 WRITER: Paul Jenkins
PENCILLER: Mark Buckingham
COVER BY: Humberto Ramos
INKER: Wayne Faucher
STORY TITLE: Never Forever
REVIEW: As opposed to this month's Amazing Spider-Man, this issue of Peter Parker Spider-Man is almost completely out of life. The conclusion to Fusion's scary saga is reminiscent of stories written years ago by Stan Lee (and pencilled by John Romita Sr.). To be more precise: Spider-Man gets totally thrashed by his enemy, but using whatever little energy he has left, he succeeds into defeating his opponent, just as the latter is on the verge of taking his life. This is exactly what happens in this issue: using his powers of persuasion, the super-villain known as Fusion brainwashes Spider-Man into believing that he is crippled – all this because Fusion holds a grudge against Spider-Man, blaming the latter for his son's death. Of course, our wall-crawler super-hero sees through the scheme and stops Fusion's in his track. Isn't that new?! Most super-villains hold a personal vendetta against Spider-Man for one reason or another. They make up this big plan, try to kill Spider-Man, and fail to do so. And what's with all these new power-absorbing super-villains anyway? First we had the lollypop-guy who kidnapped Mary Jane in order to take over Peter's life. Secondly, Amazing Spider-Man has Morlun, who wants to absorb Spider-Man's energy or something like that. And finally, we have Fusion, who also wishes to take over Spider-Man's life. I am sorry to say this but this is getting annoying. Bring back some of the original super-villains (Chameleon, Doc Ock, Green Goblin, etc) that are NOT dead and make something out of it. It has become too difficult to come up with some new ideas for super heroes/villains. Instead, let's concentrate on who we have right now and build around them. It ought to work!
The only good part about this issue was Mark Buckingham's pencils. They're nothing compared to Romita Jr’s or Joe Bennett's but they're quite all right. Maybe J. Michael Straczynski's work on Amazing Spider-Man is just too good and I expect the same from Paul Jenkins for Peter Parker Spider-Man. Who knows? Either way, if I would have to rank this story out of 10, I would give it a 5. And I am being generous! Hopefully, next month issue will be a little better. See you all then.
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