Superior Spider-Man #27 – Review

by Dan Slott (Writer), Giuseppe Camuncoli, John Dell (Artists), Antonio Fabela (Colorist)

The Story: The reign of the Goblin King begins as his handle on New-York baffles Spider-Ock.

The Review: It’s hard to forget the fact that this is somehow the finale arc for this title. While the news that Peter Parker will be back in April does permeate this issue, his return is still in a few months, which makes reading Spider-Ock somewhat of a different experience now. With some actually lamenting the fact that Otto might go away and some happy about his eventual disappearance, this last arc has quite a lot to live to.

Thankfully, it seems that Dan Slott understand this very much, using quite a lot of the build up cemented in the series as a whole in order to amplify things up considerably. With quite a lot happening and many of the plot threads converging, the writer brings a lot here to satisfy fans of this particular experiment. However, does he succeed with his opening issue or are there some weaknesses bringing things down?

In many respects, Slott does a lot of things right here, the first of them being the scenes revolving around Otto Octavius. Still being the generally devious and scheming kind, what’s actually quite interesting here is how the story shows Otto being out of his depths. With all the various moments in the series with him being prepared for anything and being a generally utilitarian and efficient super hero, the stark contrast with him being on the receiving end of an elaborate scheme makes for a rather interesting read, especially due to his reactions. How he interacts with the Goblin King, how he tries to clear the mystery of where he is hiding and how he has difficulty juggling with being Spider-Man and the head of Parker industries does make for a nice extrapolation of Otto’s many faults, which makes him rather interesting to read in this issue.

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 #673 – Review

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

The Story: The good guys have defeated the threats posed by Spider-Island.  Now they have to deal with the fallout.

Five Things: 

1. Settles things back down and sets the new status quo.  Lots happened during Spider-Island and it’s nice to get an issue that shows the clean up that needs to be done and the characters dealing with the fallout from the last few issues.  Usually this stuff gets dealt with in a rushed panel or two at the end of the final issue and that haste doesn’t really let the event breathe properly.

2. Carlie…  Well, I kinda figured that the Peter/Carlie relationship was over at the beginning of the event, and it turns out I was right.  One of the only flaws with the final few issues of Spider-Island was how the Carlie storyline just got dropped after being central to the early part of the event.  To some extent, all readers have their own opinions about who Peter’s girlfriend should be, but sending him back to MJ would be the height of boring.  I mean, Peter started dating MJ in during the Lyndon Johnson administration when man hadn’t yet set foot on the moon and when Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison and Elvis were still alive.  We’ve seen that relationship already and I want something new.

3. Nice art.  Following Humberto Ramos is pretty thankless.  Not only is Ramos one of the best artists in the business today (and also doing the best work of his career right now), but he has a very distinctive style.  Caselli is cartoony in a very different way than Ramos, but he really sells the humor of this issue very nicely and his storytelling is very crisp.

Amazing Spider-Man #671 – Review

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

The Story: A cure for the spider-infections is discovered, but the bad guys are surely going to try to destroy it.

Review: This story is rounding into shape nicely.  That’s appropriate because there’s only one more issue in the main Spider-Island story and Slott has positioned things very well for an exciting finish.  And, when you look back on this series, Slott has covered a lot of ground since New Yorkers first started getting spider powers a couple of months ago.  We started with the examination of great power/great responsibility when some of the new spiders turned to crime and others were more heroic.  Then we had all the relationship stuff between Peter and Carlie.  There was the shift of Big Bad from Jackal to the Queen.  Nice integration of the Venom and Anti-Venom stories and incorporation of the FF and Horizon labs.  Last issue we picked up some callbacks to Dan Slott’s Spider-Slayer arc (~#652) and we finally saw MJ getting some powers.  When you compare to other events (Fear Itself), this is what I want an event to be.

Now, everything isn’t perfect because some stories aren’t getting their time.  Carlie isn’t even mentioned in this issue and MJ having spider-powers only gets a couple of pages and then is dropped.  But, it’s hard to fault Slott too much for that.  They are legit problems with the issue, but I’d much prefer flaws arising from trying to do a little too much than a story-arc that just spins it wheels on one topic for 3 issues.

