Amazing Spider-Man continues to be something of a mystery to me.  Yes, I admit that I was one of the poo-pooers when it came to the whole One More Day and Brand New Day concept.  And while I take no satisfaction in being right about OMD (ok, maybe a little satisfaction), I’ve felt a bit awkward with BND.  There’s this part of me that really wants to like this, and I can say with all honesty that there are things I like in this new storyline.  Many of the subplots in this book hold a lot of interest for me.  With this issue, we see those storylines continue and new ones open up.  I liked the Spidey-jokes more this issue and Guggenheim is crafting an interesting arc for Spidey.  But there are also plot devices I don’t care about, namely, Jackpot.  I wonder if they hadn’t designed this character to look less like Mary Jane I would maybe be interested, but it feels kind of cheap on Marvel’s part.  Also, I want to know what the hell is going on with this new villain.  We’ve been so wrapped up in Peter’s bad luck, we don’t know anything about this supposed new master villain.  My last complaint goes to Larocca himself.  The art in this book is bad.  There are times when it looks pretty good, but just flip open to the page of J. Jonah Jameson, and you’d swear you were staring at Adolf Hitler.  Ugh.  I really do not like his art. 

Overall, this was a good comic, but not great.  My hope is that Guggenheim is able to bring home the bacon with this next issue.