I can't believe I am about to say this, but the latest from legendary comic-book giants Lee and Romita is sadly not that impressive. Let me qualify myself by saying that I believe the Lee/Romita run of Amazing Spider-Man to be among the very finest material that comics have produced. When I think about Spider-Man and even early Marvel comics this is where my mind usually wanders to. I have nothing but the highest regard for both Stan Lee and John Romita. That being said, I have to admit that this issue was lame. Not horrid. Not hideous. Just lame. The plot (which we can thankfully blame Mr. Defalco for) has holes big enough to run the Rhino through. It is chock-full of the worst kind of hackneyed devices and comic-book shorthand. First, for something half-entitled "The Kingpin," there is precious little of him here--and what there is isn't very interesting. The focus is mostly on nondescript two-bit villains who are no match for Spidey. This really doesn't provide us with much conflict and leads to a rather dull story. The plot device here is a totally unbelievable super strength potion that gives the imbiber powers equal to Spider-Man's (yeah, right). The best the villains can think up is to use this to frame Spider-Man. And guess what? It works. Every superhero in town is gunning for the Spidey-gone-bad. It seems he hasn't earned one iota of credit in all this time. Even X-Men like Rogue, Wolverine and Storm take time out of their angst to hunt him down! Captain America comes after him like a blood-thirsty maniac, The Thing acts like a complete jerk--the superheroes in general come on like schoolyard bullies. Oh yeah, I almost forgot, the potion grants its drinker super powers, but then kills them after a day or so. This is the meat of the plot.

Daredevil alone out of all the heroes believes Spider-Man is innocent. At first I found this touching until I realized that he had to "listen" to his heart-rate to see if he was lying--so much for trust. Anyway DD and Spidey go off to fight the bad guys and Daredevil accidentally gets injected with the serum and gains super strength and cops a 'tude. Spidey spends all of one panel whipping up an antidote to the potion and gives it to Daredevil in time to keep him from biting the big one, but not before he and Spidey get a chance to throw down on each other. Somewhere in this mess the villains are somehow defeated and Kingpin vows revenge and the story finally grinds to a halt.

The art is better than the story; but there is little variation. There is a grey dull look to it that doesn't suit a bright character like Spidey. The criminals are all run-of-the-mill. It looks very static. It looks boring. The coloring is terrible.

The whole project has a rushed feel to it, as if for some reason it was hastily thrown together instead of given proper to time to be fully realized. There just isn't much of the wonder and fun of the old days here. Still, these guys are legends (and deservedly so) and *anything* they do is worth a look. You might want to wait to read this until it appears in a bargain bin for less than the whopping six dollar cover price.

This project has not dimmed my enthusiasm for these two in the least. I hope they give it another try and soon.