I’m still enjoying the art, but there are some awkward looking panels in here.  It just looks a little rushed in places.  It’s not “bad”, but there are panels where it looks like Ramos could have laid it out differently if he’d had more time to look at it and there are other places where the inkers give us some odd looking stuff too.  On the other hand, there are some awesome Ramos sequences like Spidey’s encounter with Firestar and Gravity.  Those pages are glorious.  It just looks a tad rushed is all…  But, even then, it’s mostly because of what we expect from Ramos and we’re not quite getting it in every single panel.  The story telling is still crisp and superb.

Herc #8 – Review

By: Greg Pak & Fred Van Lente (writers), June Brigman (penciller), Roy Richardson (inker), Jesus Aburtov (colorist)

The Story: Herc learns that even a hideous mutation can’t stop him from scoring with the ladies.

The Review: From what I’ve gathered, Spider-Island sure sounds like a fun romp.  But from the point of view of this title, the premise of the event comes across one-dimensional, random, and utterly pointless.  Having every Manhattanite, hero, villain, and civilian alike, transform into arachnid mutants may be a fun idea in theory, but once you have them, the question becomes: what do you do with them?  Cause a fly genocide?

Well, in Herc’s case, you can just sic him on a handful of X-Men for pretty much no reason other than because it pleases the Queen of Spider-Island for him to do so.  The ensuing action has its moments, like Storm whipping up a wind strong enough to launch Wolverine in a fastball special, but these hero-versus-hero battles rarely manage to gain much tension.  It’s not like there’s any real danger of them actually killing each other, so what’s to fear?

Amazing Spider-Man #670 – 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: Spider-Island transitions into a more serious story.

What’s Good: Dan Slott seems to really understand what makes a good Spider-Man story as he is mixing together the elements of humor, romance, family, action and danger.  So far, Spider-Island has been fun and breezy with most of the focus on snarky banter, the fun of seeing New Yorkers web-slinging around town and looting stores, minor dust-ups with the Avengers and a heavy dose of Peter-Carlie relationship stuff.  But, we haven’t had much danger yet and that begins to change in this issue.

It was hard to feel danger when the citizenry had spider-powers because that actually looks kinda fun!  “Wheee… I’m swinging around town on a web!”  But, when you see that everyone who had those powers is now turning into a hulking spider-monster with extra eyes, legs, spider-hair, etc… Well, that doesn’t look fun at all.  Suddenly this feels like a disaster that merits some superhero involvement.

Another thing that I haven’t mentioned much during this “event” is how much improved it is by the presence of other heroes.  Compared to Fear Itself, which just feels like an Avengers event (as the X-Men and FF haven’t really done anything in the series proper), in Spider-Island, you’ve got the FF, Avengers and X-Men.  AND….the X-Men even have a nod to continuity by noting that this action took place after the a group of X-Men visited NYC to battle Lizard and Dark Beast (in X-Men ~#6-10).  That sort of continuity isn’t really “important”, but it does illustrate a writer and editor that understand that some of us fans do enjoy it when the pieces kinda connect.

It’s a little hard for me to judge all of the side-stories going on in this issue because I am reading all of the tie-ins.  From that perspective, Slott is doing a wonderful job of weaving their stories into the larger narrative.  But I think that if you weren’t reading those tie-ins, these brief appearances by Venom, the X-Men, etc. would mostly enhance the story rather than leave you confused.  It also shows nice editorial control by Stephen Wacker’s group to keep all of this organized.

Herc #7 – Review

By: Greg Pak & Fred Van Lente (writers), June Brigman (penciller), Roy Richardson (inker), Jesus Aburtov (colorist)

The Story: Spider-Herc, Spider-Herc, / does whatever a Spider-Herc does.

The Review: Once upon a time, crossovers were a rare, novel event.  Then they became frequent pleasures, then common fool’s errands.  Now they come about every other month, and the effect on all comics, be they solid ongoings or criminally under-promoted minis, has been irritating, pointless, or detracting.  As a newborn series, Herc hadn’t a chance to stand on its own two feet before Fear Itself dragged it along in its wake.  Now that it’s over, we finally have a chance to see Herc grow into the title it’s meant to be.

