The new creative team on this title tries to tap into the popularity of New Avengers with a crossover of sorts, showing Spider-Man and his family settling into life in the new skyscraper headquarters of the team. The way in which the writer explores it, though, makes Peter Parker seem like a complete idiot, and Wolverine doesn't come off too well either. What's most frustrating about this book is that it doesn't seem to have anything to do with the New Avengers, but instead tries to insert a Superman archetype into Spider-Man's world, and it's so transparent that it takes the reader out of the story. On top of that, this is a far cry from Billy Tan's and Jon Sibal's best efforts.
Peter Parker's moved his family into the posh apartments of Stark Tower. He's a member of the foremost super-hero team in the world. And The Daily Bugle now praises Spider-Man instead of trashing him. Sounds like everything's going his way, but the old Parker bad luck kicks in, big time. Peter loses his teaching job, has to go back to freelance photography and is forced to team with a new reporter who makes him feel ill at ease. Oh, and to make matters worse, he worries that a teammate has set his sights on his wife, and he's forced to go square off against the Absorbing Man on his own.
I'm guessing this was a last-minute job for the X-23 art team of Tan and Sibal. The entire issue looks rushed. Their work here lacks the polish and style of their X-32 work. Peter's high-school students look like third-graders, and Ethan Edwards, the new Bugle reporter, appears to be impossible large in stature. The fight scene with the Absorbing Man doesn't flow well at all, and the Spidey/Wolverine sparring match is only marginally better.
Of course, the fact that said sparring match ends the way it does is completely gratuitous and not at all logical. The enmity between the title character and Marvel's most popular mutant doesn't make a lot of sense at all, and neither does Peter's insecurities. On top of that, Peter seems far too interested in the sexy new Bugle receptionist. The Ethan Edwards plotline is touched upon only lightly, but already it's clear we're meant to see this new guy as Clark Kent. It's not the most original concept, but Hudlin may have something new and interesting to say about the archetype by pairing him with Spider-Man.
It seems as though for every new element that's been introduced into the title character's life, Hudlin works to bring back an older element that was left behind. Peter's back at the Bugle, back flirting with a receptionist, back looking to earn some money to get his own place. For every step forward, the character seems to take one back. Do the math... it's getting him, and the property, nowhere. 3/10
