Brian manages to graft a fine character based story, but yet still manages to lead us into a awesome action packed ending. Bendis shows the dark side of Spiderman/Peter Parker, when he is enraged to the point of nearly killing the Goblin, and the lighter side, the shy Peter when confronted with the way Mary Jane feels for him. These contrasting emotional push and pulls help us to really find out what makes Peter/Spiderman tick. The fact that this is the first "Return" storyline in the series really helps to beef up the script and brings a great deal more depth to this arc. The fact that ongoing readers will already have a background of the major villain and other role players around him, such as Harry Osborn, makes this a really rich storyline to read. One element I really liked in this book was when Bendis took us directly into the mind of the Goblin, we get to see the world through his drug-enduced version of reality. Bagley does an expert job of drawing this crazed world of the deranged Norman Osborn, complete with the physical manifestation of the "Voices" in his head and a warped version of Spider-Man.

Bagley really seems to like close ups of characters faces to tell the story. This really aids in telling the story without having to convey all of the thoughts and actions in words. These close-ups have become a real staple diet in the visual style of Ultimate Spiderman books and have really helped to enhance the storytelling of Bendis. Bagleys artwork as a whole is consistent and functional, nothing too flashy but he tells the story well. His take on the Green Goblin is both interesting and scary, a very different visual twist to the original Goblin in just about every way save the purple garb and green skin. Inks look sketchy and broken apart on the hair and sometimes look almost out of resolution, this inconsistency sometimes gets in the way of enjoying the overall artistic feel of the book. The colours are done well overall and transparency digital has used bright and vibrant colours in the high school scenes especially to keep the book from looking too mundane in the places with little action in them. They have used subtle texturing very well, especially when colouring the Goblin. My only slight complaint would be the overuse of the blur technique in some fight scenes, taking away from the pencils of Bagley by over blurring the action.

I for one have never really liked the speech lettering in this book from the start. They seem to have chosen the wrong font for the speech bubbles, too straight and clean. On the other hand the effects panel lettering is nicely done, all the "blams" and "skreeeeches" are just right and jump off the page at you.

Great story, good art and interesting characterisation. The best of the trades so far for this title. It's the return of the Goblin, and you won't be disappointed. Bendis and Bagley once again turn in a great piece of work worthy of your collection.

Score 9/10
Reviewed By:Iain Duncan