The Amazing Spider-Man: Spiral

Bought at Boocup, Kerry Parkside, Pudong, Shanghai, China.

Title: The Amazing Spider-Man
Issue: Volume 5: Spiral
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Date: 2015
Writer: Gerry Conway
Penciler: Carlo Barberi
Inker: Juan Vlasco
Colorist: Israel Silva
Letterer: VC's Joe Caramagna
Editor: Nick Lowe, Devin Lewis

With the Kingpin out of the picture, New York's criminal gangs are in a war for territory with NYPD Captain Yuri Watanabe's Third Precinct as the top prize. This volume collects The Amazing Spider-Man #16-20 from 2014, and it follows up on a bunch of Spiderverse adventures by bringing Peter Parker back to his "Friendly Neighborhood" roots fighting New York crime.

The result is a rapid-fire succession of classic Spider-Man villains. Unfortunately, by "classic" here we generally mean third-rate. Admittedly, it's fun seeing Spidey score one-punch knockouts on guys like Hammerhead, Ringmaster, the Enforcers, Tombstone, and Crime Master. But nostalgia only goes so far.

The real heart of this story is a battle for the soul of Yuri Watanabe, who has gone back to moonlighting as the Wraith, and who has entered into a dangerous game of manipulation with the Negative Man. Did I mention there are a lot of villains in this book? Black Cat also shows up, fairly interesting in full-on heel mode.

But the theme of where to draw the line between "by the book" police work and vigilanteism is muddled by Peter Parker, longtime vigilante, trying to lecture Watanabe on where the line should be drawn. It doesn't help that the actual moment when Wraith crosses the line is not a terribly impactful scene. It helps even less that the confrontation between Wraith and Spider-Man is anticlimactic, and the final battle between Spider-Man and Negative Man is even more so.

This had fun pacing and that comfy nostalgic vibe, but it never rose to the level of seriousness that it was going for.

Rating: 5/10

Ultimate Spider-Man #42

From the Random Stack of Unread Comics

Title: Ultimate Spider-Man
Issue: 42
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Date: August  2003
Writer: Brian Michael Bendis
Penciller: Mark Bagley
Inker: Art Thibert
Colorist: Transparency Digital
Letterer: Chris Eliopoulos
Editor: Nick Lowe, C.B. Cebulski, Ralph Macchio

A student at Peter Parker's high school has developed the ability to make cars (and presumably other things) explode. Wearing half of a homemade costume because his normal spider-suit isn't available, Peter swings into action to put a stop to the mayhem.

This is one of those stories where it's hard for me to explain why I like it. The character of Geldoff is one of the most annoying characters I've seen in a comic (I think I'd need a couple issues of him to know for sure if he's on the level of, say, Damian Wayne, but the potential is there). And almost the entire issue is Geldoff being annoying.

But yet, the dialogue between him and Peter Parker is actually a really interesting examination of the whole "with great power comes great responsibility" concept. Geldoff questions just about everything about Peter's life as Spider-Man, and for all that he just plain fails to get it, it's all too easy to see in Geldoff the boy that Peter Parker was on the way to being before the death of his uncle.

The ending splash-page introduced a whole new set of complications, and I thought that artistically it was trying a bit too hard, but in general I liked the artwork on this, especially the facial expressions and body language between Geldoff and Peter.

There were some nice little details as well, like Geldoff's refusal to accept the possibility that he could be a mutant because of his religious biases. A lot in this issue was played for laughs, but there were some very serious undercurrents to it all.

Rating: 8/10

Ultimate Spider-Man #52

I got this two summers ago at NJ Gamer Con.

Title: Ultimate Spider-Man
Issue: 52
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Date: March  2004
Writer: Brian Michael Bendis
Penciller: Mark Bagley
Inker: Art Thibert
Colorist: J.D. Smith
Letterer: Chris Eliopoulos
Editor: Nick Lowe, Mackenzie Cadenhead, C.B. Cebulski, Ralph Macchio

This story features a realtively young/inexperienced Peter Parker who has just gotten to know the Black Cat. He agrees to meet her for a rooftop rendezvous, admitting it's against his better judgement, but they are quickly interrupted by the Kingpin's newest assassin, Elektra (also young and inexperienced in this version).

