Amazing Spider-Man #699 – Review

By: Dan Slott (writer), Humberto Ramos (art), Victor Olazaba (inks), Edgar Delgado (colors), Chris Eliopoulos (letters), Ellie Pyle (assistant editor) & Stephen Wacker (editor)

The Story: How did Peter get infected?

Review (with SPOILERS): Reading this issue was an interesting experience.  I really wasn’t a fan of ASM #698 and internet chatter on that issue has been pretty polarized.  A goodly portion of readers loathed it, but just as many think it is “awesome” and accuse the loathers of “not giving the story a chance” and saying “Why can’t you just trust Dan Slott??  He generally tells good stories!”

ASM is in “my pile” of comics to review here at WCBR.  Just to give you readers a little “inside baseball” on how we do things, our reviewers “sign-up” for comics we want to review at the beginning of the week.  I have more important things to do with my life than pour online hate on comics, so I generally don’t sign-up for comics that I think will be weak.  In this case, I was almost cringing as I read the issue because I assumed I’d dislike it and and then be forced to say negative things about it.  “Don’t make me hurt you!”

Amazing Spider-Man #698 – Review

By: Dan Slott (writer), Richard Elson (art), Antonio Fabela (colors), Chris Eliopoulos (letters), Ellie Pyle (assistant editor) & Stephen Wacker (editor)

The Story: It’s like Freaky Friday except that one of the bodies isn’t very healthy.

Review (with SPOILER): This issue troubles me as a comic fan/reader/reviewer.  It’s no secret that I’ve been drifting away from the Big 2 superhero comics for a period of time because I get sick of the sameness of it all.  It’s like watching a dog chasing its tail most of the time.  Yet, when a comic does something new as in this issue, I kinda yawn and say, “Big deal….”

1). This is something new. – Has a super-villain ever swapped consciousnesses with Peter Parker before?  Not only does it raise questions about Peter and when precisely did this happen, but it is interesting from the perspective of Doc Ock.  His downward spiral over the last 3-4 years of comics has been interesting to watch.  In an era where there are way too many 6-issue story arcs that have nothing to do with each other, it’s kinda refreshing to see a 100+ issues of comics have a coherent story thread.  This is what we say we want.

Amazing Spider-Man #697 – Review

By: Dan Slott & Christos Gage (writers), Giuseppe Camuncoli (pencils), Dan Green & John Dell (inks), Antonio Fabela (colors), Chris Eliopoulos (letters), Ellie Pyle (assistant editor) & Stephen Wacker (editor)

The Story: Can the Hobgoblins stop fighting long enough to take out Peter and Max Modell.

Review: This is my definition of an average, Big 2 superhero comic.  I could lock it in a vault and get it out the next time I’m trying to decide if a comic is a “C” or a “C+”.  It is very nicely done and profession, but doesn’t have any of the zip that will make the story stick with you.  It’s disposable fun.

That may sound like a backhanded compliment and I mean it that way, in the truest sense of the term.  Basically, if you take two quality writers like Slott and Gage, a very competent artist like Camuncoli and then have a very sharp editor like Wacker overseeing the project, the output will never be “bad”; there’s just too much talent involved for the work to suck.  Even for readers like me who have mostly drifted away from the Big 2 titles it isn’t hard to see how the Big 2 persists: They got some damn talented people working on the stuff even if the concepts are tied and the publishing practices are annoying.  Talent can paper over a LOT of shortcomings.

Amazing Spider-Man #696 – Review

By: Dan Slott & Christos Gage (writers), Giuseppe Camuncoli (pencils), Dan Green (inks), Antonio Fabela (colors), Chris Eliopoulos (letters), Ellie Pyle (assistant editor) & Stephen Wacker (editor0

The Story: How in the world can SPIDER-MAN show up to deliver the ransom to save PETER PARKER?  That’s going to cause a problem.

Quick review: Sometimes an issue gets a quick review not because I’m pressed for time, but because there really isn’t much to say.  This isn’t a “terrible” comic book or even a “bad” issue; it is just “fine”–it is “competent”.

Last issue introduced the pretty fun concept of The Kingpin and the new Hobgoblin ramping up Peter’s spider-sense to 11 on the dial.  It was funny to watch Peter suddenly perceive danger from fat men eating burritos!  But, that crispness is not present in this issue.  Although this is a nicely written issue and the central conflict of The Kingpin holding Peter hostage and demanding that Spider-Man bring the ransom (problem!) is kinda clever, this issue suffers from a lack of spark.  Again, competence as opposed to brilliance.

