Oh boy… here we go again. To say that One More Day was a controversial Spider-Man story is like saying that Sarah Palin is just somewhat misguided about her political views. OMD brought the comic book world crashing to its knees and crushed the hopes and dreams of an entire generation of nerds. I mean, if Spidey’s marriage can’t survive a little meddling from the devil, what chance do any of us have? However, you are almost able to forgive Joe Quesada for the bastardization of Spidey canon (I don’t acknowledge that JMS had anything to do with that story) because Brand New Day has been, for the most part, an enjoyable ride. ASM has, since OMD, been a pretty damn good comic book. And to find that kind of consistency from a large group of writers working on one book, pushing it out 3 times a month, is rather astonishing.
And then Quesada decided to pick at that slowly healing scab. Enter One Moment In Time. Even the title brings up horrific, sleepless nights caused by OMD. But enough introduction. Let’s see how the first issue of this thing holds up.
There we go. That’s exactly the sort of thing I like to see out of a Spider-Man comic. Roger Stern and Lee Weeks just served up a fresh salad of web-slinger in Amazing Spider-Man #627, with a juicy entree set to follow.
This canned meat has clearly gone bad.
The story ties into Peter “Past Professional” Parker‘s current woes, both financial and romantic, without turning Peter into a used tissue factory. As you can imagine from the cover there, Juggernaut is a prime factor, but he’s really more a plot device that leads to the next stage of this arc.
Stern has been around basically forever, and is credited with a significant amount of work for Marvel. His writing has significantly improved since his Hobgoblin days. His understandable command of continuity comes into play in this book, but he doesn’t let it drown out the story. If anything, he allows that past continuity to provide a sweet logical backdrop.
Weeks’ art has a definite taste of Romita Jr lines, Romita Sr action, and old world framing. He makes it his own, though, with individual faces, dynamic action shots (including a throw-away panel of Spidey hoisting a mugger over a streetlamp which is simply delightful), and precise staging. I need desperately to see him do more new Spider-Man work after this arc.
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. (more…)
You know, I haven’t been the biggest fan of Brand New Day, but I’ve come to appreciate what the guys over at Marvel are doing and by-golly, I’ve started to enjoy the last year in ASM. It’s not the comic that I look forward to reading the most every week, but it’s consistently interesting and I’m always left with a feeling of “what’s going to happen next”. And then this week’s shit-hole of an issue came out, with all the hype surrounding it.
So, just to start things off, this issue focuses a lot more on Peter Parker‘s life outside of being Spider-Man. When I heard that this was to be the focus of the issue, I was genuinely excited. I enjoy issues that are not full of superhero action and focus on character development. So, most of the issue is about Peter and his relationship with Betty Brant, as well as her trying to set him up on dates. The rest of the issue is a backup story featuring Barack Obama. If you didn’t hear all the news about this during the week, you must have been living under a rock. Suffice to say, it’s about Obama encountering a super-villain at his inauguration.
Now, hit the break and let me tell you what I really think about this issue.
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.
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.
New this week in the world of Marvel is the start of a month of new What If? issues from the publisher. In case you don’t know, What If? issues basically take an existing story in the Marvel universe and change something about the story and tell the outcome. Fun stuff, right?
This week’s issue focuses on House of M, that crazy Marvel event that ended with Scarlet Witch saying “no more mutants” and the outcome has been playing out in the X-books for the last few years. But what if she had said “no more powers” instead? That’s the focus of this issue.
Also, because Marvel loves us, part one of What If? Runaways Became The Young Avengers? That’s right, it’s like 2 books for the price of one. Want to know if it’s worth your money? Read on, true believer!
This week wasn’t too huge for me, but I had one comic I was really looking forward to: Amazing Spider-Man #576. Now, I meant to write a review for #575 but… well, it just didn’t happen. Nevertheless, these last two issues were utterly fantastic and I’ll go and sum things up in a moment.
Writer Joe Kelly entered the Spider-Man brain trust last week beginning his two-part series, “Family Ties.” Focusing around Hammerhead and the aftermath of him being saved by Mr. Negative this mini-arc is building more and more of the sub-plot that is Mr. Negative (yea, I know all ASM is doing lately is building, but bear with me).
But let’s get into things after the jump and I’ll give you the run down.
Amazing Spider-Man #638 Review
Oh boy… here we go again. To say that One More Day was a controversial Spider-Man story is like saying that Sarah Palin is just somewhat misguided about her political views. OMD brought the comic book world crashing to its knees and crushed the hopes and dreams of an entire generation of nerds. I mean, if Spidey’s marriage can’t survive a little meddling from the devil, what chance do any of us have? However, you are almost able to forgive Joe Quesada for the bastardization of Spidey canon (I don’t acknowledge that JMS had anything to do with that story) because Brand New Day has been, for the most part, an enjoyable ride. ASM has, since OMD, been a pretty damn good comic book. And to find that kind of consistency from a large group of writers working on one book, pushing it out 3 times a month, is rather astonishing.
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 
