Ugh.

I reviewed an earlier chapter of this story and I really hoped things would improve by the end, that I might at least see the point in all this rehashing but I just didn't.  In one single, delayed swoop Quesada brought the excellence of ASM to a grinding halt.  I just thank god that this isn't the tale they used to end Brand New Day.

Thing is, the problem I have isn't just my gripe about how redundant this was.  At the end of the day it's simply poorly done. Four issues of the worst kind of melodrama, and there's not necessarily anything wrong with melodrama.  I love Peter and MJ as characters and have done since I was a kid.  Yet Joe Quesada here makes them seem dour and self absorbed.  I feel like I spent four issues in a room I wouldn't really want to spend four minutes in.  Nothing excited me, and yet I'm not someone who is bored just because there's no fight scene.  There's just nothing here that gripped me, nothing fresh about the human drama Joe was trying to give us.

Along with the plot the script was also kind of dire.  With some incredible irony, MJ sums it up best when she describes a letter she wrote thus, "I realised it felt way too much like the end of some cliche chick flick."  Quite. Don't get me started on some of the mumbo jumbo spouted between Reed, Tony and Dr Strange.

There are redemption points to be found in the artwork of Rivera and a rather striking cover.  The Quesada art is reasonable, but nothing worth waiting through the delays for.  I don't like feeling so negative about any book, but I found myself forcing my way through this thing and that's never fun.