Amazing Spider-Man #695 – Review

By: Dan Slott & Christos Gage (writers), Giuseppe Camuncoli (pencils), Dan Green (inks), Antonio Fabela (colors), Chris Eliopoulos (letters), Ellie Pyle (assistant editor) & Stephen Wacker (editor)

The Story: The Hobgoblin(s) are back, someone is messing with the Spider Sense & the secret identity is at risk.

A few things (with very minor SPOILERS): 1). Is Dan Slott putting the furniture back where he found it? – There has been a decent amount of speculation about whether Slott will still be writing this title after Marvel NOW happens.  One tell-tale sign could be that he seems to be putting things back where he found them.  I think it was Brian Bendis who said that you can actually change things a LOT when you’re writing a mainstream superhero, but you have to put everything back where you found it before the next writer shows up.  One of the first acts of Slott during his Big Time story arc (beginning with ASM #648) was having Phil Ulrich seemingly kill Roderick Kingsley and take the mantle of the Hobgoblin.  There was a lot of outcry from the fanbase that an upstart like Ulrich would take out a classic villain so easily, but now we’re seeing the initial glimpses of how Slott will put Kingsley back in the suit.  Seriously–will anyone be sad to see a punk like Ulrich get his just desserts?

Amazing Spider-Man #694 – Review

By: Dan Slott (writer), Humberto Ramos (pencils), Victor Olazaba (inks), Edgar Delgado (colors), Chris Eliopoulos (letters), Ellie Pyle (assistant editor) and Stephen Wacker (editor)

The Story: Something MUST be done about Alpha!

Review (with minor SPOILERS): This issue isn’t without its good elements.  It’s always fun (and funny) when the Avengers show up in ASM and the big set-piece action scene is exciting–plus we get the bonus of Jonah being grateful to Spidey for saving his family.  And the art is superb, as you’d expect with talents such as Ramos, Olazaba and Delgado on the book.  But…

There are some gaping holes with this Alpha storyline that are impossible to ignore.  I’m left wondering (assuming?  hoping?) that we’re only at the halfway point of the Alpha story because what we have now feels so below the standards of writer Slott and editor Wacker.

Amazing Spider-Man #693 – Review

By: Dan Slott (writer), Humberto Ramos (pencils), Victor Olazaba (inks), Edgar Delgado (colors), Chris Eliopoulos (letters), Ellie Pyle (assistant editor) & Stephen Wacker (editor)

The Story: Alpha is a little out of control

A few things (with minor SPOILERS): 1). Clones…. – There are people who like the whole Clone Saga thing and if you’re one of them…..this will be right up your alley.  The rest of us will just try to enjoy the other parts of the story.  The problem with clones is that they always seem to delve into the nature vs. nurture debate in a really blunt way.  We get it: Peter has great powers, but he also had wonderful people who nurtured him and made him a responsible superhero.  We’ve seen these stories before where folks with powers are raised poorly and we’ve seen the stories where Peter, in spite of his powers, is struggling to live up to the legacy of his role models.  When I see stories like this rechurning, it makes me think that I’m outside of Marvel’s targeted market and I should just go read stuff from Vertigo, Image, etc.

Amazing Spider-Man #691 – Review

By: Dan Slott (writer), Giuseppe Camuncoli & Mario Del Pennino (pencils), Klaus Janson & Daniel Green (inks), Frank D’Armata (colors), Chris Eliopoulos (letters), Ellie Pyle (assistant editor) & Stephen Wacker (editor)

The Story: The Lizard has turned most of the Horizon Labs employees into lizards and things look bleak for the remaining humans.

A few things: 1). Interesting spin on the Lizard. – Perhaps someone who has read all the Spider-Man comic books will correct me, but this seems like a pretty unique spin on the Lizard and Curt Connors.  During the course of this story arc, Dan Slot has had a lot of fun playing mix and match with the personas and the bodies.  It’s almost like Slott is repeatedly rolling a d4 to see what combination of Lizard/Conners personality mixes with which lizard/human body.  It all comes to a pretty tragic end for the character by the end of the issue.  If superhero comics insist on continually gluing retreads on ancient villains, they should do it as Slott has here where he’s really trying to reach for something cool and fresh.

Amazing Spider-Man #690 – Review

By: Dan Slott (writer), Giuseppe Camuncoli (pencils), Klaus Janson, Daniel Green & Camuncoli (inks), Frank D’Armata (colors), Chris Eliopoulos, Ellie Pyle (assistant editor) & Stephen Wacker (editor)

The Story: The saga of a lizard in man’s clothing continues.

