I’ve still yet to get fully onboard with the current Spider-run, but there are far worse ways of getting me to buy it more regularly than keeping the art teams this consistently strong. Having unleashed John Romita Jr for a mammoth page count in #600 (the first issue I’d bought, incidentally, since the same artist’s stint on “New Ways To Die”), the book now turns to Mario Alberti, one of my favourite new talents in comics courtesy of his wonderful work on X-Men/Spider-Man.

His work here isn’t quite at the same levels of perfection as that miniseries (you suspect he had far more time to work on those four issues, for one thing) but it’s still an absolutely gorgeous-looking book. It’s only a shame that his unique marriage of retro, Tim Sale-esque character work and kinetic action sequences is hidden behind a wretched, adolescent J. Scott Campbell cover – but you can’t have it all, and at least Alberti is getting high-profile work that’ll sell well, which is good to see.

It’s an issue that’s well-suited to his talents, too, in that while it has a Spidey fire rescue sequence with which he thrives, the bulk of the story is more like something out of a romance comic. And it’s a fun, bouncy little tale – probably the best thing Waid’s done for the series so far – as Peter, suffering from the after-effects of nervous overdrinking at his Aunt’s wedding, attempts to remember where and when he’d agreed to meet the long-out-of-his-life Mary Jane. And a week when the internet decided to spontaneously combust over the issue of superheroes having – gasp! – sex, it’s actually quite refreshing to see a reminder in the opening pages that Peter was always meant to be the most human of Marvel heroes, and thus is capable of the same human moments of ill-advisedness.

Plus, of course, classic romantic entanglements are the sort of thing that the whole “making Peter single again” thing was supposed be allowing happen. Which makes it interesting that it’s exploited for the first time just as MJ makes her reappearance on the scene. It’s hard to know where they’re going with this, given that we still don’t kn0w quite how Mephisto’s actions affected her and their relationship in practical terms – but there’s an intriguing revelation here regarding just how much she knows about Peter. I’m wary of bringing her back so soon, but only if the intention is to try and restart the relationship – if she’s just going to hang around as one of a number of friends/supporting characters, then it can work – particularly as Waid shows a clear intent to restore her classic ’70s characteristics, rather than the personality-free cipher she’d become post-marriage.

An intriguing aspect of the issue, meanwhile, is that it features a backup strip by Brian Bendis and Joe Quesada. I’m not hugely sure what the point of it is – beyond it feeling like something that wouldn’t fit in #600 – because it’s really just a New Avengers scene, and I’m sure space could have been found for it in that title somewhere. It’s quite nice, if a little obvious in doing the whole “power/responsibility” Spidey schtick – but I have to say, if there really are plans afoot to push Jessica Jones back towards costuming (as some have interpreted this story as the beginning of), then it seems to undo a lot of what made Alias special. Still, it’s always good to see Bendis writing the 616 version of Spidey – one glorious day, he’ll get his own run on Amazing; but for now, despite some ups and downs, it still feels like the title’s rolling along well, even if not setting the world on fire.