Bullseye gets a Hawkeye mini, and Ms. Marvel’s title has been taken over by Moonstone. Ares is conquering various books and has his own three issue Dark Avengers tie-in on the way. Hell, even Wolverine Jr is series-jacking one of his old man’s titles.

the sinister spider-crotch

In all these offshoots, the titular hero saves the mission, if not the day, and makes the other Dark Avengers who show up in that scene look like chumps.

But what about poor ol’ Mac Gargan, aka Venom? He doesn’t have any beef with the jerks he works with; all he wants to do is punch who he’s told to punch and maybe do a little good in the world. Sure, maybe get the girl. Maybe show some people that you can’t keep a good Gargan down.

Maybe eat your face.

I’ve been too busy getting bingo on my celebrity death pools to watch the recent solicits, so Sinister Spider-Man #1 was a welcome surprise. Chris Bachalo‘s cover really does drag your face in and nibble on it quit a bit. Once inside, it’s mean and fun mean and whispers creepy promises of fast, modern, pulpy goodness.

The first issue delivers the goods while still setting us up for the rest of the four-issue run. This oh-so-Sinister Spider-Man has all the set pieces of his Amazing counterpart – JJJ, Osborn, Six goons who are fairly Sinister in their own right, and lots and lots of girls.

Well, ok, skanks and whores. This is Mac Gargan, after all.
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We’re getting close to the monumental issue of #600 in the Amazing Spider-Man series and boy oh boy is this new arc, titled “American Son,” creating some great building blocks and also tieing Spider-Man into Marvel’s Dark Reign.

The thing about Dark Reign that is bugging me the most is how addictive it is. Seeing the bad guys doing bad things (primarily Norman Osborn) and getting away with it and having the good guys (ie. Ms. Marvel, the New Avengers, etc.) unable to do anything is like crack to me. I can’t get enough of the stuff. Chances are Brian Michael Bendis will cause me to overdose, but nevertheless, Spider-Man getting added to the mix perplexes me as I wait to see what the brilliant Joe Kelly writes up for this arc.

More after the break.

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I knew beforehand that this series was going to be fantastic. I mean, if Marvel knows how to do one thing right, it’s put great writers on comics that are dark. Case and point being this first issue of Spider-Man Noir (also, X-Men Noir was fucking fantastic). Written by David Hine and Fabrice Sapolsky this issue really blew me away with it’s early 1930s adaptation of the infamous Spider-Man.

Although a lot of this issue didn’t focus on Spider-Man or even Peter Parker, it’s a great beginning to what I feel is an incredible world of noir comics that Marvel is starting.

This month, you’re in for a treat kiddies. I promise you.

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Amazing Spider-Man #579 cover

I’ve noticed in the last, oh I don’t know, 12 or so issues of Amazing Spider-Man that each issue is building something. Each issue is adding some kind of minor or even major subplot or character or something to this unforeseeable and grandiose fortress that is the Spider-Man world and frankly I love it.

This week’s issue is no different.

If you haven’t been reading, last week Peter Parker found himself in the middle of an attempted mass-murder of a jury who would most likely convict a mob boss via a collapsed subway. All this was orchestrated by, if you haven’t seen this month’s cover: The Shocker.

But before I give out any more juicy details, we can break for the jump.

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If you haven’t seen them, I’ve been writing a series on my favorite‘s and this week I am continuing on with something people don’t really talk about and usually someone wouldn’t really have a “favorite” of these types of characters, but I’m going bold and stating my favorite non-”super” character.

Now, I know this is kind of a gray area, because you could say Batman doesn’t have any powers or Iron Man doesn’t have any powers, but to me—and most people I’d say—those characters are “super.” What I’m describing here are characters like Ben Ulrich, or Lois Lane, or Alfred Pennyworth, or Pepper Potts—just characters who define so much in comic books but are just normal people and I’m trying to focus on characters that aren’t main characters. I just want to make sure everyone gets what I’m trying to say.

With that said, I have to declare my favorite Non-”Super” comic book character: J. Jonah Jameson.

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Dear Marvel,

My name is Mike Rapin. I’m a pretty big fan of almost everything you do. There are a few things here and there that I disagree with (How you dealt with Xorn, Gambit becoming and unbecoming Death, Mini-Marvels, the last of Kirkman’s Ultimate X-Men) but for the most part, I can deal with it. I really can. You tend to bring things back and make me, the reader, 90% happy all of the time. Not saying that you couldn’t do 95%, but you got to 90% and that’s better than what other companies (NBC-Heroes, Disney-Beverly Hills Chihuahua, Warner Bros.-Alexander) can do with an extremely brilliant staff of writers, artists and creators.

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