At long last, following a solid 30 day delay, Sensational Spider-Man #41 finally hits shelves and continues the controversial One More Day story arc. Was it worth the wait? Kinda.

To bring you up to speed, Pete’s aunt is dying. He’s talked to everyone he knows that has superpowers and nobody seems to be able to stop her inevitable death. At the end of Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #24, which was part 2 of the One More Day arc, Spider-Man is approached by a young girl who says that she can help him save Aunt May. When Sensational Spider-Man #41 picks up, the girl leads Spidey through the streets of New York and towards a man sitting in a park. She then disappears leaving the man in the park to continue leading Spider-Man towards another man in a car who finally leads him to the mysterious woman in red featured on the cover.

The woman in red explains that with the slightest modification, our entire lives until this point can be altered. She reveals that the men Peter talked to were actually different versions of himself that would have existed if his present life were altered slightly. The woman then reveals herself as Mephisto and explains that she, or rather he, can save Aunt May but in return, wants the marriage between Mary Jane and Spider-Man to be erased from memory. He gives them until midnight the next day (One More Day…hint hint) to decide what they want to do.

I liked this issue much more than the previous ones for the simple fact that something actually happened. It seems like Spider-Man has been running in place for the past half-dozen issues or so and it’s refreshing to read a comic that isn’t exactly the same as the issue before it. Despite the fact that this entire story feels like a really cheap way to fix what was broken during the Civil War, I enjoyed it and I’m looking forward to seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. Namely, the comics coming after One More Day wraps up next month. You’re almost done, Straczynski. One last issue and you’ll officially be done with Spider-Man.

Quesada’s art was pretty much the same as the past two comics. It’s nothing really to write home about but definitely better than some of the other artists on the Marvel payroll. I found it really hard to get into with the first couple comics but his vintage style has actually grown on me. Would I like to see it all the time? Not a chance. It’s a nice change though. On a side note, I’m starting to get pretty excited for McNiven’s work in the Brand New Day stuff coming out next year.

So was it a complete disappointment? Not really. Like I said before, this arc was losing points the moment it got started simply because of the poor planning and awful clean-up that’s being implemented. Medocre art and a story that was quite a bit better than the other comics of the series earn Sensational Spider-Man #41 3.5 Panels of Awesome out of 5. Will we see something groundbreaking in the final chapter of One More Day? We’ll have to wait until late December to find out.

Have you read SSM#41? What’s your take on it? Good or bad we want to hear it with a comment!