Amazing Spider-Man 700.4, Amazing Spider-Man 700.5

Amazing Spider-Man 700.4
Casey (w) and Green and Wong (a) and Simpson (c)

Spider-Man is still, pre-Superior days, in the Black Lodge, the little hospital for supervillains, but he knows his time there is short and that someone will figure him out soon. However, he still isn't well enough to move and he thinks he might push his luck and stay a little longer. The Surgeon General decides to inform the other patients of Spider-Man's identity and let them loose on Spider-Man, swearing not to inflict damage himself but knowing that Spider-Man cannot be left to destroy the hospital. The villains attack and Spider-Man still manages to outfight them. One of the nurses, though, messes with Firebrand's medicine too much and causes an explosion in the hospital. The Black Lodge nurses and doctors, led by the Surgeon General, pack things up while Spider-Man saves the villains from burning inside. He then goes home to rest.

This series still flummoxes me and I can't tell if I don't care about this storyline because I can't fathom why it exists or if it's because I truly don't care about this storyline. If forced to make a bet, I'd say it's a little from both columns there. It's just a little boring and it's not exactly wonderfully written. It's a step up from purely poor writing but there are weird things that Casey gets into, including really forced quips and working in a strange attraction to one of the nurses. He also cannot stop telling us that the members of the Black Lodge will CERTAINLY soon find out that he's Spider-Man, which may be less a fault of Casey's and more a fault of Spider-Man's, who has a penchant for this kind of repetitive inner monologue. Don't worry, I bet I won't have to review another one of these. WHAT'S THIS...?

Amazing Spider-Man 700.5
Reed (w) and Chen and Florea (a) and Sotomayor (c)

Okay, so I think I've heard this is the final one of these books for real. Anyway, Johnny Storm shows up at Peter's apartment saying that he has to protect this potential universe ending mechanism from getting into Reed's hands until the end of the day. The rest of the Fantastic Four are on Johnny's trail and asking him for the mechanism but Johnny believes he can't trust them with it and flees again. Spider-Man joins up with the other three as they track Johnny to MJ's apartment (to Spider-Man's frustration). They all arrive at MJ's and decide to sit with the package until the day ends. Finally, Spider-Man opens the bag the Calvin Mechanism is in only to find that there's a note from future Ben (who delivered the package and instructions to Johnny) that reveals it was a prank.

So this one again doesn't really fit anywhere into continuity beyond "it's before Superior and Peter is dating MJ" BUT, and this seems like it might answer the question I asked in the last review, I did find myself enjoying this one. There were funny bits throughout and they idea was at least interesting enough to keep the comic moving at a decent pace. This is one of the better ways to view the Fantastic Four in general: from an outsider's point of view. They have these quirky little stories that may not come across particularly well if we're just living out their lives but when they dump Spider-Man into the middle of it, it's not a bad little story. Definitely the most fun of this little inexplicable series.

Amazing Spider-Man 700.2, Amazing Spider-Man 700.3, Superior Foes of Spider-Man 6

Amazing Spider-Man 700.2
Morrell (w) and Janson (a) and Buccellato (c)

Peter knows something is wrong with Aunt May, he knows it deep down and his spider sense seems to be confirming it. Despite the freezing and horrible conditions, he leaves to go across the city and help her. However, on his way he finds disaster after disaster that require assistance and he makes his way through all of it, saving lives and helping people but slowing him from getting to Aunt May and weakening him throughout it all. He nearly doesn't make it but a dream of Uncle Ben pushes him to cross the last bit of New York he needs to cross to Aunt May, where he finds her passed out on the floor of her freezing home. He warms her back up and puts her in her bed, wrapping her tightly and watching over her as she recovers. Satisfied when she comes to, he sets to work around the house, boarding up the windows and removing the debris and shoveling out the front. She insists he rests and reminds him that Ben always said that this is nature's way of saying everyone needs to slow down.

