Quick Looks Part 1: The Amazing Spider-Man #s 4 to 6

(writer) Dan Slott
(penciler) Humberto Ramos
(inker) Victor Olazaba
(colorist) Edgar Delgado

Work has kept me away from this blog for something like three months running now, so there are literally over a dozen reviews I would have wanted to write that I simply could not find the time for.

These three issues see the end of the first arc of Peter Parker's inaugural return as Spidey, and to the credit of Dan Slott, Humberto Ramos and the rest of the crew responsible, they are three very eventful issues as they contain some pretty significant developments not only for Spidey, but for longtime supporting character Felicia Hardy, aka the Black Cat, who seems to have made the transition into full-blown bad guy, and for the relative newbies, like Peter's business partners Sajani, and his body's ex (from the time Doctor Octopus was running around in it) Anna Maria Marconi. The arc also introduces a new character with Spider powers, Cindy Moon, aka Silk, who comes across to me as one of the most pointless retcon jobs I've seen in recent years, but one which may yet prove important to the "Spider-Verse" storyline, which has already begun with issue #9. In the meantime, I'm so darned far behind in my reading that I only just finished with #6.

I'll say this for Slott: he may have put Peter back in the driver's seat, but he certainly isn't about to go easy on him. It looks like he's about to have a pretty serious dose of "the Parker luck" coming. Also, the fact that the Black Cat has gone from one-time Spidey friend to full-on Spidey foe is some of the fall-out from Spider-Ock's tenure that I was sincerely hoping to see.

For me, the jury is still out on Moon a.k.a. Silk, but if nothing else I'm glad Slott has, through her, revisited the Morlun character, first introduced by J. Michael Straczynski during the inaugural arc of his celebrated run on the book over a decade ago.

Ramos is...well, Ramos. There has been some improvement to his style but it is still essentially the same bundle of barely-controlled chaos that it usually is during the action sequences. His character work has improved quite a bit, and at least Peter doesn't look like he's twelve years old, as he did when Ramos first started drawing him many years ago.

All told, it's a respectable story that will probably play out well as a collected edition, but it was hardly the big bang I was expecting from the team that was welcoming Peter back after over a year away from his own body, especially considering they took six issues to tell the story.

It's a pity I had so many comics to catch up on, as I would have wanted to dive right into "Spider-Verse" after so many months away. Ah, well. Next time.

7.5/10