Zeb Wells returns to pen the latest adventure in Avenging Spider-Man, but does he submit a narrative that succeeds or ultimately fails? Read on to find out.

The official description from Marvel:

Special 50TH Anniversary Story! Spider-Man teams up with the hero he admires most – May Parker!

When Spider-Man‘s 50th Anniversary hit, all fans knew that Marvel was going to milk it by releasing stories that would try and capitalize on the character and the spotlight therein. But what even the Amazing Spider-Man Anniversary issue failed to do, was deliver a truly personal story that encapsulated the Parker legacy rather than the Spider-Man one. What we have here is just that, and it yields a mixed-bag.

This is not an action-packed narrative, it’s a character journey that involves an Aunt and her beleaguered nephew. Zeb Wells pens the script, and he does an exceptional job dealing with the emotional pathos therein while trying to offer some new quirks to an already familiar story. It takes a careful and cognitive mind to deal out this tale with as much detail and pace as this author does, but he does take some unnecessary sidesteps along the way. Off jokes and random remarks take a carefully charted conversation into unnecessary and even corny waters.

Steve Dillion handles the art, and to be honest it just doesn’t fit the tale. We get a glimpse of his version of Spider-Man in the beginning and if this issue had more of that, his style would have honestly fit just fine but the script called for a one-on-one dialogue piece without masks. Stiff features aided by ultimately rigid lines detract from the highlighted conversation, framing the fact that someone else should have been tapped for the art duties in this specific issue.

Avenging Spider-Man #11 has a solid story with some narrative and artistic missteps, but in the end it squeaks by with a light recommendation.