Not a bad little story (though still somewhat inexplicable that we've seemingly kicked off a new series not set around the time of AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 700 but all with that title and starring Peter Parker in different Peter Parkery situations) and it works to show off a little taste of Peter Parker. Overall, though, it still feels weird to have this series going and the story itself isn't anything of such importance or such originality that it feels like it absolutely required an ASM tie-in? I don't even really know how to classify this book. On top of that, as an issue removed from everything else happening with Spider-Man at present, the writing gets a little clunky and insists a little too much on explaining everything that's happening, which might not so much be a flaw in the writing as it is a flaw in Peter Parker, Captain Over-Explain-Your-Feelings over there. Janson's art is strong almost all the way through, but his post-storm Peter looks a bit like a 50 year-old man, which I get in the way of "he's had an incredibly long day" but I don't so much get in the way where it looks like he's gained a bit of weight. Maybe that's too judgmental. WHATEVER. I STILL DON'T UNDERSTAND THIS BOOK AND IT'S NOT ABOUT TO GET ANY BETTER BECAUSE...

Amazing Spider-Man 700.3
Casey (w) and Green and Wong (a) and Simpson (c)

So this was the point where I realized this little series was still going. Here we see Spider-Man fight Firebrand in a scrapyard and pretty much win the fight until Firebrand pins him and goes all out, burning him to a crisp but exhausting himself in the process. Firebrand is later picked up by an ambulance team and they see Peter there too, though he's unrecognizable with his burns. Peter awakes to find himself in a hospital bed and eventually realizes (though the audience knows the entire time) that this is an underground hospital specifically designed to treat supervillains who have no where else to go. Peter didn't come in with a costume but did still have his very damaged web shooters on him, which the surgeon general of the hospital takes to examine later. They start fixing him up and, a little healed, he begins to investigate the place. He figures out what it is and knows, despite his injuries, he has to get out because they'll soon figure out who he is. By issue's end, they have, with Firebrand returning to consciousness and revealing who he came in with and the surgeon general identifying the web shooters.

It's a somewhat interesting premise for the story but it's a little heavy-handed, with the extremely heavy-handed surgeon general preaching about fixing these people who have nowhere else to go and constantly talking about how they must do this because WHO ELSE shall look after these people? Despite this and despite the obviously criminal people he starts hanging out with in there, it takes Peter an awfully long time to figure out where he is. I also have some amount of trouble believing that the surgeon general, after years in medical school and presumably years working as a doctor, has the knowledge to identify a web shooter. Moot point, though, since Firebrand also told them. ANYWAY, the story's okay, the writing's not amazing, the art is okay, but frankly the whole story MIGHT JUST be hurt by the fact that the issue comes with an 8-page Black Cat story written by Jen Van Meter, drawn by the amazing Emma Rios (check her out on PRETTY DEADLY, in stores now), and colored by top-of-the-game Jordie Bellaire. It's an interesting story and it's absolutely gorgeous and you read it and kind of go "gee, I wish this had been the whole issue." Ah, well. This little series continues to be weird and out of place for me.

Superior Foes of Spider-Man 6
Spencer (w) and Lieber (a) and Rosenberg (c)

Boomerang has made it out of the Owl's hideout with the painting of Von Doom without his mask on, which has a single tear running down it, the insertion of which led to Doom killing the painter and hiding the painting until it was eventually stolen and stolen and stolen. Now Boomerang has it and it's valued, potentially, at upwards of three million dollars, all for him. He assumes that his teammates are dead and, while he has some remorse about that, he's not overly concerned. He takes his new kind-of girlfriend out on a date, he contemplates what he's going to do with the painting, and he ultimately meets with an angry Mach V who informs Boomerang that he was supposed to meet with him and who is suspicious of him, though he can't place just why yet. Meanwhile, Owl interrogates the still-alive Speed Demon, Beetle, and Overdrive. At Beetle's insistence, they don't give up Boomerang (who she still believes must have gotten away with what they wanted and must still be on their side) and Beetle manages to engineer their escape by covertly texting for a rescue to her father, who turns out to be Tombstone.

