Avenging Spider-Man #22 – Review

By: Christopher Yost (Writer), David Lopez (Artist), Rachelle Rosenberg (Colorist)

The Story: Mysterio is loose in New York as he has gathered the attention of both Spider-Ock and the Punisher. Yet, is everything all that it seems?

The Review: Avenging Spider-Man is a dead title, as it will soon be replaced by another one, called Superior Spider-Man Team-Up (a book I shall review). As the title concludes, Christopher Yost gives us what he did best on this title: single issues story that had a beginning, middle and a conclusion. Here, we see Spider-Ock dealing with a new Mysterio, as per the whole ‘’Sinister Six’’ deal his story had while he also deals with Frank Castle. However, does this single story make for a good ending point toward the renumbering and the newer title this series will get?

The short answer would be no, as the story itself does not really deal clearly with a new status quo or even with new methods until the last page and it’s not exactly something naturally added to the story. However, this does not make this issue bad in any way, as the story itself is still fairly enjoyable with some twists and turns and some good interactions from Spider-Ock with other characters from the Marvel universe.

Avenging Spider-Man #21 – Review

By: Christopher Yost (Writer), Marco Checchetto (Artist), Rachelle Rosenberg (Colorist)

The Story: Spider-Ock fights some Russians to save the Chameleon in the midst of a battle on a S.H.I.E.L.D helicarrier.

The Review: With this story about Chameleon and the Secret Avengers being the first two-parter that Chris Yost has written on his tenure on this title, I had no idea just what to expect. As he had usually done done-in-one issues with a clear beginning, middle and end, I wasn’t sure if he’d still be able to pull it off in the same way he did those tight stories. Now, with the second and final part of this story being here, does Yost uses all the setup he had built up in the previous issue in an effective way?

Avenging Spider-Man #20 – Review

By: Christopher Yost (Writer), Marco Checchetto (Artist), Rachelle Rosenberg (Colorist)

The Story: Spider-Ock gets on a S.H.I.E.L.D helicarrier in order to free the Chameleon from their prison, just as the Russian are getting ready to do the same. What are the odds?

The Review: I do have to say it’s a strange time to be a fan of Spider-Man. It’s even a stranger time to begin reading Spider-Man, like I did, just as a big controversial change had been put in the series. While the change from Peter Parker to Otto Octavius has been a rather weird one for a lot of people, it can’t be said that it hasn’t given us some quality stories in both the main title, Superior Spider-Man and its sister title Avenging Spider-Man. While it has been fun to see just how Otto acclimates to the life of being a webhead, it has been a blast to see just how he interacts with the larger Marvel universe as well. Having seen him with the X-Men, the FF and Thor, it has been fun to read how he sees them all and it has given us some surprisingly fun stories to boot.

Avenging Spider-Man #19 – Review

By: Christopher Yost (Writer), Marco Checchetto (Artist), Rachelle Rosenberg (Colorist)

The Story: Spider-Ock is stuck in his head for a nightmarish introspection. Sounds like a cue for an obscure character team-up!

The Review: Well, this is quite a jump in partner. First starting with the X-Men, then the Future Foundation, with Thor next, it seems that this title wanted to be a little bit more experimental with the choice of guest-star.

This time, Yost chose a much more obscure character called Sleepwalker, one that I’ve actually never heard of, which is oddly a very smart choice. By putting such a smaller character with the marketing beast that is Spider-Man (even the Spider-Ock version), it can makes for unpredictable stories with lesser-known character, putting the spotlight on them to allow us readers to see their potential. Of course, it works rather well on paper, but it is not quite the same in the execution here.

Avenging Spider-Man #18 – Review

By: Christopher Yost (Writer), Marco Checchetto (Artist), Rachelle Rosenberg (Colorist)

The Story: Spider-Ock and Thor battles Electro as he is back to Earth after being sent away by the god of thunder.

The Review: With the last issue being a whole shenanigan of craziness with time-travelling agencies, genius kids, Death-Head yet with a somewhat disappointing payoff, what could possibly come after a team-up with the Future Foundation? How about a team-up with the god of thunder himself: Thor?

