By: Dan Slott (writer), Humberto Ramos (pencils), Victor Olazaba (inks), Edgar Delgado (colors), Chris Eliopoulos (letters), Ellie Pyle (assistant editor) and Stephen Wacker (editor)
The Story: Something MUST be done about Alpha!
Review (with minor SPOILERS): This issue isn’t without its good elements. It’s always fun (and funny) when the Avengers show up in ASM and the big set-piece action scene is exciting–plus we get the bonus of Jonah being grateful to Spidey for saving his family. And the art is superb, as you’d expect with talents such as Ramos, Olazaba and Delgado on the book. But…
There are some gaping holes with this Alpha storyline that are impossible to ignore. I’m left wondering (assuming? hoping?) that we’re only at the halfway point of the Alpha story because what we have now feels so below the standards of writer Slott and editor Wacker.
The primary problem with Alpha is that everything has happened too fast. It’s hard to fully appreciate the act of Spidey ripping away Alpha’s powers because it happens so fast. I mean, this is Spider-Man making a solo judgement call that Alpha is unworthy, constructing the means of his de-powering and then luring him in under pretense to zap his powers away. Does that sound like Spidey? Does it sound like something that you would expect Spidey to wrestle with for more than one issue? Don’t you think Spidey would try everything else before resorting to such a drastic solution? Hell, the primary complaint was that he didn’t come in for his weekly check-ups and when he does show up for one, he get’s ambushed!
There is also the problem that we don’t see what Alpha did that is so bad. Alpha is an annoying teenager, but that hardly makes him unique in the Marvel Universe. Sure, he is a little reckless with his powers, but show me a character on the Avengers that hasn’t had a moment of unintended consequences. This is the same problem that AvX suffers from: There is no moment where Cyclops/Alpha does anything so wretched that you think, “He MUST be stopped! He’s gone too far!”
Why not just send Alpha to the Avengers Academy? Thunderbolts?
Conclusion: Not very good. It’s hard not to assume that Slott has bigger/better plans for the Alpha story just because we know that he is a better writer than this issue shows. However, even if this is a midpoint, it is a pretty flawed one.
Grade: C-
– Dean Stell
Grade
Conclusion