Another fun little issue here that deals with Boomerang's lies to both his team and to the audience of this book, who believed we were after the head of Silvermane only to find that we were after the painting of Doom and that the head of Silvermane doesn't really exist but it really does and boy sometimes this is confusing. The dialogue and Boomerang's narration continues to be fun and fairly natural and the story is gaining some steam now that we have a few things happening all over. The best scene, probably, comes as Mach V and Boomerang talk to one another about the terms of his probation and about the fact that Boomerang is probably hiding something. It's a pretty fun scene with Boomerang denying that he was the same Boomerang who broke his team out of their potential imprisonment a couple issues ago and Mach V not quite being stupid enough to believe it. There's another fun bit as Mach V prepares to make a menacing exit line as he jumps from the window but finds his wings won't fit and so has to sheepishly wait to say it (at Boomerang's insistence) as he leaves through the door. There's a lot to like about this series at this point (it also made the AV Club's top comics of the year list, which I think was maybe a little crazy given that we're six issues in and that I think it hasn't been as fun as it is now all the way through) and I think it's only going to get stronger as the characters become more defined and as the plot continues to pick up. Should be fun going forward on this one.

This week's posts

Good god, there sure are a bunch of comics coming out this week.

People may have noticed that I started this blog hot on the heels of Amazing Spider-Man 700 because the idea of a comic review blog had been bouncing around my head and I had things to say about that particular issue and the happenings of the Marvel Universe as a result. That came out the day after Christmas and was one of two releases. The next week's (this past week's) new releases came out the day after New Year's. There were more releases than two, but not a normal release schedule.

This week, there are, by my count, about 16 books I aim to review. We'll see if I can get my hands on them and if I can actually review them all in time for them to be posted (ideally, yes). If I keep to a loose schedule I have in my head, that'll mean about four reviews a day, so I apologize in advance for how much scrolling you'll have to do on each post.

My initial thought about today's post was that I'd give a quick pre-game rundown of every book. BAD IDEA, there are 16. Let's say, then, what I'm looking forward to most this week, perhaps to inflate my expectations so much that I can quickly deride anyone that doesn't exactly match it.

Avengers Arena 3
As anyone else who picked up the first issue, I'm kind of ensnared. I'm not sure I'll love it all the way through going forward, but BOY did they hook me. Looking forward to seeing the new characters, the older characters I don't know, and the few in this series I do know.

Fantastic Four 3
I like Fraction. This is also the first issue where the team, I have to think, will actually be exploring. I'd like to see how that pans out for Marvel's first family.

Secret Avengers 36
Crap, is this the last issue of Secret Avengers before it gets NOW!ed? I think it is. I'm acting under the assumption it is. Well that's reason enough to be excited.

Superior Spider-Man 1
Who isn't anxious to see this book? If you're a comic fan and you're not at least a little intrigued as to how this will play out, you're not doing it right.

Thor: God of Thunder 4
This book has been overwhelming so far. Strong three issues with a lot of good character building, smart writing, and engaging story. Also gorgeous art.


As for when I'll review specific books, first consideration has to go to when I actually get them. Assuming I'm able to get them all in the timeframe I'm hoping for, I tend to arrange by a hierarchy that only my brain knows and doesn't tell me about ahead of time. It's usually based on book popularity, a need to discuss it, and my own feelings towards the book or characters. If a book is a number one, I'm likely to review it earlier, or if it will have ramifications on other books or the Universe, or if I just REALLY want to talk about it. Look, it all comes together, okay? See you this week.