Continuing the tradition of this title, Spider-Ock teams here with the son of Odin, dealing with something that had happened prior in the spider-corner of the Marvel universe, back in Ends of the Earth when Thor shot out Electro in space. With Electro now back to exact revenge on Asgard own favorite son, the issue shows just how far Electro is willing to go to do just that, as we see the strength of his resolve and see some more of his character as a result.

Avenging Spider-Man #17 – Review

By: Christopher Yost (Writer), Paco Medina, Juan Vlasco (Artists), Dave Curiel (Colorist)

The Story: Spider-Ock has to babysit the Future Foundation, while the Time Variance Authority comes crashing in because time will severely be meddled with.

The Review: With all the weirdness going around in the main Spider-Man book, Superior Spider-Man, one has to appreciate books like this one. While it still does offer weirdness, it offers a wholly different kind of adventure, as Spider-Ock interacts with the grander Marvel Universe.

Here in this issue, Spider-Ock has to keep the Future Foundation, the fun concept of genius-level children introduced by Jonathan Hickman, in check while the replacement Fantastic Four are going in a mission in the microverse. Such a concept does allow for a fun bout with the genius-level Otto Octavius interacting with children that are closer to his level of intellect.

Avenging Spider-Man #16 – Review

Chris Yost (Writer), Paco Medina, Juan Vlasco (Artists), Dave Curiel (Colorist)

The Story: Spider-Ock teams up with the X-Men to battle a giant spider in New York City.

The Review: With the Spider-Ock thing now running in the Marvel universe, it was only a matter of time before we saw him interact with the other teams and other super-heroes in New York and the rest of the world. A concept with so much potential as Spider-Ock needed to be exploited in various ways, which makes this team-up book an actually great idea. In this particular issue, Spider-Ock teams with perhaps one of the most, if not absolute, well-loved team of the Marvel Universe: the X-Men, specifically those who work at the Jean Grey School of higher learning. Here, Chris Yost manages to advance the Spider-Ock character, but also write a fun team-up full of action and funny moments all in character.

What Yost manages to do here is make Spider-Ock actually funny, using his arrogance and his analytical mind to its fullest to bring some snide remarks. He is kind of a jerk, yet we can see how he interacts with Beast and the rest of the X-Men in a way that shows much insight into what kind of man he is. Still driving on the point that he thinks he is better than everyone else, his thoughts and dialogue are full of these small tidbits of characterization. When he says that he thinks it right that the X-Men obeys his instructions or that Beast is a cheater of a scientist since he has access to Shi’ar technology, it shows us just what kind of person he is, yet it manages to make him entertaining all the while.

What’s also entertaining would be the action, as the way the threat is dealt with is actually quite interesting, seeing just how the analytical mind of Spider-Ock checks out the power and uses of every of the X-Men around him. There are still a lot of hints about what’s happening and the situation Spider-Ock is unaware of from the ending of Superior Spider-Man #1 and it works quite well. How Spider-Ock wonders why he saved Storm and just how he answered her makes for some deepening of the plot. I know we will most probably see no true development of the character in this series, but it is nice to see that Yost uses what Dan Slott is setting up in the main series.

Avenging Spider-Man #2 – Review

By: Zeb Wells (writer), Joe Madureira (art), Ferran Daniel (colors), Joe Caramagna (letters), Ellie Pyle (assistant editor) & Stephen Wacker (editor)

The Story: Spidey, Rulk & J. Jonah Jameson are underground trying to save the Mole Man (kinda).

Five Things: 

1. Again with the great art! – The main reason to buy this is if you love Joe Madureira’s art and he really hasn’t missed a step in all these years since he was last working for Marvel.  That’s a real treat because some artists just kinda lose “it” and there’s no bigger bummer than a beloved artist returning only to see that his style has complete changed or that he just doesn’t have “it” anymore (see: John Byrne in 90% of the stuff he does now).  There are so many advantages to Joe Mad’s cartoony style.  Of course, it works great for showing Rulk and Spidey hopping around, but he’s able to even make boring scenes pop.  Like the one showing just Jameson talking to the Mole Man.  Jameson is standing (which is usually kinda a no-no), but just little things like hands on his hips (check that… FISTS on his hips), a slight shift of his weight indicated by the folds in his pants and a slight cock of the head…. It tells you he’s pissed off and looking for whoever is in charge down here.  A artist rooted in realism would have to handle this panel very differently because they couldn’t pull off that pose very well.  And….Ferran Daniel’s coloring is great!  Marvel has really upgraded their coloring recently.  So nice to see artists who aren’t treating the pages like a coloring book and actually putting some thought and color theory to work!

