Superior Spider-Man #19 – Review

Dan Slott (Writer), Ryan Stegman, Livesay (Artists), Edgar Delgado (Colorist)

The Story: Otto tries to reverse the current damage to the time stream with the people of Horizon Labs as Miguel O’Hara’s fate is revealed.

The Review: Dan Slott is kind of a tease, isn’t he? With the heavy marketing around this book, it seems that he simply has to make sure people try to guess whatever might happen, through whichever way possible. The ”nothing will ever be the same” is especially strong with this series and this writer, which may grate on the nerves of some people as promises are made. It’s enough for the skeptic in all of us lift an eyebrow when looking at all of this in an objective way.

However, it seems that not only is it working in gaining the interest of readers, but most of the time Slot actually do delivers on changing elements and introducing newer ones. This issue is a good example of this, as not only do the writer play with the various elements prior to this volume and the current one, but he also insert new elements into play that makes this series able to deliver on surprising twists.

Something he does in order to bring those changes in an effective manner is that he consolidate much of the plot threads together for the finale, which helps tremendously. With a focus on a particular scene and with all the players gathered together, it makes this issue less jumbled than the previous ones in this arc. With the issue mostly concentrated on Otto’s point-of-view, though not necessarily on all of his actions, the fallouts, the actions and the reactions ends up being much more satisfying to read and experience.

Superior Spider-Man #18 – Review

by Dan Slott (Writer), Ryan Stegman, Livesay (Artists), Edgar Delgado (Colorist)

The Story: Bizarre events in the present cause much trouble for Miguel O’Hara, Tiberius Stone, Horizon Lab and Otto Octavius.

The Review: Ambition and continuity can be great tools for any writers working in super hero comics. When the creative team are looking forward to a vast number of issues in order to tell a story, they need to pace out some of the elements in order for the readers to appreciate the larger pictures. Storylines are teased, some are seeded early on and so forth in order for the title to keep a certain level of excitement. If done well, it can give us some superb stories, but if done incorrectly, it can bring problems like obvious decompression. There’s a fine line between the two and not every writer is able to be on a unique side of the fence for most of their writing careers.

This issue has absolutely no problem in term of decompression, which may sound like a very good point in favor of its quality, yet in this case it isn’t. Simply put, there’s just too many things happening here as the pacing and the focus of the issue suffers quite a bit because of it. Many of these events are of consequences and are things that some readers might have been looking forward to, yet all of them are crammed in this issue without the necessary space to really let it sink in. There are many characters receiving development and panel space, with the people at Horizon Labs, the Goblin King, Miguel O’Hara, Otto and Tiberius Stone all seemingly fighting for relevance in this issue.

Superior Spider-Man #17 – Review

Dan Slott (Writer), Ryan Stegman, Livesay (Artists), Edgar Delgado (Colorist)

The Story: Miguel O’Hara needs to go back in time to stop something from happening in 2013, which may be connected to something Spider-Ock might do.

The Review: Sometimes, a writer may throw around an idea that is simply appealing. A concept that is perhaps simple, yet one that does raise the curiosity and interest of readers enough that they really want to see a situation like this occur. It is something that has occurred many times with close to every company, yet it is an efficacious tactic that always help raise the profile of a book when needed.

The latest use of such a stratagem can be seen in this issue as Slott, being playing with the expectations of readers, teased that he might do a Spider-Man 2099 story. What started as perhaps a bit of a jape went on to become a real thing, as this issue tells the story of such an encounter, or at least try to.

I say try, as any story with such a ludicrous concept cannot simply be simply be shown without at least contextualization as to the various explanation of why and how this is happening. Here, Slott builds up his story before letting the magic of his ideas go wild, which has its share of weaknesses and strengths.

The best about this issue would be the parts dealing with Miguel O’Hara himself, the Spider-Man of the future. Here, Slott brings out some of the most memorable aspects of the Peter David run on Spider-Man 2099, with the bizarre slang used, the strange tech, Alchemax and the general personality of its main character. All of those elements are handled well-enough in order to provide both those who knew the characters and those that didn’t enough of a feel to the character to know more about him.