Just kidding.  Enter Spider Island, ably demonstrating the downside of having all the heroes operate out the same city; if one has an epic adventure, shared universe etiquette dictates everyone has to participate, or at least acknowledge it.  Here, Hercules gets to join in on the fun, which makes sense as an entertaining interlude to an already prospering title, but when you have one that hasn’t even established much of an identity yet, it doesn’t seem wise to let the star attempt to take on someone else’s.

Not that Pak-Van Lente don’t bring their trademark humor to the gimmick.  Herc has clearly established himself as second only to Deadpool in the mockery department, and while Spider-Man is no slouch when it comes to self-deprecating jokes, there’s still plenty of laughs to be had at the web-slinger’s expense.  In the midst of crowing over his extra surge of power, Herc wonders, “But what is this strange new feeling?  With this great power…comes great…angst?”

Had the writers simply stuck with these kinds of gags, the issue probably would have worked better, but we also have three competing distractions: guest appearances by several X-Men (no telling why they had to show up in this title—don’t they have, like, eight of their own?), Anansi the African spider-god-trickster, and Arachne, who vaguely reveals herself for two panels and, aside from giving us a fine view of an arthropod behind, serves virtually no purpose to the issue.

Spider-Island: Deadly Hands of Kung-Fu #1 – Review

By: Antony Johnston (writer), Sebastian Fiumara (pencils), John Lucas (inks), Dan Brown (colors), Joe Sabino (letters) & Alejandro Arbona (editor)

The Story: Shang Chi, the Master of Kung Fu, runs into some of the Immortal Weapons for the Iron Fist stories during Spider-Island.

What’s Good: Two reasons to buy this… One, if you’re a Shang Chi fan you’ll want to see what he’s up to.  He’s one of those guys who is a cult favorite, but just cannot carry his own ongoing title.  So, if you want to see him, you have to look out for him in miniseries like this one or when he pops up in the pages of other comics.  This is a pretty good Shang Chi story as he has gotten spider powers (along with the rest of NYC), but is trying to figure out why he has these powers when a few others have been exempted AND why he is having disturbing dreams featuring the Immortal Weapons (who were created during Brubaker and Fraction’s great run on Iron Fist).  It’s fun and quick and features a lot of action.

This is also a comic to get if you like comic art.  I had seen the name Fiumara associated with this title and assumed that meant Max Fiumara.  Then I opened the issue and noticed how completely different this looks than Max’s art and was investigating whether the inker could possibly be having that HUGE of an effect.  Then I noted that this comic was penciled by Sebastian Fiumara.  Different artist (duh!), but really nice nonetheless.  One of the great things about these tie-in miniseries at Marvel is that the editors don’t just farm out art chores to Marvel regulars who aren’t on ongoing books.  Often they give the art chores to up and comers, giving you a chance to see something new and different.  Sebastian is one to keep an eye on because this art kicks ass.  You have wildly energetic characters (important with Shang Chi) that are drawn as if the artist has actually seen someone doing martial arts before (rather than just finding photo reference online).  He has that mix of proper anatomy and rough sketchiness that I so enjoy about artists like Riley Rossmo.  Great panel and page layouts too for those of us who find a bunch of rectangles really boring.  Really nice coloring from Dan Brown too where he matches his coloring to the roughness of the line art.

Amazing Spider-Man #668 – 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: Spider-Island really get’s moving as the good guys start to actually try to solve the problem.

What’s Good: I was a little hard on Amazing Spider-Man #667 a few weeks ago, so I was very pleasantly surprised by this issue.  Everything in this issue is more purposeful; every couple of pages we are given a new little scene that had a real point in developing the story.  It has a little bit of everything: nice use of the Avengers in supporting roles, good use of the normally annoying Anti-Venom character, a nice guest-starring role for Reed Richards, more playing with the mystery scientist at Horizon Labs, well-done Carlie-Peter relationship stuff and the joy of watching Peter get to bounce around NYC with his spider-powers now that everyone else has powers too.