A few things: 1). Slott found the “go” button. – This was a really fun issue that recalled the magic from the beginning of Dan Slott’s ASM run (~20 months ago).  The stories have all been quality since then, but I found myself not enjoying them quite as much; it was as if those early stories were a 10/10 and the others were an 8/10.  I attributed some of it to whether Humberto Ramos was doing the art, but I think another thing might have been some of the writing.  This issue just had a “snap” to it that has been missing for awhile.  This issue felt like Slott had a BLAST writing it and was fully engaged.  I don’t know what goes on in the guy’s private life, but we all have times when we’re doing a “competent” job at work and other times when we transcend.  Stuff throws you off: fight with your wife, sick dog, new boss, etc.  The sad thing about superhero comics is that when the stories get down to the “competent” level, they start to feel like glorified fan-fiction….as in, “I could totally write this stuff.”  An issue like this one makes me realize that there is a reason why Dan Slott is a professional writer and the rest of us aren’t.

Amazing Spider-Man #689 – Review

By: Dan Slott (writer), Giuseppe Camuncoli (pencils), Klaus Janson (inks), Frank D’Armata (colors), Joe Caramagna (letters), Ellie Pyle (assistant editor) & Stephen Wacker (editor)

The Story: Having “cured” the Lizard, Spider-Man turns his attention to Michael Morbius.

The Review: 

1. The appearance of change. – Dan Slott is such a wonderful writer for these Marvel superhero comics.  If you read interviews with the guy, he never tries to convince us that he’s writing the next great American novel.  His writing is fun and completely without pretense.  He’s just showing us the next crazy adventure of Spider-Man.  We all know that Spidey isn’t going to die at the end and – honestly – nothing will really change, but we still have fun with Slott.  It’s very “adventure of the week” and when you pair it with solid art, that’s about all readers can expect from superhero comics.

But, one thing Slott does here that’s clever is create the appearance of change.  When we see what happens to one character at the end of the issue, it feels like a big deal.  This character has been a major supporting character since the beginning of Slott’s run on ASM.  But really, this character was created by Slott and part of the reason you create characters like this is so the writers can do dastardly things to them – since they’re not “allowed” to kill MJ or anyone else of import.  It’s a way to create a sense of emotion in the reader without hurting any of the golden gooses.  It’s a smart thing for Slott to do and a reason why long runs for writers on titles are a great thing: it gives them time to develop a supporting case that we care about – and then start smashing them.

2. Enjoy the Lizard’s arc. – Has this happened to Lizard before?  The Connors psyche is completely gone, but he is in human form?  Maybe it has, but I don’t remember reading it.  It’s a neat thing how he looks human, but is still a terrible danger to everyone (or at least the supporting characters).  However, I wonder how “dead” the Connors psyche really is since he’s seeing visions of his dead son.

3. Not so much the Morbius’ arc. – Last issue I talked about not really enjoying Michael Morbius and that hasn’t changed in this issue.  It is very much a personal view, but I generally don’t like the “classic villains” because (a) their story has often been told and (b) they are predictable and as safe from death as the hero.  But, if you compare to the Lizard, at least Slott is trying to cover some new ground with the character.  Morbius is stuck in the same cycle of being kinda good except for the blood-sucking thing and getting pummeled by Spidey as a result.  If this is the best a talented writer like Slott can do with the character, just “kill” Morbius until someone has a truly great idea for the character and give us new, disposable villains to read about.  [Note: That’s assuming that writers/artists are willing to create new characters under work-for-hire contracts.  A small negative of the creator-owned comics movement could be that writers are unwilling to do anything for Marvel/DC but stir the same bowl of soup that has been cooling since the 50s/60s.]

Amazing Spider-Man #688 – Review

By: Dan Slott (writer), Giuseppe Camuncoli (pencils), Klaus Janson (inks), Frank D’Armata (colors), Joe Caramagna (letters), Ellie Pyle (assistant editor) & Stephen Wacker (editor)

The Story: Lizard is back and Spidey is a little annoyed at him.

A few things: 1). Surprised to see no wrap-up issue from Ends of the Earth. – Am I the only one who was surprised that we lept right into the next story?  It just seems like every other “major” superhero story requires at least one issue (sometimes a 12 issue, bi-weekly miniseries) of characters sitting around and talking about what just happened.  How nice that Dan Slott didn’t waste our time (and money) that way!  Keep the story moving!

Amazing Spider-Man #687 – Review

By: Dan Slott (writer), Stefano Caselli (art), Frank Martin, Jr. (colors), Joe Caramagna (letters), Ellie Pyle (assistant editor) & Stephen Wacker (editor)

The Story: Spidey finally closes in on Doc Ock.