Superior Spider-Man #4 – Review

Dan Slott (Writer) Giuseppe Camuncoli, John Dell (Artists), Edgar Delgado (Colorist)

The Story: Otto still has to adjust and upgrade some aspects of Peter’s life, while Massacre has escaped from detainment.

The Review: Well, this is different, as in this is a sharp contrast to the previous issues of this very controversial series in many ways. With the three opening issues focusing on other aspects or characters that are directly connected to the basic approach of Superior Spider-Man, this one does not have the same drive behind it as those other issues.

There is still a lot that drives the series forward and make it enjoyable, to be sure. The various ways that Otto comes up with various ways to ‘’improve’’ on Peter’s life is fun to see, be it with his role as Spider-Man or in his general life. The ways he interacts with the entourage and the past decisions of Peter are actually quite interesting to see, be it with Peter reaction to his inner thoughts or his action. Contrarily to the second issue, Slott has found a good way to balance Otto and Peter to make sure we get a good dose of both characters here.

Something that was not as much balanced, though, would be some of the violence that shows in this comic. Now, I know that nowadays a lot of comics are much more violent and that I truly should expect some with a villain named Massacre, but some of these scenes made me a bit uncomfortable, especially the restaurant one. I do get that this is to set the tone and to show a psychopathic villain, but it seems a little bit like overkill here (pun unintended).

Something that was shown a little bit more here, albeit not in an overkill, would be the advancement of some small plot points that are very well incorporated in the grand narrative. One of them would be how people react to this newly arrogant Peter Parker, mainly the people from Horizon labs, which may lead up to the Fired storyline teased a few months back. Another would be the fact that Otto seems to be affected by what Peter say and feel, something that had been hinted at in the first issue, yet was not shown much in the two issues after. It’s those little points that keep on slowly progressing with each issue that makes me have faith that Dan Slott does have a long-term plan for this series.

Superior Spider-Man #1 – Review

By: Dan Slott (Writer), Ryan Stegman (Artist), Edgar Delgado (Colorist)

*Spoiler alert*

The Story: Spider-Ock takes on the new Sinister Six formed by Boomerang.

The Review: So here we are, after the controversial 700th issue of Amazing Spider-Man, with this new status quo. For those who don’t yet know what has actually happened to Peter Parker, here’s the short version: Otto Octavius is now in Peter Parker body’s after promising to be Spider-Man from now on.

This decision, story wise, is ripe with potential, as we have a new point of view on how Peter Parker lives his whole life, thanks to the former villain. Indeed, Dan Slott takes full advantage to show that Otto is a very different person than Peter Parker. He reacts differently to the supporting cast and he has a much more tactical mind when it comes to being Spider-Man. However, he also is manipulative, violent, arrogant and much more self-centered, which results in him being a rather unlikeable character.

FF #17 – Review

By: Jonathan Hickman (writer), Nick Dragotta (art), Chris Sotomayor (colors), and Clayton Cowles (letters)

The Story:  Can Peter Parker possibly survive the sheer, mind-imploding aggravation of having Johnny Storm for a room-mate?

The Review:  Jonathan Hickman is among my favourite writers, but he wouldn’t exactly be my first choice to write a sitcom, much as I wouldn’t choose, say, Brian Azzarello to write a romantic comedy.  Yet, somehow, Hickman gives us a superhero sitcom with this issue and it is, well, fantastic.  All the jokes are hits and this is a book that is guaranteed to get you smiling.

In both Hickman’s energetic, upbeat script and Nick Dragotta’s cartoony, high-paced artwork, this issue of FF maintains a consistently jocular tone that keeps you in a mood primed for laughter.  Pete’s increasing level of suppressed anger, slowly rising to boiling point, is matched perfectly to Johnny’s complete and total obliviousness.  Hickman plays the dynamic perfectly; he gives us peaks into Peter’s mind, which only make Johnny’s behaviour all the more ridiculous.

