*First of all, Mike McKone does a very good job on the artwork this issue. Each of his figures have a distinctness which seems rather appropriate given their role in the story. For example, Peter looks appropriately haggard, while as Spider-Man theres a kind of boyishness about him. Mary Jane looks beautiful while down to earth, while the Black Cat looks like a cute and gorgeous swimsuit pin-up. Mind you, theres tendency for some panels that seem a bit crowded at times, but the action sequences are handled very well.
*Also, its fairly clear what Kelly is going for it this story. With the return of MJ and still havent gotten over her despite their break-up, his roommate, Michelle, giving him a hard time over his apparent dumping her last issue, and now Norah showing signs of girlish infatuation towards him, Peters love life is far too complicated. So the Black Cats return to the picture and the idea of a second chance with her seems like a tempting offer--even though given his narrative captions and the cliffhanger at the end of the issue (which the cover actually gives away to some degree save that MJ sees the kiss on the JumboTron in Times Square), hes clearly making a bad decision. Especially, given the look on MJs face, its clear she hasnt gotten over her feelings for Peter as much as she let on, so it will be interesting to see how she reacts when she and Peter run into each other again.
*Thing is though, Im not much of a Black Cat fan, as I always saw her as a bit too much of a Catwoman knock-off, but certainly the chemistry and dialogue between her and Spidey is fun, no question about that. Obviously, with Spideys newfound single status, she becomes a far more tempting prospect for him to peruse. The downside, however, is that this feels like déjà vu all over again. Faster than you can say I love the 80s, its not only established that, despite remembering their past relationship and how it ended, Felicia no longer knows Spider-Man is Peter, and we learn that once again, shes a professional thief, that once again she has her Bad Luck Powers, and by issues end is once again kissing Spider-Man. And thus years worth of emotional development and progress for the Black Cat gets thrown out the window. But then again, considering how the One More Day/Brand New Day retcon has done this essentially with various characters in Amazing Spider-Man already, why should we be surprised?
*Also, I found the humor particularly forced, especially the opening scene with Peter having to deal with MJ, Michele, and Norah all at once and striking out with all three as they literally all slam the door on him and leave him to deal with kitchen fire. Now I understand theres a tradition in Spider-Man for lovely ladies who are all mutually attracted to our hapless hero getting into verbal catfights with one another; but at least, at the end of the day, they still managed to be likable, not the pair of mean-spirited, immature, harpies that Michele and Norah were in this issue (and no, get me started on Michele once again being the abusive and demanding psycho again or Norah coming off as a borderline racist on top of being a childish brat). Also, Diablo (apparently a Fantastic Four villain I understand who even Stan Lee thought was one of his worst characters) is quite ridiculous.
*There certainly was some intriguing set-ups here, though. The prologue showing Madame Web forced to psychically locate Spider-Man by Ana Kravinoff certainly had me intrigued over where this particular storyline is heading. Likewise, who exactly hired the Black Cat and what was so important about Dexter Bennets notebook? And why is he being targeted? I must admit Im curious like a ca
oh, never mind.