Comic News And Reviews

By: Fred Van Lente, Zeb Wells, Bob Gale, Joe Kelly, Mark Waid, Marc Guggenheim & Dan Slott (writers), Max Fiumara, Michael Del Mundo, Karl Kesel, J.M. Ken Niimura, Paul Azaceta, Graham Nolan, Mark Pennington & Adam Archer (art), Morry Hollowell & Antonio Fabela (colors) & J.M. Ken Niimura & Joe Caramanga (letters)

The Story: Brand New Day and the thrice monthly Amazing Spider-Man goes out with a bang and each of the writers (and many of the artists) who were part of BND get to play.

What’s Good: These oversized ASM issues are just gold.  In addition to the “main story” by Fred Van Lente, there are all sorts of short stories that will scratch just about every itch a Spidey-fan might have.  Of the short stories, the winner is probably the fun Norah Winters story by Joe Kelly with art by the very unique J.M. Ken Niimura.  But, there are all sorts of short stories in this issue and although they are all different, they all show just how central Spider-Man is to Marvel’s NYC and the people who live there.

But, the star of the issue is the main story by FVL.  Van Lente is one of the best writers that Marvel has, that doesn’t seem to be settled into one of the major titles.  The guy is so versatile and funny and never cranks out a stinker.  This story is focused squarely on the love life of Peter Parker and his inability to make a move on Carlie Cooper.  Peter’s love life is so central to the tale of Spider-Man and FVL does a great job of capturing the essence of Peter’s problem.  He has no luck with the ladies, but he never has any shortage of smart, attractive and available women hovering around his life.  If he could just get his act together, he could go far and that is the story of this issue.  FVL also gets bonus points for having Spidey fighting crime in a cheap Spider-Man Halloween costume.  Brilliant!

Artwise, this is a really strong issue.  With that set of artists, it is all over the map in terms of style, but none of it is bad.

What’s Not So Good: It is a real shame that BND is over.  Clearly an almost weekly Spider-Man book was an editorial nightmare and those editors deserve a round of applause.  But it was very nice to have ONE Spider-Man book to buy and one hopes that going to a bi-weekly schedule will not mean the launch of a secondary Spider-title.

No other complaints about this issue.  BND was a real winner, especially over the last 50 issues.  The only turd was One Moment In Time which we must heap scorn upon once more.  Other than that, it was just golden Spider-Man comics and it’ll be sorely missed.

Conclusion: Brand New Day goes out in style, letting most of the creators and characters that had a role get a chance at the spotlight.  Hopefully Big Time will prove a deserving successor to this excellence.

Grade: B+

- Dean Stell

Filed under: Marvel Comics Tagged: | Dan Slott, Marvel, Amazing Spider-Man, Fred Van Lente, Marc Guggenheim, Adam Archer, Karl Kesel, Mark Waid, Paul Azaceta, Bob Gale, Antonio Fabela, Zeb Wells, Joe Caramagna, review, Comic Book Reviews, Morry Hollowell, Weekly Comic Book Review, Mark Pennington, Joe Kelly, Max Fiumara, Dean Stell, Michael Del Mundo, J.M. Ken Niimura, Graham Nolan, Amazing Spider-Man #647, Amazing Spider-Man #647 review

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