By: Dan Slott & Christos Gage (writers), Giuseppe Camuncoli (pencils), Klaus Janson (inks), Matt Hollingsworth (colors), Joe Caramagna (letters), Ellie Pyle (assistant editor) & Stephen Wacker (senior editor)
Back-up: Slott, Max Fiumara (art) & Caramagna
The Story: Anti-Venom (Eddie Brock) continues trying to prove to Spider-Man that Mr. Negative is really Martin Li (NYC philanthropist).
Review: This issue has some high points and low points that average out to an “average” comic.
The good parts all stem from the plot development side of the story. Mr. Negative having his secret identity revealed is kind of a big deal. Even though he isn’t a “classic” Spidey-villain…..he’s been a semi-regular since first turning up 3-4 years ago. Now that his secret identity as NYC’s biggest philanthropist is ruined, he’ll just have to be plain old evil Mr. Negative. That should make for better stories because the attempts to play up his wolf-in-sheep’s-clothing have been kinda clumsy over the years because I don’t think creators have really used the “secret identity” as anything more than a mask (vs. it being a true second identity that Negative sometimes finds attractive). Maybe he’ll be a more interesting villain now?
It was also pretty cool to see Carlie figure out who this person masquerading as The Wraith really was and see Carlie agree to keep this secret identity confidential. This has obvious implications for Peter Parker’s relationship with Carlie and Peter knows it. As time goes on, I’m really enjoying Carlie more and more as a character, and I would really like to see Peter open up to her (she’s gonna be pissed when she finds out).
Unfortunately this issue also had some low points. Some it just comes from choice of characters: Mr. Negative and Anti-Venom. Call it personal preference, but I’ve yet to read a Mr. Negative story that I thought was remotely interesting. Same goes for Anti-Venom… I’d rather read a story with brand new characters and enjoy some sense of novelty because these two don’t excite me.
When you have a comic issue that is just kinda average from a story standpoint, it really falls on the art to pick up the story. It isn’t that this art is “bad”…..it’s very serviceable, but it doesn’t’ do anything to excite me. The storytelling aspects of the art all work just fine, but the faces are a little odd for a style that is basically rooted in realism and the characters’ hair looks stiff and rigid. I just like to see a little more energy in my comics. I will say that the fight between Negative and Spidey/Anti-Venom/Wraith was really well drawn and colored. These characters (who interestingly have no hair) all look plenty energetic, but characters like Carlie or Norah look really stiff.
Now, the back-up was the highlight of the book. Another problem with this Anti-Venom/Negative story arc is that it pulled us away from the MUCH more enticing story begun with the Free Comic Book Day issue, where Shang Chi is teaching Spidey martial arts (since he doesn’t have his spidey sense anymore). Whereas the main story’s plot feels like something we’ve seen before, this back-up is all kinds of fresh and features art by the great Max Fiumara. His flowing, cartooning style is really well suited to an awesome double-page spread of Shang and Spidey having a sparring session. Bravo! [Mr. Fiumara also succeeded in that litmus test that I stopped typing the review to go look at his original art for sale.]
Conclusion: Certainly not terrible, but also not up to the standards that ASM has been setting since Dan Slott took over. Despite a few flashes of brilliance and a great 3-page back-up, this grades out as an average superhero comic.
Grade: C
-Dean Stell
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Conclusion