Editor's Note: Ms. Marvel Annual #1 arrives in stores Thursday, September 4.

Over the past few months, I have really started to fall in love with Ms. Marvel. Ever since Jean Grey's death, I haven't really latched on to any other Marvel super heroine and said "she's my favorite female Marvel hero." The Marvel Universe has plenty of them, and characters like Black Cat, Emma Frost and now Jackpot are up on that list, but in the case of Black Cat and Emma, I've always liked them, just never had the same type of favoritism as I had with Jean Grey. But earlier this year I started to pay attention to Ms. Marvel. Brian Reed has delivered a very consistent and well-done series and Ms. Marvel has become one of the most popular Marvel heroines. Truth be told, I never really followed her beforehand because the whole relationship with Rogue and the various incarnations of Carol Danvers' powers often had me looking in about eighty different directions. However, with her involvement with the Avengers and her series, I truly believe I have found my new favorite Marvel heroine. Her series as a Secret Invasion tie-in really helps this case as I absolutely LOVE what Brian Reed has been doing as Ms. Marvel battles the Skrulls. I think her title is the one place where we really see how personally the Skrull invasion is affected the heroes, and Ms. Marvel gets a bizarre pleasure out of killing Skrulls. With that said, Ms. Marvel's first annual hits the stands this week and she teams up with everyone's favorite web-head.

The majority of Marvel annuals have a nice track record of being self-contained one-shots that anyone can pick up and enjoy. Like this issue, the annuals usually steer clear of the major events but stay well within the boundaries of the Marvel universe's make-up at the time. For example, this issue has nothing to do with Secret Invasion and is much more about a registered hero, Ms. Marvel, and an unregistered hero, Spider-Man, putting aside the registration act and initiative to do what heroes do: protect the innocent. To be totally honest, if this issue did not have the whole registered vs. unregistered superhero dynamic, it would have easily fit into the Marvel Adventures line of books.

This issue opens up with Spider-Man, and I really felt that the entire issue focused more on Spidey than it did Ms. Marvel. That is not necessarily a bad thing, but for readers not reading the regular series who want to get a taste of Ms. Marvel, this is not the place for it at all. Now don't get me wrong, the story isn't horrible and fits within the confines of a post-Civil War, post-"Back in Black", post-"One More Day", pre-Secret Invasion Marvel universe. But with that said, this annual is also very different from what is seen in the main series. The plot is simple: a strange corporate tycoon is transforming cars and other mechanical devices into giant robots on a path of destruction through the city. Ms. Marvel, who was out to arrest Spider-Man, ends up teaming with the web-slinger to tackle the problem. The two have to put aside the whole Mighty Avenger/New Avenger dynamic and do what heroes do.

There's a lot that's good about this issue. Reed's portrayal of Spider-Man is on point, and the banter between him and Ms. Marvel is really one of the high points of this issue. I wouldn't be surprised to see Reed get a stint on Amazing Spider-Man especially after his fantastic portrayal of the character in this issue. I really enjoyed the back and forth between Ms. Marvel and Spidey and found myself much more focused on the characters than the actual story taking place, which I think may have been a particular intention of this issue.

The main villain of the issue is the most bizarre aspect of the story. It's a bit odd but fairly interesting nonetheless. A little tidbit about the villain of this issue; the "villain" is based at 1700 Broadway on the seventh floor and is basically a man who created a bunch of robots, one of which carries out the attacks on the city. In real life, the seventh floor of 1700 Broadway in New York City is the main home of DC Comics. I got a good laugh out of this little detail, and I'm sure if you didn't know about that connection before, you'll get a laugh now. I'm not sure whether Reed is trying to take shots at Dan DiDio, DC Comics or he just chose that exact location to get a rise out of people, but I did have a few giggles.

The artwork in this issue is not my cup of tea; however, Mark Robinson does a pretty decent Spider-Man. I won't say the artwork is bad because that would be misleading. There are some moments I really like, and I think Robinson does a great job with the action scenes, but I think enjoyment of his art is very subjective. The true judgment of the artwork will be based solely on what you like. There are moments of some pretty bizarre human anatomy and poses, but Robinson does a pretty damned good Spider-Man. The action does convey fairly clearly what's going on in the story but the designs of the giant robots gets a bit crazy and fairly wild.

Overall, this story features a rather bizarre plot that doesn't really offer any insights to the Ms. Marvel character for readers who are on the fence about her book. Some of her personality is shown in the sense that she's a "Stark Avenger," but for the most part this issue plays out much more like an issue of Marvel Adventures Spider-Man. Again, the team-up between Ms. Marvel and Spider-Man is well done, and Reed's writing is superior when it comes to Spider-Man and his banter, but compared to what's been presented in the main Ms. Marvel series, this really feels like a book for younger readers.

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