Amazing Spider-Girl (1-3) - Tom DeFalco isn't for everyone. He's had more than his fair share of bad ideas (His run on Fantastic Four seems to have been nothing but) but Spider-Girl appears to be a character suited for him. Sure, there are probably writers that could do more realistic teenage dialogue/drama, but more than likely, you'd wind up with a Winick, and I'd have to shoot myself.
High Point: #1, for the simple reason that it meant the saga of May "Mayday" Parker hadn't come to a close. Beyond that, May's conflict between her desire to be there for her friends and family, and to use her powers to help those in need was a welcome sight. And there was something amusing about May fighting crime in her red hoodie. Reminiscent of the Scarlet Spider's blue sweat top. What? I liked that costume! It was simple!
Low Point: This is based mostly off a bad feeling I got, but the sequence when May's boyfriend Gene Thompson is encouraging her to take their relationship to the next level gave me serious bad vibes. Hopefully, I'm just being paranoid. {Adorable Bby Panda thinks I'm overreacting. Silly baby panda}.
Amazing Spider-Man (528-536) - Well, the year started with the conclusion to The Other, so hey, nowhere to go but up, right? Then Peter unmasked and well, it's been kind of nuts since then. JMS has done OK with his Civil War tie-in issues, some being better than others.
High Point: #530-531, as Peter follows Tony Stark to to Washington D.C., and sits in on the hearings about superhuman activity. Peter's out of his depth, but that doesn't stop him from using his stupid new costume to defend his boss when Titanium Man shows up looking to cause trouble. {Adorable Baby Panda thinks the new costume is cool. Silly children, so easily impressed by shiny gadgets and whizzbangs}. Sure, we find out that Stark hired Titanium Man to try and aid the heroes cause, but hey, that's just foreshadowing for how far he'd go during Civil War. It's not such a jump from hiring an armored nut to attack you (and endanger civilians) to cloning your old buddy (or was it make a cyborg?) and using it to beat up other old buddies {ABP says that it's proud of Peter, but a little disappointed in Tony Stark. We know he meant well, but the ends can't always justify the means, can they?}
Low Point: Very tempting to say #528, the final chapter of the nonsensical The Other, but fortunately for that issue, Peter Parker went and unmasked during a press conference probably being broadcast worldwide, and that little bit of dumbassery is going to win pretty much every day of the week. At least he's better off than Speedball (I will not call him Penance, go to hell).
Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man (4-10) - Apparently, Peter David was just waiting for me to give up before he injected more fun into the stories. Still not sure how "friendly" they are, but I suppose he's doing the best he can under the constraints Civil War places on him.
High Point: Well, he actually wrote a pretty good chapter of The Other in January - until the giant lving mass of spiders showed up. {ABP says "what?"} I'll take the story with the Mexican wrestler, especially #7. Peter has accidentally injured El Muerto in their charity wrestling match, and has to defend him against El Dorado. Doing so requires Peter to - gasp! - actually use his brain, since he needs to figure a way to get through the fellow's enchanted golden armor. Spider-Man defends people, fights the bad guy, saves the day, and does it smartly. Huzzah! {ABP demands applause for Jonah Jameson, for telling off El Dorado when he first appeared to kill El Muerto, giving Spidey time to show and save the day. I respect chutzpah, so I'll go with it}.
Low Point: #10, when Alternate Universe Uncle Ben, shoots the Spider-man of 2211 so he can remain in the 616 reality. Given that he hadn't demonstrated such a streak in anything we'd been shown earlier (remember, he was struck by Aunt May and Jarvis before he retaliated on Edwin), it just seemed too out of left field. Though I suppose the story does deserve some credit; it provided the inspiration for this winding road of lunacy, so there's that. {ABP says that post caused a headache. Funny, typing it got rid of mine.} Who knows? Maybe after the Civil War tie-in issues wrap up, I'll dump ASM, and go back to FNSM.
Marvel Adventures Spider-Man (19) - It was Spidey versus Fing Fang Foom. 'Nuff said.
Marvel Knights (22) - It was Chapter 11 of The Other. Then the title changed (but the numbering didn't. Curious). I would not describe it as a good issue, but I was probably having too much trouble following the 'What you are, I am not. What you are not, I am' dialogue to notice the deeper intricacy of the issue.
Sensational Spider-Man (23, 29) - Aguirre-Sacasa seems to just be writing whatever he feels like, having a party with all sorts of characters that hadn't been seen in awhile (Molten Man? Will O' Wisp?), but I can't quite bring myself to buy it regularly. Again, maybe after Civil War, when I'll probably be having a toss-up as to which 616 Spidey-title I buy monthly, it may win out.
