Spider-Man: The Next Chapter 3 Paperback – January 1, 2012

3-1/2 stars. I actually like some of these comics; really I do. Yet this, to me, is an extremely bizarre way to restart a famous series.This is a ** SPOILER ** review, so please skip reading if you need to be surprised. This 3rd volume completes Byrne's stay on the title, as well as Romita Jr.'s tenure on the Peter Parker issues. Romita Jr. would then switch to Amazing Spider-Man as regular penciler with issue #22, not included here.My Pros & Cons here...PROS-I absolutely *love* the visuals in Amazing Spider-Man #'s 13, 14, and 16. I wish Byrne's entire stint here looked just like these three issues. Pencils by Byrne, inks by Al Milgrom & Dan Green, colors by Joe Rosas- these issues to me are a shining example that these pros really did still know how to do it right. Byrne's large action shots of Spider-Man are dynamic & good looking to me. Milgrom & Green add a slick precision to the inks that I greatly appreciate. And Rosas eases up on the intensity of the colors just enough for me to finally have little to complain about. I'm okay with vivid & intense colors as long as there are lighter neutrals to act as a balance, and he provides this here. I also like the characters in these issues: Rocket Racer, the various Spider-Women, and the industrial saboteur Ghost! Ghost is especially neat to see since I recently bought his 1st appearance in the  Iron Man: Armor Wars Prologue  tpb. I even like Mackie & Byrne's writing here, with both showing they're still capable of having fun with this famous character. Fans of the various Spider-Women would do well to get volumes 1 & 3 in this series before considering volume 2, since the way these paperbacks were collected, there's little trace of the Spider-Women in that middle volume.CONS-Apparently, Mary Jane gets killed in an exploding plane(!). Peter is fired from his new job at TriCorp. Peter can't get work from The Daily Bugle, so he becomes a dish washer at the Sunflower Diner. Peter & Aunt May lose their great, new apartment. I loved the way this restart began in Amazing Spider-Man #1. It really felt fresh, new, and full of great potential. Yet now everything that can go wrong *is* going wrong. All this is very dramatic, and might make for pretty good reading, except now that everything in Peter's life is destroyed, Byrne & Romita Jr. leave their respective titles! That's it! Everything's destroyed! Thanks for reading! This is not exactly the "feel-good" story of the year. Now I perfectly understand that happy endings are not mandatory to effective storytelling. Still, this Next Chapter is really pretty depressing. Byrne has said via his official internet site that an original consideration was to involve the Shaper of Worlds in this series, and that the resolution to all this might've been very different. Well, now I know why some critics basically call this Next Chapter an aborted effort. And Carnage fans take note- despite the interesting cover image for this trade, Carnage is really just briefly featured in 1 issue here, and it's not drawn by Byrne or Romita Jr. Carnage fans will need to look elsewhere for popular stories with this character.Honestly, I like bits & pieces of all these individual issues, but overall, this just seems like a really bizarre way to restart a famous series. The saving grace, for me at least, is that Byrne & Mackie clearly depict a way Mary Jane could've survived the exploding plane. We see a back door has been blown off the jet, right before total destruction. And since death isn't always permanent in comics, there are better days ahead for these characters. That's really about the best bit of good news in this controversial restart.

Great fun, and much better than most current comics. John Byrne and John Romita Jr. showcase their great skills. While not everyone thought Byrne's return to Marvel as good as his former work, many of the rest of us loved it! I have most of his work in comics, including this time period, but I also own it on Kindle to make it more accessible. I liked the way Byrne brought Peter back to his roots while exploring new ideas. By the way, one of the issues feature John Romita Sr. inking Byrne! A nice treat!