Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 2) #53 (494) Review

Amazing Spider-Man #53
“Parts and Pieces”
Writer: J. Michael Straczynski
Penciler: John Romita Jr.
Inker: Scott Hanna
PLOT: The third book of this four part series begins with Aunt May and MJ talking about the big changes in both of their lives as of late: Aunt May dealing with finding out that Peter is also Spider-Man, and MJ working on re-establishing her relationship with Peter.  Peter, who is in Vegas, interrupts MJ and gives her the rundown on the happenings in the “Digger” storyline so far.   He tells her he is coming home, and they spend some quality time together.  MJ decides to stay with Peter at the end of the night instead of going back to her hotel, and they consummate their second union.  Digger continues on the prowl plotting his revenge on Forelli and the other mob families.  Peter gets paged when Digger attacks when of Forelli’s guys.  Spider-Man and Digger battle until they are interrupted when a group of mob guys, who begin ambushing Digger with bullets.  This hurts Digger pretty bad and is forced to flee and recover.  Spider-Man is ticked at Forelli for not informing him of the trap they had set for Digger, and tells him not to ever do something like that again without informing him.  Spidey also raises his price on protecting Forelli and his family from ten grand to twelve grand.
LIKES: The biggest thing about this issue is that MJ and Peter are officially back together.  Not only did they “hook up” but also Mary Jane called Peter “her lover and her husband.”  This is huge since I had no knowledge when Marvel would use the marriage label with these two again.  Also, the morality issue may be becoming a bigger factor for Peter.  The lines between doing the right thing, and working for a mob boss are becoming blurred and it will be interesting to see how Peter deals with this in the next issue.  There are also some good incidents of humor that are put in place at just the right time.  The one that comes to mind is Digger’s reaction to getting shot up again. 
DISLIKES: Even though the Peter and MJ stuff was great, the Digger storyline didn’t really go anywhere in this issue other than making Forelli and his men look even shadier.  The book had the feel of a filler issue, but maybe I just got used to the three issue story arcs that Straczynski has been churning out. 
RATING: 3 webheads out of five.    I feel as though this issue maybe the calm before the storm.  I have no doubt that in the next and concluding issue, battles come to a head, and questions hopefully get answered.   
Reviewed by AC-WEB (Ariel Chaidez)