By: Dan Slott (writer), Giuseppe Camuncoli (pencils), Klaus Jansen (inks), Matt Hollingsworth (colors), Joe Caramagna (letters), Ellie Pyle (assistant editor) & Stephen Wacker (senior editor)
Cloak & Dagger back-up by: Slott (writer), Emma Rios (pencils), Javier Rodriguez (inks), Edgar Delgado (colors) & Caramagna (letters)
Additional back-up by: Todd Dezago (writer), Todd Nauck (art) & Chris Sotomayor (colors)
The Story: NYC criminals suddenly have to deal with the Wraith and Anti-Venom. Spider-Man doesn’t approve of their methods. Fights ensue.
What’s Good: It sure was nice to see Peter Parker remember that he had to go back to work at Horizon Labs. Even though we know that Peter’s good times where he has a nice job and money won’t last forever, it is so much fun to see Peter get to be a science nerd, hang out with the other science geeks, compete with the other geeks and do geeky things like getting his manuscript published in a major journal (although if, as the story states, he was getting this journal since he was a kid, it probably isn’t a major journal). It was also really nice to see him spending more time on his love life.
It is very easy when Spider-Man is on two Avengers teams and the FF for those important elements to get squeezed from his narrative, so it is nice to see Slott return to these little elements. Unlike Batman, Peter really is Peter, and Spider-Man is just one of the things that he has to fit into his very hectic days. Spider-Man works best when it has elements of an Archie comic infused through it.
Also love that the editorial staff (at least I presume it is editorial) keeps including the asterisk references to prior issues. Makes me feel like a kid again and I wish all comics would do this.
What’s Not So Good: Honestly, there is a lot that I didn’t enjoy very much about this issue. Much of it is going to come down to personal taste, so your mileage may vary.
One, Mr. Negative as a villain: I’ve never found him to be interesting or compelling, yet he keeps getting forced on us. I’d rather watch Spidey fight The Spot. Wasn’t Negative moving to California?
Two, Anti-Venom as a kinda-villain: I was fortunate enough to “miss” the 1990’s comics, so I never read the original Venom stuff when it was coming out. I have sought some of it out in recent years and though it was all pretty mediocre. So, I just groan when I see Eddie Brock on the page, especially when he has to carry a majority of the action in the issue. It’s just too much.
Three, the possibility of Jean DeWolff coming back to life: Can’t anyone stay dead? It could well be that she is some kind of illusion or something, but why do we have to go dredging up old supporting characters when the new stuff is very solid.
Four, I’m sick of the back-ups: They almost never work out right. With a great issue of ASM, they usually don’t live up to the excellence of the issue. With a mediocre issue (like this one), you just want the issue to be over and don’t want to read more back-ups. Just cut them out and make ASM a $2.99 title.
Five, I wouldn’t call the art “bad”, but it really didn’t do much for me. The overall character drawings are pretty good, but the combination of very light inking and highlighted colors just isn’t a good fit (ever). It doesn’t work great for soft human characters, but really fails with a character like Anti-Venom. Those kinds of characters need a harder edge to them. This would have looked a lot better with more complete inks and flat colors.
Conclusion: Not the best issue of Amazing Spider-Man. This issue feels like it is just killing time before the big Infestation and Spider-Island stories this summer.
Grade: D+
-Dean Stell
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