Look at poor Spider-Man. He probably can't remember the last time someone gave him a beating this bad. Well the trashing he received at the hands of Morlun courtesy of a brilliant script by J. Michael Straczynski in the pages of Amazing Spiderman #475 pales in comparison to the beating certain Marvel editors by the name of Danny fingeroth and Bob Budianski gave him a few years before.

Ignoring the old addage, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." these creative people decided to tinker with Marvel's flagship character and to bring back the Jackal from ASM #150 and concocted a storyline so convoluted which involved the clone of Peter Parker first introduced in the 1970s. Soon enough, one needed a scorecard to keep track of all the clones running around in the Spidey comics (at the time there were no less than four core comics: Amazing, Spectacular Spider-Man, Spider-Man and Web of Spiderman) When the dust finally settled from the whole clone saga affair, Peter had given up his persona as Spidey and packed his bags along with his wife Mary Jane Watson, a newcomer named Ben Reilly (A.K.A. the Scarlet Spider) had taken over for Spider-Man and beloved Aunt May was dead! The fans were not pleased and sales declined by 60 percent. It took transfusions by Stan Lee's best people just to resurrect the moribund wall crawler.

Will the real Spider-Man please stand up? Peter and loved ones mourn the death of aunt May inside while outside, the Scarlet Spider has to mourn alone as told in the pages of Amazing Spider-Man #400 by J.M. De Matteis and Mark Bagley.

Fortunately for Spidey's fans, Marvel has top people working on the webhead's books these days, the best of which is Amazing Spiderman as penciled by J. Michael Straczynski and beautifully rendered by John Romita Jr.

With all due respect to the work done by Mr. Bendis and co. over on the Ultimate books, for my money I want to read a book which takes place in the continuity of the regular Marvel Universe, especially one written as adaptly as this one. I also like the fact that the stories are self contained in each issue for the most part, so I don't have to read Spectacular to find out how this story will end. And what great stories they are! The Morlun story arc for example is a story of epic proportions which brings Peter Parker and his alter ego in touch with the essense of their being while confronting the threat of a supernatural enemy with mystical qualities.

As presented by the fluid pen of the former Babylon 5 staff writer, the whole saga has a biblical feel to it even naming the quasi prophet of the opus Ezekiel. "I told you that you were going to go through several trials in terms of supernatural forces arrayed against you," Ezekiel tells Peter in ASM #506 (Marvel went back to its old numbering after the anniversary issue) I told you that the worst of them was not the last and that there was one more coming. The most dangerous of all..He's coming, the gatekeeper is coming..."

You have to feel sorry for Peter if Morlum did this to him and the gatekeeper is the worst of the threats. But keep bringing it Marvel, as long as Spidey stays out of scarlet suits and Straczynski and Romita Jr. keep crafting such excellent comics, I will keep reading them. I recommend the rest of you pick up a copy as well, you won't be dissapointed.