The Superior Foes Of Spider-Man #1 – Review

By: Nick Spencer (Writer), Steve Lieber (Artist), Rachelle Rosenberg (Colorist)

The Story: We get introduced to the Sinister Six as they try to bust out Boomerang out of jail.

The Review: Villains books are rather hard to do, from what it seems. It can be difficult to make readers care about protagonists that aren’t exactly angels, but rather criminals, the kind of characters that are beaten up in other books. It can, of course, be done as we have seen in the likes of Thunderbolts and Secret Six, putting the villains in starring roles by making them sympathetic although their motivations, goals and methods aren’t exactly noble.

With that point-of-view, it is kind of hard to see what Nick Spencer was trying to do in this book featuring five D-listers (at best) that usually gets beaten up by pretty much any superhero in the Marvel universe. From what we can see, Spencer tries to have the Daredevil/Hawkeye effect, by putting his rather extraordinary characters throughout more ordinary circumstances, creating a rather sharp contrast between the normal world and these colored super-criminals. In some ways, Spencer does achieve that effect of normality, which does create some humor and some interesting moments on their own, yet he is not completely successful on that front.

Amazing Spider-Man #576 – Review

By Joe Kelly (writer), Chris Bachalo (art), Mendoza, Tim Townsend and Al Vey (inks), Antonio Fabela (colors)

The Story: It’s Spidey versus Hammerhead, Round 2 – but not before Spider-Man takes a major beating and gets mugged by the two kids he’s been trying to save. Taking just hours to recover, Peter takes it upon himself to find the elusive kids and stop Hammerhead’s rampage before more people are killed.

What’s Good? There’s an ironic twist of fate that takes place later in the story with the kids, and it’s quite frankly, surprising! While Hammerhead may now be amped up as a supervillain, he’s still not a top tier adversary and his intelligence proves it. He’s a brute and brutes are not a match for a scientist under a spider suit. Joe Kelly deserves credit for at making him a formidable opponent until Peter can regroup.

The way Spider-Man finally deals with Hammerhead is all centered around the Peter’s smarts and the end result is a laugh out loud moment. Great stuff!

What’s Not So Good: Chris Bachalo’s storytelling is still a mess. Many times I had to scrutinize panels and pages – doing double takes – just to make sense of it all. And that’s never a good thing. The guy can draw some pretty pictures, but the expense the reader pays is a hefty one.

Conclusion: I’m a bit fatigued with Spider-Man dealing with inner-city children, but this little arc is actually fun and quite satisfying.

Grade: B+

– J. Montes

Amazing Spider-Man #575 – Review

By Joe Kelly (writer), Chris Bachalo (pencils), Tim Townsend (inks), Antonio Fabela & Chris Bachalo (colors)

The Story: Enter the new Hammerhead! After having his skeleton completely rebuilt by Mr. Negative, Hammerhead sets out to rout a local gang of thugs while gaining more turf for his new boss. Caught in the middle is Spider-Man who gets involved with one of the adolescent gangsters and his little brother.

The Good? The story’s got a good amount of entertainment value and gags that work. Joe Kelly is having a lot of fun putting words into Spider-Man’s mouth and it’s obvious by the loads of panels that feature Spidey carrying on in silly conversation.

And Hammerhead becoming a brutal villain? At first I didn’t buy it, but I’ve got to admit: Joe Kelly’s done a good update on the character.

The Not So Good? This feels like another retread of troubled youth – a theme that was played to death in J. Michael Straczynski’s Amazing Spider-Man run. Chris Bachalo’s art continues to be a brilliant mess. As beautiful as his artwork is there’s an inherent weakness in the storytelling. I know having all white borders is the “flavor of the month” with artists today, but it’s getting old. Also, Bachalo’s renditions of Peter Parker and Aunt May (to an extent) are truly some of the worst I’ve seen.  I mean seriously, what the hell was Peter wearing at that fair?

Lastly, the use of photo backgrounds is lame, lame, lame. And lazy.

Conclusion: Quite a fun issue if you don’t go in looking for something deep. I miss the Chris Bachalo who drew great stories like Death. I want that guy back.

Grade: B-

-J. Montes

Spider-Man: Brand New Day – Extra!! #1 – Review

By Joe Kelly, Zeb Wells and Marc Guggenheim (writers), Chris Bachalo, Pat Olliffe, and Marcos Martin (pencils/colors/art), Tim Townsend and Serge LaPointe (inks), Antonio Fabela, Rain Beredo, Javier Rodriguez (colors)

This feels like an annual more than anything – but with longer stories. Spider-Man: Brand New Day – Extra!! is essentially a packed, double-sized issue consisting of three stories that revolve around Brand New Day related characters or plots. Maybe Spidey’s “brain trust” of writers finally realized that some of the under-developed subplots needed more attention. If that’s the case, then they’re correct. It’s quite silly how a near weekly title can lag so badly on its multiple subplots but it has. And while these stories aren’t resolved in this issue, they certainly serve as a nice primer of what’s to come down the line.

Story #1: Hammerhead
One of the sillier Spider-Man villains, Hammerhead, finally gets his past unwrapped by Joe Kelly with Chris Bachalo on art chores. As usual, Bachalo’s art is beautiful and his storytelling awful. The monochromatic choice of colors also works against the story. I understand why the choice was made (there’s lots of blood spilled), but the gray tones hamper the story due to the fact that (at many times) it’s hard to distinguish who’s who. Still, while the fleshing out of Hammerhead’s character is an odd choice, it’s well presented. The way Mr. Negative enters the scene and changes everything reminds me of Frank Miller’s Robocop 2. Anyone else feel that way?

Story #2: Harry Osborn’s Birthday
Let’s face it. Ever since Harry Osborn’s returned to Peter Parker’s world he’s been nothing short of a douche. I prefer the older Harry, but whatever, we’re stuck with this one. The story starts off a little hammy, and if you look closely, you might even catch an (almost) sexual joke regarding Peter getting some gunk in his hair. As you can expect, things start off with Harry in usual douche mode, but by the end he surprisingly redeems himself. Zeb Wells does a good job turning this story around and displaying the comradery between Peter and Harry. Pat Olliffe is the perfect vehicle for this pedestrian tale and it really makes me miss the fun work he did on Spider-Girl.

Story #3: Spider-Man on Trial
Finally! Spider-Man goes to trial for the Spider-Tracer killing! And who better to represent him than Matt Murdock. Marc Guggenheim goes into Eli Stone mode with this story, throwing out laws, codes, and legal jargon that’ll either have you interested or bored out of your mind. This story is completely dialogue driven and Marcos Martin does a wonderful job keeping the story rolling and fresh. I didn’t like how things were overcolored at times (let’s face it, Martin’s art looks better with flat colors), but we can’t win ’em all. The story is actually not predictable, and the way it concludes has left me wanting more. Can’t wait to see what happens next.

At $3.99, this book’s worth every penny especially when you compare it to similarly priced books from the Marvel line (Spider-Man: With Great Power, anyone?) – no silly cardstock covers or gimmicks – just good stories. Check this book out, and don’t let the awful Greg Land cover deter you. (Grade: A-)

– J. Montes