Last issue, Black Cat went through a lot of trouble to help Spider-Man reclaim a vial of his own blood from Mr. Negative.  This issue starts after Spidey spent the night with her and woke to find that she’d taken the blood from him and sold it(?!)

I mean, I guess that’s pretty funny and true to character but…Wow.  Spidey is pretty naive.

So this issue has Spider-Man trying to steal the vial (again) from the person who Cat sold it to, which basically were some vampire-loving rave-party hosts. 

He learns that they gave the blood to his old “pal” Michael Morbius.  Through Martine, Morbius’ girlfriend, he tracks Morbius down.  

She’s become a bit of a b**tch, and Morbius doesn’t appreciate it.

So he kills her.  Spider-Man seems a bit too upset about it: She’s a vampire who just tried to suck his blood and enslave him, after all, and we established earlier in this issue that he really is protective about his precious bodily fluids.

Morbius thought maybe Spider-Man’s blood could heal his friend Werewolf by Night.  Spidey says “Awwwwww, you were just helping a friend!” and agrees to give Morbius his blood if he ever needs it.

There are gaps here, most notably how on Earth would Morbius know that the blood that Black Cat sold to a group of partners was stolen from Mr. Negative AND was Spider-Man’s blood?  But also, I don’t care.  It’s really nice to see Morbius and Martine again, and it’s also great to have a standalone story coming out in a year when there were so many major events that tied most of the Marvel series together.  It also makes sense that Morbius would kill her–even if it makes for a quick death of a character who has been around for decades.

Solid issue.  People crap all over the Brand New Day era and I really wonder why.  I’m enjoying it quite a lot.

In a back-up story, we see Flash Thompson, who knows Peter Parker’s secret identity, asking for help to regrow his legs the legs he lost in the Gulf War, so he can be a superhero.

Parker visits Dr. Curt Connors to see if he can help Flash and Connors (wisely) reminds Spidey that the last time he tried to regenerate a limb he became Lizard.

This is seeding the idea of Thompson being the next Venom. It’s kinda neat having such a long, decompressed origin story.