An Epic Battle
The start of this book is really great. The silent monologues to introduce both characters really are spot on. Often, there is a fine line with these things between excellence and just being plain corny. The dialogue here though is superb - especially for Spider-Man. His own disgust at what he does - taking pictures of misery is a side of the character not explored in the core books for a long time.
The real triumph of this book is Jim Owsley's words. For a GRAPHIC novel, that's really saying something. It's not that the art lets the book down and the words take over, because that's not the case at all. What happens is that the pure clarity of the language outshines everything. From the inner- monologues at the start, to the character interaction, to what's happening in the background (for instance the background squabbles of the residents at Aunt May's), the whole thing is just perfect.
Despite Wolverine, this really is a Spider-Man book. The anguish he has at the end and the way Mary-Jane shows up just to hug him puts everything into perspective. There's real human emotion and depth to what's happening.
The revelation that Charlie is a female is a good one. I guess we have no real reason to think that she would necessarily be a male - you just kind of assume because of the violence. It's a nice twist though.
This is the first time that a graphic novel has been used as a way of advancing a story and it does a really good job. Ned Leeds' death is a big turning point in the life of Peter - I won't say why in case you don't want to be spoiled. I quite like the way it was handled here. It wasn't dwelled upon - that will come in the core book - but provided a strong link between the story and the continuity from the other three books.
Really, really good stuff that leads straight into Amazing Spider-Man 289.