A few things (with SPOILERS): 1). Really nice showing by Silver Sable. – Without getting into her possible death at the hands of Rhino, Silver Sable has been a very interesting character in the pages of ASM recently.  For one thing, it’s nice to see another hero who is an unabashed fan of Spidey.  Even though the Avengers accept him, you still always get the sense that Iron Man and Cap think Spidey is a little out of his league with the Avengers: They happy he succeeds and are proud of him, but it’s always in a slightly patronizing way.  Not so with Sable; she thinks Spidey’s one of the best of the superheroes and expects him to act accordingly.  I also really enjoyed her interaction with Cap during the big fight….with Cap interfering with the Octobots just enough that Sable could KO him.  How hard does a normal human have to hit Cap to KO him anyway?

It should also be noted that Slott writes the Avengers really well.  I wonder if this is any sort of a “try-out” considering that Bendis is leaving the Avengers titles this fall?

Amazing Spider-Man #686 – Review

By: Dan Slott (writer), Stefano Caselli (art), Frank Martin, Jr. (colors), Joe Caramagna (letters), Ellie Pyle (assistant editor) & Stephen Wacker (editor)

The Story: The plot twists always hit in the penultimate act.

Review (with SPOILERS): Pretty hot issue guys!  Honestly, I thought the first couple of issues of this Spidey-event were a little tepid.  Things seemed a little contrived, but the middle two issues righted the ship and now it looks like Dan Slott is ready to bring it home in a big way.

Let’s start with a couple of the plot twists…  Seeing Mysterio tricking Spidey into doing things never gets old, because we always have that moment when Spidey says, “Wait a minute….this makes no sense.”  I like that Slott treats these guys as if they’ve been fighting each other for 50 years and are almost like old frenemies.  Slott doesn’t insult our intelligence by acting like Mysterio and Chameleon might actually kill Spidey and Black Widow.  We just know that won’t happen because we’ve seen these guys fight a bajillion times before.  Mysterio and Chameleon simply don’t have the goods to take out Spidey, so it’s nice  that Slott doesn’t approach the story as if these baddies have suddenly gotten new powers OR that they’re more motivated.  We readers wouldn’t buy that story, but we can totally accept that Mysterio and Chameleon are capable of slowing Spider-Man down and thereby allowing Doc Ock to execute his plan.

Speaking of Ock, he’s the one villain in this whole bunch who feels like a real threat to Spider-Man.  Even though we’ve seen Ock and Spidey battle a ton of times too (with Spidey always winning), the evolution of Ock’s character over the last ~90 issues makes us believe that he might actually be threatening to Spidey.  Look, the dude is desperate.  He’s dying.  And he’d like nothing better than to kill his arch-enemy before he dies.  I can accept that and I’m looking forward to seeing an Ock that isn’t concerned with escaping to fight another day and is hence committed to killing Spidey.  I swear, I’m going to be so disappointed when Ock transplants his mind into a new, cloned body and all this history is rubbed out.

Amazing Spider-Man #685 – Review

By: Dan Slott (writer), Humberto Ramos (art), Victor Olazaba (inks), Edgar Delgado (colors), Joe Caramagna (letters), Ellie Pyle (assistant editor) & Stephen Wacker (editor)

The Story: The classic “middle issue” where the action transitions from the set-up (i.e. is Doc Ock possibly trying to stop global warming) to the big finale.

Recap/Review (with mild SPOILERS): This was an amusing issue that was held back a little bit by it’s transitional nature.  It was important for the Ends of the Earth story to move from the set-up (“Dying Doc Ock might really be trying to save the world!”) to the finale (“Doc Ock reveals his true colors and must be stopped”), but it’s hard to make such an issue super-enjoyable when it has actual WORK to accomplish.

Seeing Spidey, Silver Sable and Black Widow repeatedly smashing Ock’s installations around the world would have gotten boring, so it’s good that Slott didn’t subject us to a story where we have to watch all of the bases get taken out in sequential order.  Snippets of action are fine!  The clever thing during this sequence is how the trio are getting their intel.  After stealing THE grain of sand that is the key to Sandman (in the last issue), it was super cool and clever to see how Spidey would give him just enough sand to manifest a face and then torture the info out of him.  Ha!  Loved it.  Has this angle ever happened before with Sandman?

Amazing Spider-Man #684 – Review

By: Dan Slott (writer), Humberto Ramos (pencils), Victor Olazaba (inks), Edgar Delgado (colors), Joe Caramagna (letters), Ellie Pyle (assistant editor) & Stephen Wacker (editor)

The Story: After the smack-down that Spider-Man and the Avengers received from the Sinister Six, can anyone save the day?

