First things first, May get's the idea to join the new Avengers team. Seems daddy dearest wasn't a joiner, only briefly working with the Avengers or the FF. Spider-Girl, on the other hand is not going down that road. So, she tries out-by way of capture the flag-and rapidly wipes the floor with nearly every member of the team, until beaten by Stinger, who's all kinds of cool. Miss A and I agree, however, that May's conversation with Jimmy (who's been acting all kinds of macho jerk butt-hole lately) about their friendship was the stand-out moment of the issue, both a satisfying conclusion to the plot thread and hilarious and real to boot.
May never told anyone about Jimmy peeing in a girls sanfbox as a kid. A wonderful touch of honesty.
At this time, I'd better come clean: We read out of order. The Annual fits neatly between #12 and #13....oops. Anyway! The shock of Misery's Grief Machine-induced trauma was a big deal to Miss A, especially when *SPOILERS!* Peter and Mary Jane are apparently killed. The back-up tales are fun too, particularly the who's-better-at-what of Spidey versus Spidey powers. Very cool.
Issue #14 is brilliant. Miss A instantly took a liking to Kaine, and, having already latched onto Darkdevil, this issue was always going to be enjoyable. But then came the characterization, the dialog, the sheer gravity behind Kaine's debut- at least in this universe. Kaine has history-or at least knowledge of the Parker family and had something to do with Darkdevil's origins. Hmmm, interesting! The final page, however, is a punch directly aimed at us, the reader. Take a look.
Finally, issue #15 begins with a shocked MJ discovering May's shiner. Miss A found this moving, powerful stuff with great page layouts. We get a nice, light adventure with Davida taking May shopping to cheer her up, encounter a newly almost-together Moose and Courtney and Moose defends Spider-Girl. Speaking of Moose, Jimmy and he are--what's the phrase I'm looking for, here--No! Friends?! Speedball and Spider-Girl battle the goofy-but-fun villain Mr Abnormal, and May realizes it's not always fun, but it's worth stinking with the hero biz. Meanwhile, Moose doesn't realize Courtney isn't Spider-Girl. Oh, Moose, Miss A is amused.
Until the next batch of issues get's read and discussed, I remain
frogoat