X-Force post-game: part three

CHARACTER DAYYYYYYY

Okay, so I'm a pretty big fan of good characters. I really would read a book that was just well-written and well-rounded characters sitting about and enjoying themselves. Okay, maybe I would do that. I don't know. I probably have done that. Whenever the Illuminati appears, it seems like they're doing that (or launching Hulk into space or whatever) but I like them well enough (NOT YOU, REED).

Look, the point is I prefer good characters to good story. This book had both in great amounts. LET'S TALK ABOUT THE CHARACTERS THOUGH.

Wolverine-
Wolverine, in many ways, had the most static arc of anyone in the book. I think this might come from the fact that he has, I would hazard to guess, appeared the most times in the Marvel Universe. He's not older than everyone (looking at you, Angel), but he's certainly been the most popular of the team for the longest time (I'd say Deadpool has recently challenged him to some extent in popularity, but he's not really reliable "favorite character" material, normally). He still goes through some big events, if not huge changes. Uncanny X-Force 9 features a stand-alone book where he aids Magneto (who has just discovered their existence) by hunting down and killing a former Nazi, highlighting his "used as a weapon" background. He goes through some big parental events with Daken and, I would say, is probably the one most taken out of the fights. That was always interesting to me, watching as Wolverine quickly gets thrown from the plot by fielding the biggest attacks. It says something about Remender's confidence in the team that he'd toss his biggest character to the sidelines when certain big stories came through. Otherwise, Wolverine played the hotheaded leader of the team and filled the role aptly. It's hard to say Wolverine is a weak character because, when written well (as I think he was in this series), even weaker appearances are stronger. That said, he felt a bit weaker than the typically very strong rest of the team. I did like the challenges he occasionally struggled with when realizing that the team felt very much like an excuse to let his animal side out. Nice to see heroes question their own motivations.

Archangel-

Archangel came in with the most exterior problems and left with the fewest about halfway through the book's run. He struggles with keeping Apocalypse's form down in his head, an eventually insurmountable task originally given to Psylocke. I would say that the strengths of Archangel's characters were usually depicted either through his few memories or through other characters talking to or dealing with him. There are some endearing moments when we see his history with the first class X-Men and when he meets Betsy for the first time. Most everything else was hidden from us and he was largely the quietest member of a team consisting of Deadpool and Fantomex. When he appeared, it usually wasn't bad (well, in terms of his character. Sometimes he was really bad, like destroy Montana bad, but you get what I'm saying), but he wasn't a particular favorite. He also had less time to develop in the series and has a well-defined history already in the Marvel Universe.

Psylocke-
I hadn't seen too too much of Psylocke prior to this series. I was familiar with her abilities and a tiny bit of her history (especially as it pertained to Captain Britain), but it was largely through X-Men and as a minor part at that. It was certainly nice to see her here. She was one of the more complicated characters contained to the book (I'd put it between her and Fantomex. Deadpool ranks really high there too, but largely owing to his existence outside of this book but WE'LL GET TO THAT) and we saw her, at various times, love Angel, hate Archangel, hate Fantomex, love Fantomex, depowered, repowered, power-boosted, as a future dictator, without sorrow, with family, against family, and many other with/against emotions. She was the one most ready to point out Wolverine's brutality obsession leaking through in the team and the one often least happy with the missions or the outcomes or the costs. It makes her more interesting, then, that she appears to be leading the new X-Force book by Sam Humphries on its way. Her stories in Otherworld and with her brother Brian always seemed to be the most interesting to me. There were many parts of her story in X-Force that I loved and I think she would have been a strong contender for favorite character in the series if not for the next two.

