This is the Spider-Man I am looking for! Great action, great writing, humor everywhere, and tension when there needs to be. For the longest time, even before the OMD mess, this has been the best Spider-Man title hands down. All thanks to Bendis, who might be struggling with Secret Invasion right now, who has been committed to make this the best title out there since 2000.

It’s hard to review a single trade for this series however. I mean this is #20, or covering issues #118-#122, so it’s not like I can say ‘Pick it up and you’ll love it!’ You probably be wondering what is going on here, since there is over 8 years of continuity to work with. But overall these arcs/issues were great! The main focus is the ‘Amazing Friends’ arc where we see one of Parker’s friends from High School turn into a mutant. Looking at the cover it’s hard not to see who or what the new mutant is because of the reference…but it was still pretty good in terms of humor and action.  Heck we all know why these stories are great, because Bendis somehow knows how to write a teenage book. You can sorta feel like this is how teenagers would react to superheroes, and how teenagers act all the time in their daily lives.

Of course the art is just terrific, with Bendis always focusing on one main artist to do most of the issues. He recently switched artists (either from trade 18 or 19), but this is still a great looking book. Sorta cartoony, but it fits the style of the story and I would love to see this series turn into a cartoon and not just video game fodder.

What else can I say about such a marvelous series? You do need to read this from trade one, and yeah it might sound like a pain. But this is consistantly one of the best series done by Marvel and once again: If your complaing about OMD and it’s new *cough*notarecon*cough* setting; this is the series that will make you love Spider-Man all over again.