The very idea of Avengers vs. X-Men gives me a bit of a headache. But AVENGING SPIDER-MAN makes everything seem better, and like the House of Ideas isn’t completely consumed by their corporate masters. Or if they are, they at least manage to get away with putting out something good from time to time.

This issue is the kind of fun stuff that Spidey serves up at his best: this isn’t an attempt at throwing a world-shaking plot at our heroes, or to swing the other way with an excessively Bendis-like mundane scenario. This is a couple guys with super-powers who don’t necessarily get along trying to stop some other guys with super-powers from doing something kinda bad.

Oh, and J. Jonah Jamison’s there, too, making himself a general liability.

This isn’t quite the rollicking start that issue #1 was, but it’s definitely plenty good anyway. I do hope that #3 concludes the Red Hulk team-up, though, not because I tire of it, but because I’m all the more eager to see who’s coming up next.