The title of the story is "Catfight", and the resulting match with attempted interference and narration by Peter Parker, is about as male-gaze-y as the title suggests that it is going to be. The whole thing feels like there isn't much at stake, and indeed, little of consequence is accomplished story-wise when it's all done. There are a lot of panels of fighting, but none of them are all that interesting, and in the end, Peter, is left in the same self-esteem crisis that he started the issue in.

There is a bit of plot advancement and character development in the cutaway scenes to Kingpin, but still nothing of great consequence.

This felt like a WWE house-show match where nobody is working to their full potential, and everything has to remain unchanged because it's not being televised.

Rating: 3.5/10

The Amazing Spider-Man #1: Behind-The-Scenes Edition

I got this Marvel freebie from one of the comic shops I visited over the summer.

Title: The Amazing Spider-Man
Issue: 1 (Behind-The-Scenes Edition)
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Date: September 2018
Writer: Nick Spencer
Artist: Ryan Ottley
Editor: Nick Lowe

This is a pretty cool promotional freebie from Marvel. It's the complete main story from the recent Amazing Spider-Man reboot, but with just Ryan Ottley's pencil art.


This gives a unique perspective to the story, as well as revealing the process. Not to mention showing off Ottley's artistic talents.


Obviously, without the dialogue and the finished art, a lot gets missed, but I didn't mind. And the full version is readily available for those who wish to purchase it (and likely to remain in reprints for years to come).

I could't follow that much of the dialogue-based storytelling, but much of the familiar supporting cast made appearances. The plot's main action saw Spidey joining the Avengers to deal with what appears to be a massive invasion by extradimensional creatures in New York City. But thing are not entirely as they seem.

The art was beautiful and the story looked interesting enough that I would say that the book did its job as a promo.

Rating: 7.5/10

True Believers: Guardians of the Galaxy: Galaxy's Most Wanted #1

I picked this one up at the Shanghai Comic Con.

Title: True Believers: Guardians of the Galaxy: Galaxy's Most Wanted
Issue: 1
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Date: September 2016
Writer: Brian Michael Bendis
Artist: Valerio Schiti
Colorist: Richard Isanove
Letterer: VC's Cory Petit
Cover: Arthur Adams, Jason Keith
Editor: Kathleen Wisneski, Jake Thomas, Nick Lowe

After Peter Quill's brief tenure as the ruler of a planet came to a bad end, he finds himself on the run, along with Kitty Pryde (no, I didn't know she was in the Guardians either) on a prison planet with alien soldiers trying to kill them.

At which point they have an extended discussion about Kitty Pryde's fashion sense.

The idea here is that Quill has been left hopeless after recent events, and Kitty is trying to distract him enough for him to get his will to live back. I get what they were going for here, but it just didn't work for me. For one thing, there really wasn't any actual discussion of fashion. Nothing that substantive, anyway. And while this may seem like an odd complaint to make, the whole effect just came off as hollow, with no authenticity. It all felt like a big space-filler where little was actually accomplished.

Things picked up a bit when the action intensified, but the bad guys were generic, and the additional bad guys introduced at the end looked just as generic (if perhaps a bit more menacing) than the previous ones.

Kitty's rage as she describes the prison planet as a concentration camp packed some emotional punch, but would need more emphasis as the stories continues for it to really have an impact.

Rating: 4.5/10

X-Men #1: Free Comic Book Day 2008

Another 2008 Free Comic Book Day offering, this one from Marvel. From the random stack of unread comics.

Title: X-Men
Issue: 1 (Free Comic Book Day 2008 Edition)
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Date: May, 2008
Writer: Mike Carey
Penciller: Greg Land
Inker: Jay Liesten
Colorist: Justin Ponsor
Letterer: VC's Joe Caramagna
Editor: Nick Lowe, Will Panzo

Megan Gwynn, AKA Pixie, is back home in Wales after a year at Xavier's School. She's trying to fit back in, but the fact that people keep mysteriously vanishing from her small town is making things rather difficult for her.

