Amazing Spider-Man #660 - Review -Weekly Comic Book Review

By: Fred Van Lente & Dan Slott (writers), Mike McKone & Stefano Caselli (art), Marte Gracia (colors), Joe Caramagna (letters), Ellie Pyle (assistant editor) & Stephen Wacker (editor)

Infestation back-up by: Slott (writer), Lee Garbett (pencils), Scott Hanna (inks), Edgar Delgado (colors) & Caramagna (letters)

Ghost Rider back-up by: Rob Williams (writer), Garbett (pencils), Alejandro Sicat (inks), Fabio D’Auria (colors), Caramagna (letters) & Pyle & Wacker (editors)

The Story: Spider-Man and the FF are forced to square off against the Sinister Six on a Caribbean island.

What’s Good: One of the minor problems I had with ASM #659 was that the Sinister Six just didn’t seem to be a big enough challenge for the Spidey + FF combo (especially once you toss in the FF kids). I kinda looked at that cliffhanger last issue and thought, “Those bad guys are going to get a BAD beat down!” Granted, the bad guys always get a beat-down, but the writers have to come up with ways to make the same old villains seem freshly threatening to the same old heroes who have kicked their asses hundreds of times over the decades and we’ve certainly seen Spidey clobber these guys before. So, it was with some glee that I saw that the danger wasn’t quite as straightforward as it seemed last issue. That shouldn’t be surprising since both Slott and Van Lente are really smart writers who simply don’t do pedestrian superhero comics, especially when one of the villains is Mysterio.

Basically any time Mysterio is in a comic, you know that whatever is being shown to you is NOT the true story and I should have known better. But still, I didn’t anticipate the neat wrinkle that [SPOILER] Mysterio and Chameleon are the only SS members actually in the Caribbean while the rest of the villains are breaking into the Baxter Building and thereby setting up another cool cliffhanger.

It was also really nice to see that Carlie Cooper’s little tattoo adventure didn’t turn out the way it was broadcast in the last issue. I didn’t see any way getting a Goblin tattoo would turn out well for her, so I’m glad she made a different (though still ironic) choice. Knowing the dynamics of Peter’s love-life, you know that his time with Carlie is probably coming to an end and that’s a shame because I’m just starting to really like her.

Mike McKone guest stars on art and does a GREAT job. His style shades much more toward the realism, but he has enough of a cartooning background to pull off some of these crazy scenes where the FF’s powers get all mixed up.

What’s Not So Good: I’m not a huge fan of misdirection in my comics. I know it is a standard writing tool and I don’t mind when things are left unclear, but it does kinda bug me when you have a scene in #659 where Carlie is pretty clearly picking out the Goblin tattoo only to see that she finally got something else in this issue. It just seems that talented writers like Slott and Van Lente shouldn’t have to resort to that blunt instrument of deliberately misleading the reader. They’re too good for that and those two writers plus a nice artist like Caselli could have made a really neat scene that left Carlie’s tattoo choice ambiguous.

Along those lines, misdirection is part of any story with Mysterio and perhaps that is why I’ve never enjoyed him that much as a villain. Mind you, I don’t mind not knowing what is going on, but just don’t like a villain who can say, “Haha! Everything you thought you were reading for the last 10 pages is complete crap! The truth of the matter is _________!” I dunno, maybe there are readers who love that stuff, but it just makes me grouchy. Do you like blatant misdirection comics or a deus ex villain? Let me know in the comments section.

Conclusion: My personal issues with misdirection aside, it is still a pretty strong issue with clever dialog and lots of fun action. Nice art too. McKone would certainly fit in the rotating stable of Spidey-artists. I’m very much looking forward to seeing the bad guys get their asses handed to them for invading the Baxter Building and can’t wait to see the neat traps that Slott and Van Lente come up with that’ll be part of the FF’s security system.

Grade: B

Notes on the back-ups:

Infestation: This is just a 2-page teaser again. It’s really hard to tell much from this beyond the “oh no! danger looms!” Not bad, but not too informative either.

Ghost Rider: I don’t hate this back-up, but why can’t Ghost Rider just appear in Ghost Rider #1? Doesn’t it kinda cheapen that #1 issue to have it spoiled as a second back-up in another title (that isn’t historically associated with Ghost Rider)?