written by Dan Slott
illustrated by Jim Cheung (pencils) and John Dell (inks)
colored by Justin Ponsor
I'm actually loath to write yet another review of a comic book series that I'm not sure I can review from its first issue to its last, but Dan Slott's latest Spider-Man miniseries "The Clone Conspiracy" looks like the most significant Spider-event since...well, the last one, anyway, the supposedly game-changing "Spider-Verse," which, as near as I can tell did not really change much that mattered. Well, truth be told, I was really lured in by the promise of art by one of my favorite Marvel artists Jim Cheung.
The issue begins with the funeral of a major supporting character, who was refused an experimental medical treatment from a mysterious outfit called New U, based on Peter Parker's recommendation. It turns out Peter's fear stemmed the fact that one of his employees had previously received the treatment and, upon shaking his hand, had set off Peter's Spider-sense. Peter's business partner (and sort-of-ex-girlfriend) Anna Maria Marconi investigate what happened to Peter's employee, only to find out that, true to Peter's suspicions, his treatment had negative side effects, upon the manifestation of which New U had whisked him away. Peter dons his Spider-Man togs to investigate what's really going on at New U, and what he discovers throws him for a loop.
To Slott's credit, he pretty much goes straight to the point with this story, and I enjoyed the way he navigated through so many key Spidey characters in this issue. He utilizes the obligatory talking heads portion of the story quite efficiently and sets up a nicely action-packed sequence that allows Cheung enough room to flex his muscles and set the stage for the next chapter, which, I'll admit is reasonably intriguing. It's not quite the page turner that any number of Slott's Superior Spider-Man issues were, but Slott's gift of building tension is still reasonably evident here. I gave up the main "Amazing Spider-Man" title when Giuseppe Camuncoli, whose work I really don't like, became the series main artist, and it was nice reading a Slott script for the first time in about a year.
I have to say, though, that one genuinely disappointing aspect of this book is Justin Ponsor's extremely murky, dark coloring. I get that this book is supposed to be kind of grim, and is meant to foreshadow sinister things for the wall-crawler, but I still think that Ponsor, who has used much brighter color palettes in his past work, went way overboard with the "atmosphere" in this book.
It's not quite the best work I've seen from any of the creators, but the fact that Slott and Cheung got together in the first place is reason enough to celebrate.
7.5/10
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