Spider-Girl (94-100) - Weird thing I noticed. In Spider-Girl, DeFalco wrote the inner monologue boxes in second person "You are May "Mayday" Parker, daughter of the original Spider-Man..." Stuff like that. That's been abandoned for Amazing Spider-Girl. Don't know why.
High Point - #99 and 100 were both quite good, and actually made me like the Venom symbiote for probably the first time since it appeared (though the revelation it was female was creepy, and kind of unneccessary. I was sure it reproduced asexually, so gender should be a nonfactor). There was #94, which featured the return of Scarlet Witch, Scott Lang and Hawkeye (three Avengers Bendis gave a raw deal to in Disassembled) to action, but I have to go with #97, when the Brotherhood of Scriers turn to Hobgoblin to deal with Spider-Girl. First they have to break him out of prison, but all that really requires is freeing one of his manacles from the ceiling. Roderick Kingsley does the rest, going through his guards at the same time he frees himself from his chains with relative ease. As someone who only really got to read stories with that wannabe Jason Macendale as Hobgoblin, this was a bit of a wake-up call to how dangerous the character used to be. {5 out of 5 Adorable Baby Pandas agree, this Hobgoblin is a bad mofo}.
Low Point - I guess I'll say #96, since it seemed mostly to be a set-up for the stretch run. May has a run in with a Scrier, Normie Osborn elects to join the government agency his fiance, Raptor, was working for, and that seemed to be about it. It wasn't a bad issue, and there were some interesting moments where May wrestles with doubt, and tries to take the blame for Moose's dad getting hurt during the previous issue's superfight.
Spider-Man and the Black Cat (6) - Ugh. Piece of shite. Less said, the better.
Ultimate Spider-Man (89-103, Annual #2) - Interesting year, as Bendis and Bagley approached the record for longest consecutive run on a Marvel title by writer and penciler. Bendis experimented a bit with shorter stories, with the 4-part Deadpool arc, and the two-part (?!) Morbius story. Of course, the big event has been the Ultimate Clone Saga, which has been better than the original (not difficult), but also hasn't stank (quite a surprise).
High Point: The Annual was good, and the Morbius story had it's moments, and #103 was good if for no other reason than how utterly evil Doctor Octavius was, but I'm giving it to the Deadpool arc. Yes, Peter spent almost the whole fight complaining about being in this situation (but wouldn't you?), but he was fighting while he did it. He bailed out the X-Men numerous times, and the moment in #94 when he got tagged by an energy blast led to an awesome scene of Shadowcat charging the Reavers and just shorting out their equipment like crazy. Wolverine would be impressed. And sure, this Deadpool has none of the light-hearted fun of the Marvel version, but that just means you can enjoy Storm putting a lightning bolt through his chest that much more, because he deserves it so much more.
Low Point: #100. I'm sorry, but if you're going to charge me extra because it's a larger than normal issue, than I want more story than is normal. I love Mark Bagley artwork, so more of that is a treat, but give it to us in the form of the continuation of the story if you would, please?
So, by now you may have noticed that throughout these reviews, there's been one set of comics conspicuously absent. Well, that's because Annihilation draws to a close at the end of this month, and I figured what the hell? Why not just wait until it wraps up, so I can look back over all of it? And since it's my blog, and nobody controls what's on it but me, that's what I'll do. So, Part 5 will show up sometime after Annihilation #6 comes out, meaning early February I think.
6 comments:
Ah, so they abandoned those "second person" boxes. I'd say that's a good thing. Spider-Girl was one of those books I've tried whenever I feel the urge to give Marvel a try (as people have told me I don't need to know much continuity).
But I put it down real fast because those person caption boxes were crazy annoying to me... I couldn't get past the weirdness of them. And I know for a fact that I'm not the only one.
I was always Ok with the second person captions, being an old Iron Fist fan.
("You are Iron Fist, the Living Weapon. You see a chair. You sit down.")
There was an issue of Sensational I liked last year where we saw how Peter's unmasking affected one of his students.
But I was very disappointed by the reappearance of Swarm, who was defeated in a panel or two by a stunt-man in training weilding a broom, or something.
No fun.
diamondrock: Yeah, he's dropped that. I can't recall him using anytime other than with Spider-Girl, so maybe he was just experimenting.
I figured it was a tool to draw the reader into the story more, and I kind of liked it, but I'm not depressed by its absence.
fortress: Swarm did come off looking pretty weak didn't he? Did MJ add a spraying with a fire extinguisher in there?
I just keep hoping and praying that Civil War will be over soon, and then I can actually enjoy comics again. *Pats adorable baby panda*
You say winding road of lunacy, I say investigative journalism.
carla: Well, that's the nice way of putting it. But I seriously did start to feel a little crazy as I was typing it and more and more things kept coming to mind.
Post a Comment