The Good
I never should have thought of this book as "just another on-going Spider-Man title" because it's so much more than that. This series is just as good as Amazing Spider-Man. It should be thought as it's equal, not it's lesser.
What an amazing creative team on this issue! It's written by Greg Rucka and Mark Waid and has Marco Checchetto on art, featuring the colors of Matt Hollingsworth. It's a high quality team on a high quality comic, who could want more?
Checchetto's art is fantastic here. It's perfect sense to put him on this book because he's worked on Amazing Spider-Man, the current Punisher run, and the end of the last Daredevil run. I love the tweaks he made to Daredevil's costume in this issue. A few little creases here and there and obvious places where the suit was sewn together make it so much cooler looking than the traditional spandex. I'm also loving grizzled old Punisher with his gauzed up eye and beard.
Aside from the character designs, the art is so cool. Lots of interesting angles and positioning for each panel, and the individual panels are insanely detailed. On one page, Punisher and his assistant are jumping from a building. Of course, there's great detail in the two characters and the building they're jumping from, but in the background, the moon is large and full, and you even get to see Spider-Man leaning out of a window. Is that needed? Nope. But it adds to the panel and it's nice to see detail like that.
Some great action sequences in this issue has ninjas galore want to get a hold of that Omega drive. The story and the action are balanced perfectly, and the action, itself is incredibly awesome. Each character is balanced and highlighted well, and they all seem to be working together, which is really cool.
The Bad
My only problem is that to continue reading this story, you have to buy Punisher 10 (coming out 4/18/12) and then Daredevil 11 (4/25/12) which is great for people that read all three books, but if you don't, it's a bit annoying. If you don't read Avenging Spider-Man, then you may be pretty ticked that the story will cut into Punisher or Daredevil, depending on what you read. While it's cool to see this creative team all come together, I'd rather see the story contained within a singular book.
The Verdict
Avenging Spider-Man really doesn't Avenge anything, but who cares? This book is awesome. It has a great creative team behind the issue, and the story is a ton of fun. Checchetto does a great job with giving tweaks to a few characters, and his overall artwork is wonderful.
Panel composition and panel set up is cool and refreshing and will keep you interested throughout the issue. There's a lot of great detail within the panels, and you'll love the action sequences.
The only problem I had with the issue is that it's going to run into two other Marvel series which may be a bummer for people not reading Avenging Spider-Man. At the same time, if you want to complete this story, you have to read Punisher and Daredevil.
Overall, I highly recommend this issue, and I'd even suggest picking up Punisher and Daredevil to finish the story.