Recap/Review: The first few issues of this Ends of the Earth mini-event had been just sort of “blah”.  Not bad, but also not the strongest work that has come from Dan Slott’s run on the title either.  The story just wasn’t all that compelling as Spidey and the Avengers were taking on the Sinister Six to stop Doc Ock’s (possibly) nefarious schemes.  So, the anticipation for this issue was a lot lower….as in “toward the bottom of the weekly pile” lower.

But….what is that name we see on the cover?  Ramos?  Why didn’t anyone tell me?

A number of factors make this a much stronger issue, but none is bigger that the presence of the Humberto Ramos/Victor Olazaba team on linework and Edgar Delgado on colors.  It’s cliche for a reviewer to point out that comics are a visual medium, but it’s a fact.  If you are a comic reader who deeply cares about art and the art in a comic isn’t working for you, there is a limit to how good that issue can be.  And, if you’re a reviewer who is losing interest in superhero comics, “pretty good” or “solid” art isn’t going to maintain your interest.  In fact, the difference with this issue exposes how silly it is for Marvel to focus so much attention on writers.  The majority of writers are completely fungible whereas top-shelf artistic talents like Ramos and Delgado are not.

Amazing Spider-Man #683 – Review

By: Dan Slott (writer), Stefano Caselli (art), Frank Martin, Jr. (colors), Joe Caramagna (letters), Ellie Pyle (assistant editor) & Stephen Wacker (editor)

The Story: Spider-Man and some friends spring into action against the Sinister Six.

Review: Maybe I was just in the wrong kind of mood when I read this comic, because some people will probably love it.  It features a lot of superhero action with the Avengers guest-starring and a big throw-down with the Sinister Six at the end of the issue.  And….it also is tying up a lot of plot threads that have been weaving through ASM since The Gauntlet mega-arc from around ASM #612 – 630 (more or less).  That should be catnip for a comic fan, but it kinda falls dead.

The problem with this comic is what’s wrong with superhero comics in general.  Old villains are boring.  This over-reliance on a “classic rogues gallery” is a part of the reason why we have comics like Avengers selling only 60,000 units.  It’s because there are only 60K people in a nation of 350MM who give a damn about Sandman.  How many times have we seen Spider-Man blast these guys?  Twenty times each?  Spider-Man always beats them, so the only way to make them more exciting is to give all the rogues some kind of power-up: “Haha Spider-Man!  You may have bested me before, but now I have a Super-Horn!”  Please…

With these power-ups the Sinister Six easily take down the big guns of The Avengers.  Maybe the X-Men should have read this issue for the upcoming AvX event?  “Hmm… We’ll have Iceman freeze Cap, we’ll get Wolfsbane to bring in her Asgardian wolf-king lover to fight Thor, Box will take out Iron Man…”  The problem with these classic villains is that it’s impossible to have any true drama to the story.  Does anyone really think this will be the end of Spidey and the Avengers?  So, if it can’t be a legitimately scary situation, let’s skip the false drama.

Amazing Spider-Man #682 – Review

By: Dan Slott (writer), Stefano Caselli (art), Frank Martin, Jr. (colors), Joe Caramagna (letters), Ellie Pyle (assistant editor) & Stephen Wacker (editor)

The Story: Doc Ock’s not doing so well, but what kind of super-villain would go out without one last, evil scheme?

A Few Things: 

1. Nice lead-up to this event. – Slott and the editors in the Spider-Office did a nice job of building this event up.  Usually when something like this is coming from Marvel, we get zero build-up in the pages of the comics themselves ; the hype is all in ads scattered throughout the comic book.  “IT’S COMING!”  LOL…  I know this is done for the purpose of making trade paperback collections “self-contained”, but it’s a dumb way to do it.  Why wouldn’t you want one trade paperback to tease the next trade paperback?  That’s how manga does it.  This story feels natural because Slott has been showing us little hints of Doc Ock’s plan for months now.  Nicely done!

2. Enjoyed seeing Peter’s technology in action. – It was great to see all the dual-purpose uses of the technologies that Peter has developed at Horizon Labs.  Not only do these techs help Spidey with villains, but they’re also making the world a better place for consumers.  Perhaps I question how Horizon is able to get new technologies onto the market SO fast, but hey, it’s comics.  It’s been enjoyable seeing Slott focus on Peter Parker as a scientist during this run.

3. Always nice when there are guest stars. – Looks like the Avengers will play some role in this “event”.  That’s good because I don’t think we’ve gotten a good Avengers comic book in a few years.  I’ve enjoyed their brief appearances in ASM under Slott, so maybe we can have a good Avengers story here?  For some reason, seeing the Avengers teaming-up with Spidey in the pages of ASM makes Spidey seem more “Big Time” than seeing him hanging around in the Avengers Mansion in that other comic book.

