Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 1) #501 Review

Amazing Spider-Man #501 (#60)
“Intermezzo Number One- Saturday I the Park with May”
Writers: J. Michael Straczynski
Penciler: John Romita Jr. & John Romita Sr.
Inker: Scott Hanna
PLOT: JMS switches gears from his monumental and multi-superhero story arc and brings us a single-issue book concentrating on Aunt. May. May sits quietly on a park bench pondering the life altering events that she has recently been facing with an unknown figure. She continues to struggle with that fact that her nephew is the amazing Spider-Man, but she is starting to accept that this is whom Peter is. While this goes on, Spider-Man finds himself trying to figure how to bring down the newest villain in his life, The Shaker. The Shaker is giving Spider-Man more than he can handle, and causing a great deal of property damage to New York. After an exhausting back and forth fight, Spider-Man finally leads The Shaker into a pool, where he is overtaken by the waves his costume creates. We then get back to May to find that she is at a cemetery and has been talking to Uncle Ben, and Peter’s parents.
LIKES:
A single issue, character driven story. I thought these issues were gone. It’s nice to see a switch in gears from time to time.
Great artwork from JRjr. I’m sounding like a broken record on this, but the man is one of the most talented artists in the biz.
The creation of a new villain who doesn’t die. JMS has a knack of introducing us to new bad guys, only to have them never show up again.
DISLIKES:
The Shaker has too many similarities to The Shocker.
Too many sexually suggestive dialogue or situations between MJ and Peter. This was understandable when MJ and Peter first reunited, but it is now becoming stale.
Very generic and uninteresting cover.
RATING: 4 webheads out of 5. Even though there weren’t any really important developments, it was a strong story nonetheless. Hopefully there will be a number of “Intermezzo’s” in the works. Reviewed by AC-WEB (Ariel Chaidez)