Amazing Spider-Man #648 – Review
By: Dan Slott (writer), Humberto Ramos (pencils), Carlos Cuevas (inks), Edgar Delgado (colors), Joe Caramanga (letters) & Stephen Wacker (editor)
Spider-Girl back-up by: Paul Tobin (writer), Clayton Henry (art), Chris Sotomayor (colors), Joe Caramanga (letters) & Nathan Crosby (editor)
The Story: Spidey enters the Big Time with Avengers action that was better than anything that has been in the actual Avengers comics, science prowess, love and a new job.
What’s Good: This is the perfect Marvel comic book. It has everything: Iconic character? Check. Big action? Check. Guest stars that make sense for the story? Check. Good characterization? Check. Creative use of classic villains? Check. Outstanding art? Check. Friendly to a new reader while not dumbing it down for long-timers? Check. Absence of decompressed storytelling and endless talking heads? Check. And this is the biggie… Feels tied into today’s Marvel Universe? BIG CHECK.
This comic really has it all. What makes Spider-Man special are the contrasts. In this issue we see him function as an Avenger, issuing orders (in typical “aw shucks” mode) to Thor and Iron-Man and using his genius-level brain to solve a problem that is befuddling Reed Richards and Tony Stark. But, after this reminder of what a powerful hero Spider-Man is, we see that Peter Parker is broke and has nowhere to sleep. Not even his friends really want to let him crash because he’s gone to the well too often.
What makes Peter special is that he COULD be Tony Stark and have the riches and women, but his sense of responsibility to be Spider-Man requires him to make sacrifices that make his private life so painful. When is the last time that Tony Stark stood up a dinner date because he was beating up muggers? This is why we cheer for Peter Parker and love it when things occasionally go right for him. And they do start to swing his way in this issue….in a big way. Not that it’ll last, but we can enjoy the moment. As we transition from the Spidey “brain trust” of rotating writers to Dan Slott doing all the writing, it is so nice to see how clearly Slott understands why Spidey is special.
Humberto Ramos’ art is up to the task of telling this story with Slott. Between he and Cuevas (on inks) they have made a really nice looking comic. The characters are very nicely drawn in a cartooning style that works so much better for superheroes than any sort of photorealism. There is great variety of line thickness, perspective, panel and layouts. It is also very nice how they do the little things like not abusing splash pages and breaking panel borders in effective ways. Bravo.
But what really sets this issue apart is that it happens NOW. The story references daylight savings time (which happened last weekend). It references recent story lines in Avengers, FF and Doomwar. It references material from earlier issues of ASM and has copious editorial boxes referencing earlier issues. Among the many things killing single issue comics is that they do not feel like they’re happening now or even in the same universe. Kudos to Slott and the editorial staff for making an effort to be current with other Marvel stories and connecting the dots! That’s especially important as Marvel seems to be sticking with a $3.99 price, because they need to make their comics better. Better means a more coherent universe and less decompressed storytelling.
Finally, the Spider-Girl back-up is in no way dwarfed by the excellence of the main story. That seems a tough task, but if you’ve read Tobin’s work on the Marvel Adventures book, you know he is a very good story teller. Make sure to check out that title when it debuts next week.
What’s Not So Good: Not much. It’s a shame to seem Michelle (the roommate) exit stage left. And why didn’t Norah have a tie on? Thought that was her trademark? Those are the biggest quibbles with this issue. 
Conclusion: Perfect comic book. For those bitching about $3.99 comics, you won’t mind if they are all this good.
Grade: A
- Dean Stell
Filed under: Marvel Comics Tagged: | Dan Slott, Humberto Ramos, Marvel, Amazing Spider-Man, Chris Sotomayor, Edgar Delgado, Joe Caramagna, review, Comic Book Reviews, Weekly Comic Book Review, Clayton Henry, Paul Tobin, Dean Stell, Stephen Wacker, Amazing Spider man 648, Carlos Cuevas, Nathan Crosby, Amazing Spider-Man #648 review
Labels:
Amazing Spider-Man #647 – Review
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