Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 2) #41 (482) Review

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #41
PLOT: Spider-Man tracks down leads trying to find the identity of the mysterious Shade who has been kidnapping homeless boys. This takes him to a police lieutenant, a mentally unbalanced convict and a finally to a mystical friend. Oh, and last issue we saw someone lurking in the shadows as Spider-Man investigated the disappearances. Here he lurks again and the mystery deepens as we find it is the occult book shop owner who was aparently shot to death by the convict Spidey visits.
LIKES: This issue brims with sharp, sometimes hilarious dialogue. Starting with Spider-Man’s own thoughts going through his talks with Jenny, Lt. Lamont, Aunt May and back with Lamont in the prison mental ward. The return of the Spider signal was welcome as was the deepening of Aunt May’s reaction to discovering Peter’s secret identity. It’s good to see that she hasn’t accepted it as easily as it seemed. Romita, Jr. turns in the usual terrific artwork. I got a real kick out of the plot turn on the last page.
DISLIKES: I’m not going to nit pick the story just to find something wrong. One personal dislike in general I have is of these poster type covers Marvel now favors in most of their books. While the images are very good and sometimes striking I like covers which reflect something about the story inside.
RATING: 4½ out of 5 webheads: JMS has really hit stride and settled into this book.