By: Mark Waid (writer), Paul Azaceta (art), Javier Rodriguez (colors) & Joe Caramanga (art)
The Story: Spider-Man continues to flee through NYC with the Goblin-baby with a who’s-who of rogues after him.
What’s Good: Sometimes less is more and this issue is a good example of that. The story here is not substantially different than in ASM #643. The villains are still chasing Spidey around NYC trying to recover the unholy Goblin-spawn of Norman Osborn and Lilly Hollister as Spidey webs around without any sort of discernible plan, but the difference is that Waid gives us much less NYPD and J. Jonah Jameson. In the past issue, the fact that the NYPD was also chasing Spidey made the issue a little too busy and hectic, but remove them and just have Spidey being pursued by Vulture, Freak and Rhino and you’ve got a pretty good story.
Waid does a nice job capturing all the villains, especially showing Rhino in his newest mindset, but where this issue really shows off is with two nice changes of direction (the latter of which was very unexpected). And just when you think that is enough, there is also a set-back in Peter Parker’s love life as Carlie wonders what sort of a louse Peter must be to have deserted his friends when the villains showed up. This was all around a very nicely done story.
Paul Azaceta’s art is more effective at drawing dynamic characters than at drawing talking heads and so it is good news that little of this issue calls for tight shots of characters faces. Not all artists are able to make a static drawing of Spider-Man look as if the character is dynamically moving around, but Azaceta can pull it off.
What’s Not So Good: There is not much wrong with this issue. Azaceta’s art is an acquired taste, but by this third issue of the story-arc, we have settled into his artistic style where you are giving up detailed faces for dynamism from the costumed characters. The only other thing that is clearly “wrong” is that many of the characters are colored a tone or two darker than they should be. This isn’t an issue for the no-name characters, but Carlie and Harry both look a little more tanned than you’d expect.
Conclusion: It is very nice to finally be able to say something nice about an ASM issue after the dreadful OMIT and dull beginning to this Mark Waid story. Simply a fun issue of Spider-Man being chased by villains with cool plot twists at the end.
Grade: B-
– Dean Stell
Grade
Conclusion