Lots of interesting twists in the life of Peter Parker and his interactions with his friends. ( )

A fun diversive episode with an emotional ending. ( )

In the previous comic, Peter meets up with Eddie Brock and discovers the material their parents were working on that turns the wearer into Venom. Mary Jane still isn't speaking to him, though he manages to get her to listen to what he has to say and Gwen is pissed at him for setting her up with Eddie who is an asshole. On top of that, he loses his suit which gets torn to bits. Eddie takes the Venom potion and disappears.

Since he can't find a suit he's using his old sweatpants outfit from his old outfit and feels ridiculous and had people doubting that he's really Spider-Man. Mary Jane is trying to reach out to him and has changed her look into something very sexy. Then Geldoff, a kid from another school drops by and he has powers to blow stuff up with his mind at a party they are all at. They run escaping the cops who show up and take the bus home. Mary Jane and Peter talk a bit and Mary Jane gives Peter a love letter to read when he gets home which he does but immediately goes to her house after reading it where she tells him she had loved him since before she knew he was Spider-Man and how she had been going through a rough time and she was sorry she didn't tell him about it and how she still loves him and how she was affected by his telling her he loved her. She agrees to be more communicative about her feelings and thoughts and he promises to protect her better.

Now Geldoff is blowing stuff up at his school down the street and Peter really needs to go but he doesn't have an outfit. Mary Jane, however, had been working on an outfit before they broke up so she has an unfinished one for him to use. It's not much but its better than nothing. He takes Geldoff out of that situation where there were lots of kids around and they talk about how Geldoff is likely a mutant, though he refuses to believe this. That's when Professor X and some of the X-Men arrive to pick him up since he may indeed be a mutant. Geldoff faints at the sight of them. This leaves Peter arriving back home late and having to come up with an excuse to Aunt Mae who is seeing a therapist overall she's been through.

There is no real villain in this comic as Geldoff is more of a goof than a villain. This is more about the relationships between Mary Jane and Peter and Peter and Aunt Mae. It was a good story with the introduction of the X-Men was pretty cool, but otherwise, it was a so so story, overall. I enjoyed the Mary Jane and Peter parts but Geldoff was boring. Luckily he isn't in the book too much. I give it four out of five stars due to the Mary Jane and Aunt Mae parts, otherwise, it would be less due to the Geldoff parts. ( )

There's not really much I can say about this trade. Peter has more angst and more woes - uniform troubles, mutant troubles, relationship troubles - although he does get back together with Mary Jane, and he gets to meet the X-Men (and his very own fan girl, Kitty Pryde). Aunt May also has her own troubles, as she discusses with a counselor. The story was pretty good - very typical of this series, although not the best arc I've read. ( )

Ultimate Spider-Man #40-45 ( )