By: Dan Slott (writer), Giuseppe Camuncoli (pencils), Klaus Janson, Daniel Green & Camuncoli (inks), Frank D’Armata (colors), Chris Eliopoulos, Ellie Pyle (assistant editor) & Stephen Wacker (editor)
The Story: The saga of a lizard in man’s clothing continues.
A few things: 1). Slott found the “go” button. – This was a really fun issue that recalled the magic from the beginning of Dan Slott’s ASM run (~20 months ago). The stories have all been quality since then, but I found myself not enjoying them quite as much; it was as if those early stories were a 10/10 and the others were an 8/10. I attributed some of it to whether Humberto Ramos was doing the art, but I think another thing might have been some of the writing. This issue just had a “snap” to it that has been missing for awhile. This issue felt like Slott had a BLAST writing it and was fully engaged. I don’t know what goes on in the guy’s private life, but we all have times when we’re doing a “competent” job at work and other times when we transcend. Stuff throws you off: fight with your wife, sick dog, new boss, etc. The sad thing about superhero comics is that when the stories get down to the “competent” level, they start to feel like glorified fan-fiction….as in, “I could totally write this stuff.” An issue like this one makes me realize that there is a reason why Dan Slott is a professional writer and the rest of us aren’t.
So what was so snappy? Lots of things! The whole thing with Curt-Lizard enjoying aspects of human life, the reappearance of the hobgoblin (who is fun), the Spidey-banter–all great stuff.
2). Is this the end for some characters? – I presume that Slott is leaving ASM sometime around #700. Is this confirmed yet? If he is leaving, that means that he might be killing off “his” supporting characters since the next writer probably won’t be using them. So, perhaps this is the end for some of these Horizon Labs characters that we’ve grown to know and love over the last ~50 issues. I think I’d miss Grady the most and also suspect that he’s the most likely to be picked up by another creator in the future.
3). Kingpin? – Was I sleeping and Kingpin was in the last few issues of this storyline? This new plot that Kingpin is working on does come out of left-field (or explain it to me in the comments), but if his presence means another bout between the new Hobgoblin and Spidey, that would be very interesting. Kingpin is also one of the more interesting classic villains in comics because he isn’t expressly evil.
4). Run on story. – The general storytelling in ASM reminds me a lot of the comics I loved as a kid in that the characters call back to events that happened a long time ago. Slott is still giving us defined storylines, but it isn’t like the ending of Spider-Island means that we’ll never talk about Spider-Island ever again. It’s nice to feel like you didn’t read all those issues for nothing and that the events are somehow important to these characters that we enjoy. But, Slott doesn’t use these events to exclude new readers. It isn’t like all they do is talk about Spider-Island….it’s more a reminder that it happened. This approach isn’t totally unique at Marvel as Fantastic Four and Uncanny X-Force (and others) follow a similar pattern, but it is greatly appreciated.
5). Art is solid, but… – Now we get to the “Why this issue didn’t get an A….” segment of the review. The art isn’t poor…..it’s squarely “above average” even if it is a little inconsistent because you can really see the presence of three inkers. Camuncoli just isn’t my cuppa tea. His characters look a little stiff, I don’t like the angular faces. The storytelling and general layouts are fine, but I think those basics should be a given at the “professional artist” level – kinda like how almost all NBA players can dunk. And I really don’t think the coloring on this issue fits Camunucoli’s style because it is too highlighted.
Conclusion: Dan Slott seems to have really enjoyed writing this issue. Lots of fun even if the art can’t quite keep up.
Grade: B+
– Dean Stell
Grade
Conclusion