Scarlet Spider #1 – Review

By: Chris Yost (writer), Ryan Stegman (artist), Marte Gracia (colors)

The Story: Marvel is going to feel pretty stupid when ripped-sleeved hoodies TOTALLY come back in 2012!

The Review: Marvel is certainly wringing Spider-Man for everything he’s worth. Amazing, Spectacular, Ultimate, Avenging, and with guest appearances on Future Foundation and one of the Avengers teams (I can never keep them straight), it’s clear the brand is doing well. Heck, they even have the dark anti-Spider-Man in Rick Remender’s Venom ongoing. So is there really room for Scarlet Spider? Maybe, but it will need to have a clear, compelling difference from the other existing books to justify its presence on the stands. After reading this issue, while I think the creative has a good reason for their book, I also think they need to do a better job of communicating it.

Right away, the opening did not impress me. The comic opens with several narrow, full-page vertical panels that zoom in on a nondescript port. This hardly takes advantage of the opportunity to showcase Houston, a location never previously explored in Marvel Comics. What follows feels like it was lifted straight from the scene in the Narrows in Batman Begins. Neither of these things are bad, exactly, but they aren’t very inspired.

The first three pages are crawling with spiders. Or perhaps I should say “sprinkled” with spiders. They spiders cast no shadows, and don’t seem to make contact with any surface. They are all similarly positioned, none appearing to scuttle or spin webs or indeed do anything at all. They simply hover between the reader and the story going on inside the panels. After three pages of this, the spiders crawl into the panels, and assemble en masse for our first look at Kaine before disappearing for the rest of this issue. I know what Stegman was going for here, and in the hands of a more experimental artist, this could have been really cool. But Stegman’s work is fairly traditional, and the comic looks for all the world like a preschooler stuck spider stickers all over it.

Not too say all of Stegman’s work is bad. The two-page spread explaining Kaine’s backstory was clever and actually made it sound fun. The vistas of Houston, when we finally get to them, are fresh and warm, and the action flows and bubbles with energy. But first impressions are important, and mine was not enthusiastic.

Amazing Spider-Man #666 – Review

by Dan Slott (writer), Stefano Caselli (art), Marte Gracia (colors), and Joe Caramagna (letters)

The Story: Life is good, and very busy, for Peter Parker, but unbeknownst to him, more and more people in New York City are gaining spider-powers.

What’s Good: Apparently, Dan Slott and the rest of the crew in the Spider-office take that $3.99 price-tag really seriously.  This is a lot of comic book.  It’s 30 pages of dense storytelling, packed with characterful dialogue and narration that’s entertaining, regardless of the exposition.  It’s also amazing quite how many bases Slott touches upon in these 30 pages.  Not only does Slott set the stage for Spider-Island in ever conceivable way, he also gives us an update on more or less every nook and cranny of Peter Parker’s world.  As a result, the number of characters in this book is pretty damned massive, but because Slott keeps it, for the most part, tightly focused on Peter, Spider-readers won’t get lost.

What’s even more remarkable is what a firm grasp Slott has on this immense cast.  Obviously, his Peter Parker is great, but everyone elses’ dialogue is fun and energetic and every character has his or her own distinct voice.  With so many characters on hand, here, that’s pretty impressive.

All in all, this is just a really big, well-rounded package.  It sets up the state for Spider-Island quite well and will leave you ready and willing to dive in, but more than that, you get a little taste of literally everything and everyone relevant to Slott’s run on ASM thus far.  No stone is left unturned, and as a result, you get a Spidey comic that really feels like a Spidey comic.  With so much in this book, this is a pretty immersive experience, one that really brings you into Peter’s world.

Of course, Caselli’s art doesn’t hurt.  It’s as lively and energetic as ever and while Caselli often puts a lot on the page, in both content and panels, it’s never confused or claustrophobic.  Whether it’s a dialogue scene or an action scene, Caselli’s work always feels fast-paced.