Fantomex-
Fantomex was the least known commodity in this book. I had gone back to find his appearances in New X-Men and I had seen him originally in his Dark Reign appearance. I remembered liking him there, though being completely unfamiliar with him. He has since pretty easily transformed into one of my favorite characters in the whole of the Universe. A very complicated character by his very existence, Fantomex had three brains, including one of a Sentinel programmed to hunt mutants. He battled against it through the entirety of the series and was largely flippant and witty with the team. I liked him already, but the watershed moment was in X-Force 19, pictured to the left. On the exterior, I absolutely loved him throwing the beer can at Wolverine. Just an amazing moment. But it was the explanation of cloning Apocalypse, the "I needed to know if there was hope for me," that sold me one hundred percent. Everyone loves a redemption story and it was nice to see one had been developing behind our very backs. He was always well-written, always strong, always acted the way you understood he'd act, and throw beer cans at Wolverine's head every 19 issues or so. If he's not a favorite of yours, you're not doing comics right (sorry).

Deadpool-
Despite my adoration of Fantomex, Deadpool was the happiest surprise for me. A relatively new character being good is exciting, sure. But an already established and major player in the Marvel Universe (at least in terms of units sold) acting within character but so far outside of it at the same time? Brilliant. My favorite moments with Deadpool have always been the surprise serious moments, like when he admits to Cable that he's not just picking up anti-Registration heroes for their bounties (as he'd let on), he believes in what he's doing. This series had its share of Deadpool being off-the-hook crazy, for sure, but he had more character-defining moments like that than I've ever seen. Not to say they got old because they never did. They were always refreshing, they were always heart-wrenching, and they were always as much a part of him as any crazy thing he spoke. I'm not sure how Remender was able to keep so true to Deadpool's character while also defining him so emotionally, but I hope if I ever have an opportunity to write a character with those insane tendencies, I'll be able to treat him half as well as Remender treated Deadpool. His scene I mentioned in this post, walking out of a meeting he called to talk about their actions, was the first and earliest sign that this book was for real. Like, more for real than killing a kid for shock value. Deadpool, one of the most deranged and deadly characters in the Marvel U, was suddenly the conscience of the team. It defined him, it defined the team, it defined the series. Throughout the series, he grappled with low self-esteem, working on a team, tough moral choices, morals at all, plenty of things I hadn't seen Deadpool deal with before, but Remender handled them all beautifully. I think Daniel Way was a really good writer for Deadpool's solo series in the way Remender was for his team series. I'm excited to see Way handle him with the Thunderbolts. So far, I'm very unimpressed by Deadpool's new solo series, so we'll see where that goes. The point is that I think Deadpool is a hard character to write well. I credit Way with a good run at a hard time for the character, but I think Remender's run added more layers in 35 issues than most writers add in twice that, especially on a team book (I don't know any layers that were added on to anyone in either of Bendis' Avengers titles that just ended).

Nightcrawler-

I think I said all I really needed to say about AoA Nightcrawler in this post, so I won't say much here (especially after Deadpool's really long entry. GUYS, I have more to say so LET ME KNOW WHO WANTS TO HEAR IT). I loved the idea behind him and I'm sad we couldn't see more of him. His inevitable eventual betrayal of the team for his own needs (he always said as much) was still fairly shocking, though not completely unexpected (as I said, it was inevitable). Still, it was a very different Nightcrawler than the one in the main universe while still keeping some of the heroic tendencies of ours. A nice look.

Deathlok-

He was kind of on the team for a little bit? We didn't see much of him, but when we did (and when he wasn't reverted back to his psychopathic serial killer host), he was always hilarious. Deadpool's love for him was great. Magneto holding him in the air after breaking in with him explaining to the team "I attempted to eject him but I am at a...disadvantage" was pretty great. He's good dude, Deathlok.

EVA-
Was fine. Never got a huge grip on her. She was Fantomex's nervous system. Some stuff happened. She became a full body. She didn't have a huge role after that. I had no beef.

Ultimaton-
Just...whatever. He hung around in the World, guarding Fantomex's lab. It was...cool? Sure. It was cool.

LOOK, it was a great book, you should read it, I might do another post or two about it because I still have a few days until new comics come out and MAYBE I shouldn't have started this blog on a week where only two new comics were released but I had stuff to say about ASM 700 and they certainly weren't to wait around in my brain for a week and my plan overall is to update this near everyday so I MIGHT AS WELL START NOW. I'll talk to you tomorrow.

