Further detail on the unmasking woes.
In order to stand by the side of Tony Stark aka Iron Man in support of the Superhero Registration Act, Peter Parker aka Spider-Man had to unmask on TV. After giving up his secret identity to the whole world, Spider-Man's enemies spring from the wood work bringing his worst nightmare to life. His enemies are attacking him at all times plus going after family and friends. -summary
More than any other superhero, Spider-Man had the most to lose by giving up his secret identity and this TPB deals with a good bit of the consequences of his forced action. While Civil War: Amazing Spider-Man manages to fill in various gaps pertaining to Spider-Man's involvement in the main Civil War event. Civil War: Peter Parker - Spider-Man, takes place outside of the event and only deals with Parker's situation. Normally I cannot stand these type of money grabbing tricks that deviates from the main story, but since Spider-Man was effected the most during this big event, plus this book is among the best in the crossover, I can accept it for what it is. This TPB written by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa collects Sensational Spider-Man 28 - 34.
This book manages to juggle the action and character development very well. The plot begins when Dr. Octopus attacks making it very clear he's furious of being defeated many years ago so many times by a 15 year old, especially when considering he could have killed Spider-Man very early in his career. While there was potential to carry out this attack even further, I can appreciate the quick wrap up to this story. Several more issues follows the Chameleon as he assembles a team to take on Spider-Man using his family and friends as targets. This portion of the story not only delivers with some decent enough action, along with the usual Spidey wit (the interaction with Will O' The Wisp had me laughing), but it takes time to explore Mary-Jane and Aunt May's experiences dealing with this new turn in their lives. Spider-Man giving up his identity even effects his former lover the Black Cat, even though she's now in the arms of Thomas Fireheart aka the Puma, a sometimes enemy and ally of Spider-Man; with the exception of Black Cat it's difficult to single out which side story is the best between May and Mary-Jane.
I like Aguirre-Sacasa's writing a lot in this story, with a very good discussion between Mary Jane and Sue Richards of the Fantastic Four. Sue explains to her that this is now the time to be at her strongest, because she knew the risk in marrying a superhero. One would think that Mary Jane would be use to the danger, especially being attacked by both Venom and Green Goblin before, but the Superhero Registration Act takes away the little things in life which heavily strengthen Captain America's stance against the bill. I really enjoy the subtle commentary and exploration concerning the hazards of a leaked secret identity. To include, I kind of thought it was a rather eerie conclusion to their conversation when Mary Jane points out to Sue, that the women she used as examples of standing by their superhero husbands, such as Jessica Jones, Storm, and Sue herself, that they all have powers to defend themselves while she has nothing after just being viciously attacked by Swarm.
The artwork duties were passed around through to Angel Medina, Clayton Crain, and Sean Chen. The first story uses an oil paint style that doesn't look bad really, I'll just say it's decent at best but I don't see the point in this artistic approach. It actually feels quite inconsistent when considering the rest of the story doesn't use this. The rest of the book looks great though with some sexy designs of the Black Cat, some really cool illustrations of Electro crackling with electricity (it's rare to see Electro looking anything but awesome anyway), and this may be the most intimidating artwork I seen of the Rhino. The action panels have some good moments of Spidey in his armor plus various other clashes. The dialog stands out in a good way and it's easy enough to follow.
Outside of some small issues with the writing, perhaps pacing, and slight inconsistency involving the artwork, I really can't complain much about this TPB. The only real problem I can think of is that it's pretty worthless to Civil War completest; it does not pad the main story at all. This book is about Spider-Man, his family and friends, and that alone may be good enough for Spider-Man fans. I think it's among the best books of the crossover, and it is the best when compared to other books that focuses on events outside of the main event.
Pros: Very good character development and artwork
Cons: Some smaller issues plus it's skippable for those only following Civil War events