Amazing Spider-Man #681 – Review

By: Dan Slott & Chris Yost (writers), Giuseppe Camuncoli (pencils), Klaus Janson (inks), Frank D’Armata (colors), Joe Caramagna (letters), Ellie Pyle (assistant editor) & Stephen Wacker (editor)

The Story: The conclusion of a 2-part story where Spidey & Human Torch try to save Col. Jameson from a doomed space station.

A Few Things: 

1. Massive credit to the editorial staff. – Big respect to the editorial team (Wacker and Pyle) for working with writer (Slott) to keep this series humming along.  When you consider that ASM ships 2-3X per month, they need to have multiple artists working on the series at the same time.  That means that someone needs to keep coordinated with Slott well in advance on the stories and make sure that the scripts are handed in on time.  And it means that the artists and editors have to be candid about how quickly the artists can work.  Someone has to know that we needed this to be a 2-issue arc to give Humberto Ramos enough time to catch back up.  It’s just impressive how it all runs like a top.  And, because this whole team clearly has such dedication and professionalism, a small, 2-story arc like this one still fits vitally into the main ASM story.  A lot of other editor/writer/artist teams would have just wasted a 2-issue story like this on fluff OR stuck with a predictable formula of alternating 4-6 issue stories.  I wish the X-editors would do an internship with Wacker!

2. Fun, action, humor… (again). – Why should this be surprising?  ASM has been fun, action-filled and funny for several years now and has only become more so since Slott became the sole writer.  As I said about last issue, this is really just a Marvel Team-Up on the space station with Torch and Spidey alternately being heroic and making fun of each other while they save the day.  The whole thing is light-hearted enough that I didn’t groan at a few of the convenient technologies that help to save the day; actually, reading a comic like this might be a good way of judging whether you are a “comic optimist” or not… Can you accept Spidey’s convenient special webbing without demanding an explanation?  But…in the end, this story flows us right into the Doc Ock-centered Ends of the Earth story that Marvel has been pumping for months now.  This is a great lead-in and I’m excited.  This is what comics should do: one-flows into the next and builds excitement!

Amazing Spider-Man #679.1 – Review

By: Dan Slott & Chris Yost (writers), Matthew Clark (pencils), Tom Palmer (inks), Rob Schwager (colors), Joe Caramagna (letters), Ellie Pyle (assistant editor) & Stephen Wacker (editor)

The Story: Detail is provided on the mysterious occupant of Lab Six at Horizon Labs.

Four Things: 

1. Unsure what this whole .1 thing is about anymore. – I can never really tell whether .1 issues are supposed to be ideal jumping-on points OR whether they’re supposed to merely be stories that don’t require someone to have been reading the series to understand the action.  Or, maybe it’s just a way to sell another issue?  But I kinda doubt the latter since Marvel has no problems with double-shipping titles.  Anyway, you don’t need to have read much recent ASM to follow along with this story that fully reveals the nature of the occupant of Lab Six at Horizon Labs (which has been a big secret since Slott’s run began with #648).  Of course, you’ll probably still get more out of the issue if you have been following along, but that’s par for the course.  It’s hard to tell if this is a good jumping on point or not.  The story line that is teased on the final page isn’t one that has featured in Spidey promotional materials that I’ve seen, but it could be a lead in to a nice little 2-3 issue arc.  All that being said, it’s a fun enough story but hardly Earth-shattering.

2. Morbius is boring, but the reveal on the final page is kinda tantalizing. – Here’s where I have to give a SPOILER WARNING…  I’ve never been a big Michael Morbius fan.  He’s one of those characters that is straddling all over the line between serious and silly.  It seems that creators are never sure whether Morbius is a joke or not.  So, he doesn’t get a very consistent characterization in the Marvel U.  I guess seeing him revealed at the occupant of Lab Six is kinda cool only in that it makes me wonder how Max Modell (chief of Horizon) knows Morbius.  Max has been a fun new character and it seems like we’ve got some nifty stories to look forward to that better explain his past.  But, the all-star moment in this issue was seeing the new Lizard on the final page.  I’ve really enjoyed the new Lizard in both of his Marvel U appearances: when he was introduced in the Shed arc in ASM around issue #630 and when he featured in an arc of X-Men around issue #7.  He’s an interesting, mysterious and creepy character.  Of course, Chris Bachalo was drawing him both times, so I’ll be curious to see how he comes off in lesser artistic hands.

Amazing Spider-Man #679 – Review

By: Dan Slott (writer), Humberto Ramos (pencils), Victor Olazaba (inks), Edgar Delgado (colors), Joe Caramagna (letters), Ellie Pyle (assistant editor), Stephen Wacker (editor)

The Story: Time is almost up!  How can Spidey prevent the future destruction of New York?

