REVIEW: Amazing Spider-Man - 559
Biff Bam Pow Comics | May 22, 2008 | 11:20 am
Oh dear. Those of you who read the Amazing Spider-Man issue 558 review will know that I wasn’t overly impressed with it. In fact - I thought it was downright terrible.
And sadly - this comic doesn’t go a great way towards making me feel better about Spidey’s future. In fact - I’m just plain worried about it now.
Any Spider-Man book from Marvel should be, without question (at the very least), a four star book. Fans are crying out for good storylines, memorable characters, and resonating moments. Brand New Day has none of these. In fact - Brand New Day, practically eliminated the possibility if any of these, by wiping the slate clean.
Before I carry on - let’s just remember the last time that the slate was wiped clean. Ben Reilly anyone? It took a lot of balls to tell the world that the Peter Parker we’d all been reading about for so many years, was in fact nothing more than a clone. Gutsy just doesn’t describe it.
And possibly - it could have been good. It had a recipe for success (Peter and Mary Jane were still in the book, the comic world was ‘accepting’ him slowly, etc), but it got buggered up with poor standards.
If I take a step back from my previous comments about Brand New Day, and look at it objectively, this was another gutsy move by Marvel. It could gave been great. But instead, because of terrible delivery - it’s becoming the bane of the Marvel Universe.
***SPOILER ALERT***
All this aside, this issue is a minor improvement on the last - focusing on Spider-Man’s pursuit of ScrewBall (a villainess who streams her crimes over the internet), Peter Parker’s choice to take a paparazzi assignment, and the introduction of yet another new throw away character - Paper Doll.
The scriptwork from Dan Slott is sadly anything but memorable (which is truly sad - as I am a fan of Dan’s work on She-Hulk and The Thing), and the art offered by Marcos Martin leaves a lot to be desired.
Pete’s Score: 2 out of 5
(if you’re a fan, you might get something out of the book - but if not, this won’t make you turn cartwheels)