Amazing Spider-Man 700

This is just a gorgeous variant. I really like the normal cover, but this is beautiful.

I follow Dan Slott on Twitter. I'm not sure if he receives more hate-tweets than anyone I've seen or if he just responds to it more. That's not a dig at him, I just think he cares about keeping Spider-Man fans happy. That's similarly not a dig at him. He's not selling his creative integrity or his artistic license off to make money. He cares about keeping Spider-Man fans happy because he knows what it is to be a Spider-Man fan. I think the people who write the best books write them well because they understand the characters to a degree other, even maybe better, writers can't. Rick Remender's stunning Uncanny X-Force book ran so perfectly for simply that reason. He said in his final wrap-up that he started by just writing where each character came from, where they were, and where they would end up. It's that sort of dedication to character that drives a book. Those kinds of books can live without huge action scenes or universe-spanning stories. This is exactly why Dan Slott is a near perfect Spider-Man writer.

Amazing Spider-Man 700 wraps up 50 years of Peter Parker. In the last arc of the series, genius and longtime Spider-Man foe Doctor Octopus has switched his mind with Peter's, inheriting Peter's memories and physical abilities while leaving stranded in Doc Ock's dying body with his disturbing and sometimes disgusting memories. While Peter works tirelessly to team up with villains to break himself out of prison and fix all of this, Doc Ock revels in the chance to ruin Spider-Man's legacy and Peter's life. He knows Peter's extensive supporting cast through all of Peter's memories, but has none of the attachments Peter has to any of them. While this seems an obvious plot point, 700 makes it the crux of the issue and the story as a whole. The issue ends, after much back-and-forthing between Peter and Doc Ock, with Peter unable to switch his mind back into his own body, but able to impart his full history, emotions and all, onto Ock, making him capable of understanding the true import of Spider-Man. Peter, still trapped in Doc Ock's body, dies in Spider-Man's arms.

I understand why people were nervous about this arc and why they were furious at Dan Slott. I'm not, but I understand the impulse. Peter Parker, after 50 years of being a Marvel mainstay and one of the most likable and relatable characters in comics, appears dead (this is comics, after all, where we do have to add the "appears" modifier to every death). It's not so easy to swallow. To blame Slott, though, is not to understand Spider-Man, or Peter Parker. Slott does.

Batman is Batman because his parents were murdered. Captain America is Captain America because Steve Rogers could never not be. Iron Man is Iron Man because of his guilt and probably a complex. Superman is Superman because what else is he going to do? (I admittedly don't pay much attention to Superman, but that seems like a pretty good origin). Spider-Man, though, is Spider-Man because the people in his life meant so much to him that he was able to transfer that love to everyone in the world and use it to defend and save them, even if they were ungrateful or scared or undeserving. Peter Parker was, throughout his run, inextricably tied to his alter ego like no other hero could be. Dan Slott knows this. That's why this final arc brought everyone in Peter's life back to him, through various means. That's why Uncle Ben was able to talk him into surviving the first time Ock's body brought him to death (for three minutes). That's why the memories of Spider-Man's history and his relationships were enough to make Doctor Octopus, a criminal mastermind set on erasing Spider-Man, vow to take up the mantle for good.

You don't have to love the issue's implications. You don't have to like that Peter Parker is (seemingly) dead or that Doctor Octopus is now Spider-Man. I'm sure not ready to part with Peter. But don't blame Dan Slott. The man knows Peter Parker better than probably any comic writer knows any of his or her characters. That's why this final issue is so powerful, and why Slott has constructed one of the best and most meaningful arcs of Spider-Man's rich history. Is it heart-breaking to watch Peter Parker go? Yes, absolutely. I can't be mad, though. Peter acted exactly the way he always would have in this situation.