It's not long before she's facing down a full-fledged demonic invasion. Fortunately, the X-Men are there to back her up.

This was a really great introduction to Pixie, who I had not previously been familiar with. She's a fun blend of magical and mutant powers, and her personality really shines in this story as she fights the bad guys on her own first, and then alongside the full X-Men team.

The X-Men had some good lines, and there was a quick exchange between Pixie and Emma Frost that I thought was an excellent use of both characters.

The story is self-contained, and provides a nice introduction for new readers. Its biggest weakness is the villains, who are generic, and who barely put up a fight in the final battle scene. The artwork in that scene was a bit confusing in places, although I thought the art in the rest of the book was quite good.

This was a book that accomplished its purpose as an introduction to the X-Men series, and did an exceptionally good job of introducing Pixie.

Rating: 8/10

Astonishing X-Men #13 (Variant)

From the random stack of unread comics. This is the second of two (close, but not consecutive) issues of Joss Whedon's run on Astonishing X-Men that found their way into the unread comics stack. I reviewed #10 here. Not sure where I got these. This one is marked as a variant cover.

Title: Astonishing X-Men
Issue: 13
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Date: April, 2006
Writer: Joss Whedon
Artist: John Cassaday
Colorist: Laura Martin
Letterer: Chris Eliopoulos
Editor: Mike Marts, Sean Ryan, Nick Lowe

Black-and-white variant cover on this issue.

This is something of a catch-up issue, that manages to be a lot more satisfying a read than #10 was, in spite of #10's emphasis on plot and action.

The focus here is on character development, particularly on the romance between Kitty and Colossus, and the conflicting forces influencing Emma Frost.

There is also a very amusing reveal of the new low-tech version of the Danger Room (after the room ran amuck over several issues around the previously-reviewed #10). Now that Ms. Room has been officially "future-endeavored" (or whatever happened to her), the new plan for combat training is simpler, more elegant, and far more dangerous: The trainees are simply put into a darkened room in which Wolverine kicks their asses. Why did they not think of this in the first place? It seems like it would have saved everybody a lot of grief, and the quality of training would not have suffered.

In addition to that amusing bit, there is lots of Emma-intrigue, some seeds planted for future storylines involving SHIELD, some dream sequences, and a very shock-value final scene.

This is moving in the right direction.

Rating: 6/10

Astonishing X-Men #10

From the random stack of unread comics, as chosen by the Kiddo. This is the first of two issues from this title that I've got in the to-read stack.

Title: Astonishing X-Men
Issue: 10
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Date: May, 2005
Writer: Joss Whedon
Artist: John Cassaday
Colorist: Laura Martin
Letterer: Chris Eliopoulos
Editor: Mike Marts, Sean Ryan, Nick Lowe

So, the Danger Room AI has become not just self-aware, but also righteously pissed off, and she (she appears in a vaguely female shapeshifting robotic form) proceeds to mop the (Danger Room) floor with the X-Men.

The team in this case consists of Cyclops, Emma Frost, Wolverine, Colossus, Kitty Pryde, and Beast. Joss Whedon (you know, that guy from Buffy and firefly; the director of the film version of The Avengers) is writing, and in a moment-by-moment sense, this is all good. Danger Room knows all of the X-Men's tactics and weaknesses, and so she takes them apart with relative ease, only having a couple moments of trouble when they make some attempts at breaking their normal patterns.

Unfortunately, as well executed as it is, it just didn't feel all that original or interesting, and Danger Room's constant talking about how she's fought  the X-Men thousands or times and knows them better than they know themselves and whatnot does not help the cause. By the time I was half way through this, I wanted the X-Men to win, not because Danger Room was such a horrible threat, but just because of how annoying she was.

Also, would someone please give Danger Room a name so that I don't have to keep referring to her as Danger Room?

A couple of the characters are apparently killed by the time it's all said and done, but this is the Marvel Universe (and as we have said many times, there is dead, and then there is dead-in-the-marvel-universe, and those two things are not particularly related), so there isn't a whole lot of emotional punch to those scenes.

I did like the ending line. Joss Whedon has always been great with the one-liners, and this one works nicely. I wish it had been saved for a better story.

Rating: 4.5/10