By: Dan Slott (writer), Humberto Ramos (pencils), Victor Olazaba (inks), Edgar Delgado (colors), Joe Caramagna (letters), Ellie Pyle (assistant editor) & Stephen Wacker (editor)
The Story: Spider-Island transitions into a more serious story.
What’s Good: Dan Slott seems to really understand what makes a good Spider-Man story as he is mixing together the elements of humor, romance, family, action and danger. So far, Spider-Island has been fun and breezy with most of the focus on snarky banter, the fun of seeing New Yorkers web-slinging around town and looting stores, minor dust-ups with the Avengers and a heavy dose of Peter-Carlie relationship stuff. But, we haven’t had much danger yet and that begins to change in this issue.
It was hard to feel danger when the citizenry had spider-powers because that actually looks kinda fun! ”Wheee… I’m swinging around town on a web!” But, when you see that everyone who had those powers is now turning into a hulking spider-monster with extra eyes, legs, spider-hair, etc… Well, that doesn’t look fun at all. Suddenly this feels like a disaster that merits some superhero involvement.
Another thing that I haven’t mentioned much during this “event” is how much improved it is by the presence of other heroes. Compared to Fear Itself, which just feels like an Avengers event (as the X-Men and FF haven’t really done anything in the series proper), in Spider-Island, you’ve got the FF, Avengers and X-Men. AND….the X-Men even have a nod to continuity by noting that this action took place after the a group of X-Men visited NYC to battle Lizard and Dark Beast (in X-Men ~#6-10). That sort of continuity isn’t really “important”, but it does illustrate a writer and editor that understand that some of us fans do enjoy it when the pieces kinda connect.
It’s a little hard for me to judge all of the side-stories going on in this issue because I am reading all of the tie-ins. From that perspective, Slott is doing a wonderful job of weaving their stories into the larger narrative. But I think that if you weren’t reading those tie-ins, these brief appearances by Venom, the X-Men, etc. would mostly enhance the story rather than leave you confused. It also shows nice editorial control by Stephen Wacker’s group to keep all of this organized.
Heck, I even enjoyed the turn that Jonah Jameson takes in this issue. He acts about like you’d expect him to act when faced with the fact that he has spider-powers.
Tying it all together is the wonderful linework of Humberto Ramos. He has a perfect style for this story. With all the spider-monsters and the characters leaping around, it would be so hard for an artist with a style more rooted in realism to draw this; and if they did, it would probably have to be more of a horror-story than you’d typically want a spider-story to be. All of Ramos’ characters really do look like they are springing around… That’s an incredibly hard thing to do. Of course, another nice thing about Ramos is that he draws a pretty woman. His half-splash of MJ finally getting spider-powers is very jungle-girl and I love it.
What’s Not As Good: I have a small fear that folks might be losing out if they aren’t reading the tie-ins. I think that they’re tying in just the right amount, but it’s hard for me to judge since I’m reading them all. It would be hard to imagine that all of those stories could be going on and NOT leave a person just reading ASM feeling a tiny bit left out though. Event tie-ins are hard. We all understand that the companies need to make money and the Spider-Island tie-ins have been incredibly high quality, but there will still be a lot of people who don’t want to buy 29 issues priced between $2.99 and $3.99 each. That means they’re spending over $100 to read the whole story and that’s a lot of money even if it is good.
The only clumsy part of this issue was the integration of the Venom storyline. It took a second for me to really grasp that it was Venom and to understand who he was impersonating. And, I’m reading the Venom issues.
Conclusion: It’s so nice to see an event that is humming along and not making you feel like you’re wasting your money. Spider-Island has been really good and in this issue it takes a turn for the more ominous. The final few issues should be a lot of fun.
Grade: A-
-Dean Stell
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Filed under: Marvel Comics Tagged: | Amazing Spider-Man, Amazing Spider-Man #670, Amazing Spider-Man #670 review, Dan Slott, Dean Stell, Edgar Delgado, Ellie Pyle, Humberto Ramos, Joe Caramagna, Marvel, review, Spider-Island, Stephen Wacker, Victor Olazaba
[...] beginning of something exciting (like American Vampire #19) or the middle story of a fun arc (like Amazing Spider-Man #670)…..the whole thing is here: set-up, conflict and resolution. If you had moved away from Cap [...]
I’ve only read ASM and none of the extra stuff. I’ve never found the main book confusing, so they’re doing a good job there. It does feel odd in the story, though, to have a big build-up for Anti-Venom, then skip to Venom dropping Anti-Venom into Reed Richards’s lap, but that’s more an issue of the direction than anything.
Fun book. Reminds me in a good way of those guest-star-packed six-part stories AMAZING SPIDER-MAN ran every summer in the early 90s when Michelinie was writing: “Round Robin: The Sidekick’s Revenge”, “Return of the Spider-Slayers”, etc.
I’ve been only reading Venom in singles and trade waiting for Amazing Spider-Man. Have all the current volumes of ASM in Hardcover. Decided to pull Spider Island on singles bc I couldn’t wait. That being said great tie in issue. I recommend picking up just the Venom tie in issues. Or better yet, get the whole run of Venom. You won’t be disappointed.
[...] Filed under: Marvel Comics Tagged: Amazing Spider-Man, Amazing Spider-Man #670, Amazing Spider-Man #670 review, Dan Slott, Dean Stell, Edgar Delgado, Ellie Pyle, Humberto Ramos, Joe Caramagna, Marvel, review, Spider-Island, Stephen Wacker, Victor Olazaba Weekly Comic Book Review [...]
I am enjoying Spider Island. Very fun book. Did you read Venom this wk? Venom tied into ASM perfect. Venom had to be one of my favorite books of the wk.
It’s in my stack. The only real downside to reviewing comics is that you often end up reading them not in the order you’d usually choose.
haha So true Dean. I had to read JL Dark first. Then make my way to ASM and Venom. Venom took another notch on how great this book is. I’m enjoying alot of Marvel’s 2.99 books (FF, Journey into Mystery, Daredevil, Punisher, Venom) alot more than their 3.99 books except for Uncanny X-force (awesome book) and Spidey.