(writer) Dan Slott
(artists) Humberto Ramos (pencils) Victor Olazaba (inks)
(colorist) Edgar Delgado
Last month's relaunch of The Amazing Spider-Man, which featured the return of Peter Parker to his own body after a year of Doctor Octopus running the show, was surprisingly muted in terms of story, but at least things picks up a bit this month when Spidey throws down with one of his classic villains and current cinematic nemesis, Max Dillon a.k.a. Electro. Spidey's one-time flame Black Cat makes a brief appearance, foreshadowing their impending showdown in issue #3, Peter comes clean with Anna Marconi, the "little person" with whom Doctor Octopus entered a relationship while occupying Peter's body, and Peter has a little talk with the Avengers which lays to rest any theories that Ock's tenure in his body would permanently erode his relationship with them.
This issue is considerably livelier than the one that came before it, and without all of the back-up features packed into the first issue, I suppose it has to be, but it still has a long way to go before it can quite match the taut, how-will-Doc-Ock-screw-up-Peter's-life-next suspense of Superior Spider-Man.
That was what I was reading that book for, after all. I always knew Spider-Ock was not a long term deal, even without Marvel saying a word. I just wanted to see how deep a hole Marvel could dig for Spidey before dropping him into it. Heck, even comic geek-site Newsarama wrote an op-ed piece on it; The Amazing Spider-Man should be spent with Peter trying to fix what Otto broke. Frustratingly, that's not quite the case.
So far, he's already mended fences with the closest members of his supporting cast, he's cleared the air with the "late" Doc Ock's girlfriend, and has, as of this issue, been able to explain himself to the Avengers, and it's only been two issues so far. Well, that didn't last very long at all.
The good news is that Electro, who was also one of Spider-Ock's victims during Spidey's Superior days, having been experimented on by him, is royally pissed and, interestingly enough, Peter finds himself momentarily hobbled by his guilt over something that wasn't even his fault. This is a little story quirk that is good for more than a few interesting stories, and I hope Slott is able to milk it for a while yet. Slott's saved another ace for next issue, namely a spurned, and similarly vengeful Felicia Hardy, a.k.a. the Black Cat, who makes a brief appearance, along with her bad luck powers.
I understand that the stink left behind by Otto's...different brand of justice won't last forever, but really, it strikes me that Slott's in too much of a hurry to set things right with Peter's world. We, the readers, all know that Peter is a good guy and that he wasn't responsible for the excessive, or sometimes downright awful things that Ock did, but the world at large doesn't know yet, and really, there isn't any reason for them to know so soon.
Still, there are other interesting tidbits, like seeing Peter grapple with running the company that Otto left behind, the fact that Peter has already sworn off helping Spider-Man to Aunt May, and a little bit of lingering awkwardness between Peter and Anna Maria now that he's disclosed what actually happened. This could be the groundwork for some interesting future developments, particularly the fate of Spider-Ock's company and Peter's distinctly disingenuous promise to stop helping himself out to the most important person in his life.
Humberto Ramos' work is still holding steady in his slightly improved standard of quality, but the seams are showing, more than they were last issue. Anyway, I'm still glad he's on board for at least the remainder of this inaugural arc.
Come on Slott; you managed to tell interesting, if slightly flawed Spidey stories for over thirty issues without Peter. Surely you can keep things interesting now that Peter is back.
7/10
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