Marvel has this new trick of going weekly on their most popular books at least once a year. “Avengers: No Road Home” and “X-Men: Disassembled” have done this in recent months, and “Amazing Spider-Man” is kicking off it’s “Hunted” storyline that will continue the trend. For the next couple of months, the book is putting out “.HU” issues that serve to stretch the book out weekly (in addition to this prelude issue, there will be three issues in March, four in April and three in May. That’s 11 issues for this story, making it almost as many as most other books get in an entire year).

Last year’s “Spider-Geddon” crossover had about double the issues, split across several mini-series with tie-ins from ongoing books. This type of crossover is not going away anytime soon, but any consistent reader knows that these big events tend to break up series and tie up characters.

Marvel has a bad habit of building up to the next big event, letting ongoing series flounder between bookmark mini-series. These new weekly books are something I can get behind. Yes, they are doing what any crossover is going to do, namely, trying to get more money out of the readers. Suddenly, we’re buying double the “Spider-Man” issues. But, these weekly books manage to tell a continuing story in a way that crossovers can’t. They don’t interrupt a book, but instead, enhance it. “Hunted” is going to be a big, flashy and enhanced Spider-Man story.

This story has a lot of potential. If there’s anything I love in my comics, it’s using all the toys in the sandbox. Nick Spencer, Ryan Ottley and Albert Albuquerque’s “Amazing Spider-Man” #16 picks up on a thread we know about, but don’t talk about very often; that there sure are a lot of characters in the Marvel Universe based on animals. Spider-Man’s villain Kraven the Hunter? He hunts animals. That’s the basic set-up of this story, that Kraven and his son (who is also his clone!) have an army of poachers ready to hunt down these characters, just to teach them that they aren’t wild enough.

It’s ridiculous, big and the stakes are high. But it makes perfect sense, because of course Kraven wants to hunt people who dress up like animals (The Vulture! The Beetle! Puma! Stegron! Tarantula!), it’s what he’s been doing since he first appeared, hunting Spider-Man, who is a guy who dresses up like, or at least suggests, a spider. In true Nick Spencer fashion – this is the writer who brought us the absolute jewel of a comic that is “Superior Foes of Spider-Man” – we’re going to see a ton of big, bombastic action from a big-name Spider-Man villain like Kraven.

We’re also going to see C-listers like Puma, The Serpent Society and White Rabbit. These are the same characters who inhabited the “Bar with No Name” from “Superior Foes,” the same characters who work so well in Spider-Man stories. These are sad-sacks, the kind of villains who have that old Peter Parker luck without getting to be Spider-Man.

This issue is a lot of set-up, but it sets-up how a good Spider-Man story is set-up. It’s playing with the world that exists around Spider-Man. These villains have long been part of Peter’s world, and long-time characters like Mary Jane, the Connors family and Kraven feel like they are supposed to be here. Peter is sick, hasn’t slept and just wants to get back home to MJ. His whole life has been speeding towards this moment, and Kraven is going to hit him while he’s down. Peter’s going do that thing that I love where he rallies the troops. He’s not a team player, but he’s a leader when he has to be.

The weekly issues are going to work for this story. Spider-Man tales are, at their best, about when someone hits Peter while he’s low. Those stories only work when the book is connected, issue to issue, when long-term story threads are playing out. A weekly event lends itself to that kind of story, making the book feel urgent. I think Nick Spencer gets Spider-Man stories, or, at least, gets the way in which they are meant to make you feel. Peter Parker will overcome great odds, and he’ll do it with all the toys in the sandbox, with all the weird Marvel Universe characters who make the world feel lived in, because the creators are churning out 22 pages a month – or, for three months only, 88.

Spider-Man has a lot to look forward to from “Hunted.” This issue justifies what’s coming next. I’ll be there for the ride, and you probably should be too.