find ourselves back with Peter and Marnie as they enter an unusual elevator and find out how Marnie figured out Peter was Spider-Man, which apparently was easy, since all it took was him carrying a VERY heavy grocery bag, that and the fact she placed a camera outside his window and watch him swing away. We now find out 3 miles under the surface looking over what appears to be an exact replica of New York called “Under York” or if you believe Marnie, is actually the original, which from the looks of things is stuck in the 40s. Next we head over to the “first” Empire State Building to find Leilani in a room being guarded by 2 “orange” goons. whom Spider-Man and The Rumor take out easily unfortunately during the fight Peter gets shot by a third unknown person while trying to protect Marnie from that very bullet. Luckily through some quick thinking from the Rumor and a little craziness, Peter, Marnie and Leilani manage to escape with Peter doing the most while having been shot, unfortunately when they get to the elevator they find out the power to it has been cut and Peter has wall-crawl the 3 miles while carrying both of them. Finally ending back at the abandoned embassy with Peter collapsing from exhaustion and Marnie not only stating the third man was Leilani’s father and that he be coming to start a small war

Analysis: While I can’t say this issue was great, it was still a fun issue, for the most part, the humor, while not at the level of the first 2 was at least it giving its best, which unfortunately didn’t work on me, an example of this, Peter mentioning that he needs to add vents to his suite due to how hot it was or that Johnny mentioning that Spider-Man needs pockets so that he can hold onto his mobile phone, since according to the caller ID Aunt May is trying to get a hold of him, now what might she want to talk to him about, but if I was to point out where the humor really was, was the interaction between Johnny Storm and Fred as Johnny attempted to sneak the children into the bathroom, only to get caught by Fred as he was coming out of his room. after which you have a to and fro between the two and Johnny confirming that he wasn’t there for him, but that he was taking care of the kids as a favor for Peter, but then Johnny wonders if he should be here for Fred, after which Fred replies by saying he’ll go back into his room and stay there. So yeah, the humor tried, by definitely wasn’t to the level of the previous two issues.

As for everything else, this was a good issue, it had decent action even if it was only one page, it had good decent dialogue between Peter and Marnie, even if there were a couple of moments I found myself saying “how could that be” or “then what about the time you did this” it’s either the writer didn’t know or decided to ignore it all together, personally when it comes to my second thought, it would be nice if he actually did ignore it, even though it did involve one of my favorite female characters.

As for the characters themselves I did like the interaction between Fred and Johnny Storm you, you could see that Fred was worried that Johnny might have been there for him and that Johnny wondered if he should be there for Fred, so a nice little awkward moment there between the two, as for Marnie, I actually liked her, she took no prisoners, both physically and verbally, especially when Peter patronises her for her statement about the security.

Now you might be wondering about those two thoughts I mentioned, well they pertain to the following.

The first is of how Marnie found out Peter was Spider-Man, according to her, she first suspected something when he carried her groceries and her stating that they were VERY heavy, not one to judge how heavy an item is from a comic, but if the bag was heavy enough that only her and Peter can carry it, oh did I forget to mention that Marnie has Super Strength, along with

Radar and the Gentle Power of Persuasion, if was that heavy, then what was the paper bag made of, kevlar. but thankfully there was another way she found it, and was by placing a camera by Peter’s window and witness him swinging away, when I read that, I thought to myself, given your Spider-Sense shouldn’t it have kicked in, warning you that something was up in the area of the window, because I do recall it being mentioned that your Spider-Sense warns you if somebody’s watching.

As for the second, my thought was, then what about the time you took your company, Parker Industries, and invaded Symkaria in order to capture Norman Osborne who was the current ruler of said country, weren’t you invading a country to oust a legally appointed ruler, I mean I’d help out Silver Sable at a drop of a hat, she is one of my favorite characters after all, next to Mary Jane and Black Cat, but I would still be causing a diplomatic incident. So yeah, I wouldn’t exactly say you try to avoid Diplomatic Incidents, because history tells us otherwise.

As for art the Just like Chi-town Spidey, I would also be a fool if I didn’t mention it, because once again, Juann Cabal and Nolan Woodard did a awesome job, as evidenced by this new splash page from the issue, this like the previous is just awesome!

While not the strongest issue of the three, it’s still a good issue, showing that Cabal and Woodard, are definitely the right people for the job.

Final Grade: C+

I would have given it a higher grade, at least a B-, if it wasn’t for the lack of humor and the two niggles I had about the issue. What really gave it the “+” was Cabal’s art.

As for Mary Jane