the Amazing Spider-man Annual #36 - Marvel

The story in this issue is about Aunt May's and JJ Sr's engagement party. He wants to do something special for May so he invites everyone to Boston where he has a special surprise for her. He's invited the whole Reilly clan . . family May hasn't seen in years, to come to the engagement party. To say that she's surprised would be an understatement. Anyways, that's what the book is about. But, the important thing that happens here is . . a new villain, Raptor, Damon Ryder, comes after Peter. But he's not really after Peter. He's after someone that looks like him . . Ben Reilly. Do not try to adjust your computer screen . . there's a signpost up ahead . . we're about to enter . . the Clone-Zone! Really? We're gonna revisit this again? We don't have a date, but it appears that several years ago, in Portland, Ben Reilly was involved in this man's house burning down and him losing his family. We don't really know what happened. All we know is that Ben was there, he was fighting with Damon and now Damon blames Ben for him losing his family. We did have one faux-pas in this story though. When Peter realizes who this guy is after he starts thinking about the past and everything Ben put him through. "For a time, I thought I was the clone, the doppelganger, and he was the 'real' Peter Parker. For years he wandered . . literally lived the 'road not taken' in my own life . . before returning to New York, and completely upending my life with Mary Jane." What? Wait! Excuse me? I thought Peter didn't remember Mary Jane? I thought that Mephisto fixed it so that he wouldn't remember what he had missed when he took it all away to save Aunt May. I know that was a big part of the 'clone saga' but . . some of those memories have been erased. Right? I liked the whole 'clone saga' . . the concept . . the story . . everything, really. But the one thing that frustrated me was that there seemed to be a whole lot of inconsistencies written throughout the story-line. Maybe they were intentional, but they felt like they were problems that they just couldn't talk their way out of, so they let 'em slide hoping that no-one would notice. Just like this thing with Mary Jane. This is the second or third time that she's come up, and Peter isn't even supposed to know who she is. Anyways, I understand that they're trying to reintroduce us . . or revamp the 'idea', or something. But I'm not sure if this moment . . this joyous celebration was the right time to do it. However, the die has been cast . . the stories been written, and it can't be taken back now. So we're just going to have to wait and see where we go from here. Oh yeah . . and Peter loves Boston more that New York? Say it isn't so!