Five Things: 

1. This is how to pace superhero stories! – Slott really understands how to keep it snappy.  Last issue presented the problem (that a New York without Spidery-Man for a day gets destroyed) and this issue fully resolves the problem.  Done!  Finished!  Move on!  Yet, Slott still manages to keep the story slightly complex by weaving in little things from earlier issues and leaving some tasty tidbits for future storylines.  THIS is the kind of storytelling that made me fall in love with comics as a kid in Uncanny X-Men.  Those old Chris Claremont stories always had long term plot threads like Rogue’s newness to the team or Storm losing her powers or Cyclops struggling with the loss of Jean Grey, but…..when those X-Men fought the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, THAT story only lasted for a couple of issues and then we moved on to something else.  I love that Slott doesn’t feel the need to ALWAYS subject us to 6 months long storylines.

2. Great art from Ramos and company. – Man….is this art team nailing it!  Honestly, as I get older, I find I MUCH prefer art that is more stylized and cartoony, especially for a character like Spider-Man.  Ramos is able to wring so much personality out of the smallest characters and he uses it to greatly enhance his graphic storytelling.  Of course, he does a wonderfully energetic Spidey.  That’s nothing new.  But, I’m looking at the double-page layout of the Jameson/Silver Sable parade (which looks ‘less than’ on an iPad, I must say) and am just amazed at the little things: the tourists snapping pictures, the cops holding the crowd back, the purposeful stomp of the secret service agents guarding the limo and the subtle change that Silver Sable goes through as she shifts from waving at the crowd to silently telling her guards to snap to it.  Great stuff.

3. The importance of Peter being Peter. – Ha.  You thought that the key to saving NYC was Spidey taking down some purse-snatchers?  Or stopping a bombing?  Ha!  I love that Slott is also illustrating how important Peter Parker is and how sometimes we need Peter to use his brain instead of punching things. [As an aside: You KNOW that Spidey & Silver Sable defusing the bomb COULD have been an entire 4th issue in a traditional 6 issue story arc, right?  Thank you Mrs. Slott, Ramos and Wacker for not subjecting us to that.]

Amazing Spider-Man #678 – Review

By: Dan Slott (writer), Humberto Ramos (pencils), Victor Olazaba (inks), Edgar Delgado (colors), Joe Caramagna (letters), Ellie Pyle (assistant editor) & Stephen Wacker (editor)

The Story: A new time-hopping Spidey story kicks off.

Five Things:

1. Time travel done right. – This is how time travel should happen, right?  At the very least, this is the less common way for fiction to look at time travel.  Usually characters just bounce into the future and see future versions of themselves wandering around.  This time travel treats the individual more like a constant and when Peter visits the future, he literally skips ahead, and so he wasn’t there in the interim.  And this shows us what happens when Spidey takes a single day off.  It’s bad folks!  This really puts a new wrinkle on the whole “great responsibility” idea, huh?

2. Really fun art. – This probably wasn’t my favorite art from a Ramos-led art team, but it’s still pretty hot (the difference is that I think I prefer Carlos Cuevas inking him).  The big thing about Ramos is the energy of his art and that usually takes the form of a twisting and turning Spidey, but in this issue he shows how much energy he can bring to Peter Parker.  Even the standing around characters in this issue seem lively and vital.  I can think of many realistic artists who would have fumbled this issue (stiff and boring!).  And, Ramos also gives us a great double-pager on the title page of the issue: What a good street scene!

3. Going back to the fun elements of Big Time. – When Dan Slott kicked off his run with the Big Time run back in ASM #648, he introduced a lot of FUN to the Peter Parker’s life.  Namely, he gave him a serious job where he made good money and could afford to buy stuff.  As Big Time matured into Spider Island, it isn’t so much that the FUN went away, but it had to take a back seat to the schemes of the Queen and Jackal.  Now that we’re done with that mega-arc, we can go back to seeing Peter Parker being happy and he doesn’t get much happier than when he’s at Horizon Labs, working on a new invention.

Amazing Spider-Man #677 – Review

By: Mark Waid (writer), Emma Rios (art), Javier Rodriguez (colors), Joe Caramagna (letters), Ellie Pyle (assistant editor) & Stephen Wacker (editor)

The Story: Spidey teams up with Daredeveil and Black Cat.