2. Funny & quick paced. – The story is so simple, but Wells shows that he knows how to write scenes in a way that feels quick and lively.  Too much exposition would have dragged this issue into quicksand.  And, this issue is funny in places too (especially relating to Spidey and how they escape from a giant worm).

3. Fewer double-pagers this time, but… – I know Joe Mad likes to do double-pagers, but this needs to stop.  Unless you can convince me that comics are different from all other forms of media, these things are going to be largely digital in the very near future and these double-pagers just don’t work nicely on the iPad and you can FORGET it on the Kindle Fire.  From here on, there needs to be a good reason for a double-pager and neither of the ones in this issue qualify.  There could’ve been some other way to show the moleoid’s destroyed city; it isn’t so dramatic that it needs a double-pager.  And then the first 2 pages show something that needs to stop immediately: the image that is spilling onto ~1/3 of the other page which is otherwise populated with standard panels.  True, the image looks more impressive being slightly larger on paper, but it’s going to look like hell on an iPad.  These things are true for all comics, but I’m emphasizing them here because Avenging Spider-Man is one of those issues where Marvel is giving away the free digital code in the back.

Avenging Spider-Man #1 – Review

By: Zeb Wells (writer), Joe Madureira (art), Ferran Daniel (colors), Joe Caramagna (letters), Ellie Pyle (assistant editor) & Stephen Wacker (editor)

The Story: Spidey and Red Hulk team up to fight a subterranean threat.

Five Things:

1. The team-up is BACK!  How is it that Marvel can publish ~100 titles a month an none of them is the spiritual successor of Marvel Team Up?  MTU was such a treasure back in the old days.  It gave you a way to sample various heroes from the Marvel Universe and it featured some great creative teams.  So, it’s nice to see the team-up come back.  The back matter explains that this title is to explore Spidey’s adventures mostly with his Avengers teammates, but might dip into other areas of the Marvel Universe.  Wonderful!  The only negative is that they ditched the done-in-one format that made MTU special.  MTU exposed you to 12 different heroes in a year.  If they do ongoing stories in this title, we’re going to get 6 or fewer.  Fix that and you’ve got a great concept!

2. Joe Mad is back!  Beyond the fact that this was a Spidey book, the big draw was seeing Joe Maduriera’s name on the cover.  He’s been away from comics for awhile after a great run on Uncanny X-Men back in the 90’s, but there probably isn’t a better place for his stylized art than on Spider-Man.  If you like Humberto Ramos… I think Joe Mad is like Ramos on speed.  Now…..I will say that I’ll be highly surprised if this title can maintain a monthly schedule for long because this art is too complex for that, but given that these stories aren’t vital to the ongoing Spider-stories being told in Amazing, that really won’t matter.  Joe Mad is one of those rare artists who gets the “Take all the time you need.  Just let us know when it is finished.” treatment.

3. Very poor digital implementation.  Marvel made a big deal out of giving away a free digital copy of this issue with a print copy.  I’m a huge fan of digital comics on my iPad, so I was curious to see how Marvel implemented this.  Part of what makes Marvel’s iOS app so beautiful is it’s simplicity: You tap the “buy” button, input your App Store password, confirm that you want to buy and you’re reading your comic.  The whole process takes ~5 seconds.  What Marvel did here really sucked.  You had to go to a special webpage, log into Marvel.com (trying to remember my Marvel password), input a ~15 character code (“Is that a 0 or an O?”), say what comic shop you bought your comic at, agree to accept emails from your comic shop and then go to your device to read the comic.  This is not a process that will win many converts to digital comics because the beauty of digital it its simplicity!