It’s always nice when a book can surprise.  Despite the fact that Amazing Spider-Man has consistently been one of Marvel’s best books, I took one look at this week’s cover and thought, “Oh boy, here comes a clunker.”  Lucky for me, I was pleasantly surprised when I picked up this week’s issue.  While it wasn’t the best issue of ASM ever, it certainly was entertaining and contained some gorgeous art.  The opening tale by Van Lente was a pretty simple Morbius tale that seemed more on auto-pilot than anything else.  It did have one funny moment with Peter in his “Sandman” phase (I kid, I kid!), and tale wrapped up neatly.  It just wasn’t all that engaging, and yet again, it has Peter unwittingly involved in someone’s demise.  The art in Van Lente’s tale was awesome.  It had the classic, retro feel that Marvel has been using for the last few issues.  It was very pop art with bright colors that pop off of the page.  It was really, really good.

The second story by Greg Weisman (who apparently works on the Spidey cartoon) was a solid tale of Flash Thompson coming to terms with the loss of his legs.  This was a great Flash Thompson story as it sort of encapsulated the entire character’s history in just a few pages, and reminded me why its important to have someone like him in Peter’s life.  Also, there were some great Peter Parker moments in this tale as well, including a part with his ringtone that makes you think, “Only Peter…”  The art by Luke Ross is amazing, although there were a few panels where I wondered if he had used some photo referencing (Flash looks a lot like Tom Hanks….).  But despite that, his Spider-Man is well drawn and the panels are well composed.