Four Things: 

1. Black Cat always makes the story better. – There’s no better way to start a heated comment thread than to suggest a preference for one of Peter Parker’s many ladies over the others.  So, this may be kicking over a hornets’ nest, but I really like Spidey/Peter with Black Cat.  The best part of any Peter Parker romance is the courtship phase and he can never get out of that phase with Black Cat because she isn’t about to be tied down.  So, all we get is fun banter, chasing around town, hijinks, Peter making non-optimal decisions because she’s HOT…  As always, in this issue Black Cat has other things going on (unlike Peter’s other love interests who exist mostly to get kidnapped by villains) and as always, it’s unclear whether she is good or bad.  Ambiguity is good!

2. Nice team-up with Daredevil. – You know what I loved about this team-up????  I loved that it wasn’t preceded by 2 pages of Spidey and Daredevil fighting before the team-up started.  I mean, jeez, these guys have known each other for over 40 years and they’re teammates on the Avengers, so they should slip right into a comfortable camaraderie.

Amazing Spider-Man #676 – Review

By: Dan Slott (writer), Humberto Ramos (pencils), Victor Olazaba (inks), Edgar Delgado (colors), Joe Caramagna (letters), Ellie Pyle (assistant editor) & Stephen Wacker (editor)

The Story: It’s an all supervillain throw-down as the Sinister Six attacks the Intelligencia.

Five Things: 

1. No Spider-Man in this issue. – It’s a very good issue and establishes a lot of stuff, but there is not a single appearance by Spider-Man in this issue.  Not even in one little panel.  And there’s no MJ, Carlie, Jonah, etc.  Everything revolves around the villains and putting them into position for future stories.  The “glass half empty” people will be annoyed by this, but I choose to be happy that this story happened in ASM #676 and not in some special one-shot with a screwed up title like Octopcalypse Alpha #0.  You know someone at Marvel wanted to do that and someone with sense talked them out of it.

2. Really enjoying the arc Dr. Octopus has taken. – Ock is becoming creepy and sinister.  Starting with the storyline from back around ASM #600 where he faced up to his brain damage from years of getting hit in the head by superheroes and continuing here and there in ASM until now, he’s really in a cool place.  You still have the arrogance mixed with a massive inferiority complex that has made him such a good villain all these years, but now he seems to be developing a fatalism about his own mortality.  That’s kinda scary: a supervillain who is working on his bucket list and knowing his days are numbered.  I just hope that Ock keeps going down this path because it’ll piss me off if next year he gets his brain dumped into a new cloned body.  We’ve seen “old Doc Ock” stories a million times.  This is new and fresh.  Let’s keep the character moving forward!

3. Funny. – It’s hard to have the Intelligencia appear and have it not be a funny issue.  Add in a healthy dose of Mysterio and it gets even better.  This battle between the Sinister Six and Intelligencia has a serious side to it with Doc Ock and MODOK fighting, but it’s hard to be completely serious when Red Ghost’s super-apes and the Wizard are around.

Amazing Spider-Man #675 – Review

By: Dan Slott (writer), Giuseppe Camuncoli (pencils), Klaus Janson (inks), Frank D’Armata (colors), Joe Caramagna (letters), Ellie Pyle (assistant editor), Stephen Wacker (editor)

The Story: Spidey & Carlie Cooper work together to take down the Vulture gang.

Five Things: 

1. Glad to have “Classic Vulture” back. – As I think I mentioned last issue, the redo of Vulture into this mutated, sub-verbal creature was one of the only low-lights of The Gauntlet storyline that ran through ASM ~50 issues ago.  So, I’m very happy to have “classic” Vulture back.  He is such a different threat than other villains with because he is old and crafty.  Old Adrian Toomes is never going to try to simply smash Spidey. He’s always got minions or a science trick up his sleeve or a clever “old-man plan.”  It’s a nice change of pace for the series.

2. Fun wrinkling of the Carlie/Peter/Spidey relationship. – I was a pretty big fan of the Peter/Carlie relationship when they were together, so it isn’t surprising that I’m enjoying watching them work together now that Carlie KNOWS the big secret.  What’s special is watching it dawn on Carlie that she might have judged Peter too harshly for “keeping secrets” as she starts to hear little things about what a screwed up life he has and how he is still a hero in spite of everything that happens to him.  And she also sees how a villain will attack her to get at Spidey, thereby screwing up his crime-fighting.  Seeing it revealed to Carlie in this fashion also helps the reader step back and appreciate those same things about Peter/Spidey.  He really is an admirable guy.  How could you not like him?

3. Mostly enjoy Camuncoli’s pencils.  – Most of the things that Camuncoli does in this issue are pretty good.  He tells the story well and mostly draws the characters competently.  It’s interesting that his drawing is so much stronger when he is drawing a character in profile or 2/3 profile than when it draws faces facing directly towards the camera/viewer/reader.  It’s kinda eerie when you start looking at it.  Those full-on images of Carlie and the Vulture kids are weird.

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.