That last bit is probably the most fun bit of this issue.  Sure, we’ve seen little snippets of Peter letting his powers peek through in civilian guise (“Wow!  Who knew puny Parker was such a good baseball player?!?!”), but here he can just cut loose and go swinging around town since everyone thinks he’s caught up in the Spider-Island contagion too.  For once, he isn’t having to tell his loved ones lies and can actually go web-swinging with his girlfriend Carlie.  Last issue, I was pretty convinced that the Peter/Carlie relationship was doomed, but now I’m not so sure.  I just love that Slott is really emphasizing that aspect of Peter’s persona because (to me), it just isn’t Spider-Man without the romance/relationship angle.

The art is also trademark Humberto Ramos stuff.  His art is very much cartoony and stylized, and that’s where he get’s the incredible energy that he imparts on his characters.  To me the key with Ramos is when you look at a panel or page, your first reaction needs to be “Wow!  These characters really look dynamic!” versus “Wow!  That isn’t what mouths look like!”  I’m not objectively sure why this issue was such a home run for me whereas last issue had a few panels that fell into the latter category, but this issue rocks: All the panels have energy, great variety in layouts, a few panels with ~20 dynamic characters crammed in….  Maybe the difference is the change in inkers?  Except that the inker of #667 was Carlos Cuevas who has inked Ramos so well in the past….  Anyway, it is really pretty.

What’s Not So Good: No substantial complaints.  I still don’t love Jackal as the villain because he drags along so much clone baggage and clones are easily the worst thing ever about Spider-Man comics.  I just worry every time we see him that we’re going to end up with some Ben Reilly nonsense again.  Fortunately, there is clearly a mysterious villain (or villainess?) lurking in the shadows who seems to be the real puppetmaster, and that is infinitely more interesting than stupid Jackal.

Conclusion: Slott and Ramos nail it.  With the excellence of this issue, I suddenly don’t feel so upset about having all 28 issue of Spider-Island on my pull list.  Fun story and great art.  This is what I expected coming into the story and after a bit of a disappointing opening, we’re back on track.

Grade: B

– Dean Stell

[Note: Art fans should really be checking out Spider-Island.  The art is just an embarrassment of riches: Humberto Ramos on ASM, Emma Rios on Cloak & Dagger, Pepe Larraz on Spider-Girl, Tom Fowler on Venom & Max Fiumara on Hands of Kung-Fu.  I see this and wonder why “my” X-books are often saddled with such pedestrian artists.  Maybe the X-office isn’t artist friendly????]

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Spider-Island: Cloak & Dagger #1 – Review

By: Nick Spencer (writer), Emma Rios (artist), Javier Rodriguez (colorist), Joe Caramagna (letterer), Alejandro Arbona (associate editor) & Stephen Wacker (senior editor)

The Story: The Spider-Island spotlight turns onto Cloak and Dagger.

What’s Good: Well, the Spider-Island “event” has 28 items on its checklist.  So, that means we’re getting some serious tie-in miniseries action.  Although we all love to bitch about event tie-ins, this one makes a lot of sense: Cloak and Dagger are characters with a definite cult following, but they’ve never been able to sustain an ongoing series and in this decrepit comic marketplace, if a new C&D ongoing were announced, we’d be lucky get to get 5 issues.  But, a few fans still care, so why not release a 3-issue miniseries in conjunction with an event wherein everyone in NYC get’s spider-powers?  Makes sense, right?
And, it seems like that is the essence of the miniseries.  I worried a little bit when I saw the solicit that this story would be about Dagger turning into some 8-legged spiderhorror, but it’s not that at all.  In this first issue, the linkage to SI is pretty minimal as the events of Amazing Spider-Man #667 are merely a backdrop for us to see what’s going one with our favorite anti-drug heroes.  Spencer does a really nice job of pacing the issue and working some humor into things as well (Cloak scolding Hawkeye for laziness when they want to be transported a mere two blocks).

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.