written by Nick Spencer
penciled by Ryan Ottley
inked by Cliff Rathburn
colored by Nathan Fairbairn
The line-wide Absolute Carnage crossover comes to the pages of The Amazing Spider-Man, in which the mysterious new centipede-infested villain known only as Kindred makes a major move against Peter Parker, aka Spider-Man, who, as a direct result, has to fight for his life, as well as those of Normie Osborn and Dylan Brock, against a symbiote-infused, possessed Norman Osborn.
Not being a fan of Carnage, I was grateful that Nick Spencer, apart from a page or two to provide exposition, provides very little connective tissue between this story and the main "saga," choosing instead to focus on Peter, and everything that he's lost to Norman Osborn, something that apparently he and his mysterious supernatural antagonist have in common.
These two issues, more than serving as a crossover for the Carnage event, serve a very specific purpose and that is to raise anticipation for Spencer's mystery villain to a fever pitch, and in this they are a rousing success. Spencer plays around with a non-linear storytelling format which is interesting but which doesn't quite click with me. It's been done better by other writers, in my opinion. Still, now I REALLY want to get my hands on the big story finally revealing who Kindred is. This character is apparently tied quite intimately into who Peter is. It irks me that Spencer will leave off his big reveal for another few months as the next couple of months will showcase a 2099 crossover, but I'm willing to wait. All I can say is that Spencer had better make the payoff worth the nearly two years we've waited to see who this character really is.
Also, and I know I'm going out on a limb here, I hold out hope that Spencer will finally take the opportunity retcon "Sins Past" out of existence once and for all.
Finally, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention Ryan Ottley's art, which is the strongest it's been in quite a while. I suppose it helps that Spencer gives Ottley the opportunity to draw the gratuitous bloodletting he was used to depicting over in Invincible, (and what better way to draw lots of red fluid without running afoul of the book's age rating than by depicting Carnage's red symbiote?), but Ottley effectively nails the action beats as well, which kind of makes me wistful for what could have been had Ottley illustrated "The Hunted" instead of Humberto Ramos. I don't know how much longer Ottley will stay on this title before moving on to other Marvel books, but I sure hope we get more issues like this before he finally goes his merry way.
8/10
Wednesday, October 16, 2019
Late Post: Spidey and MaryJane Sitting in a Tree...
written by Nick Spencer
drawn by Francesco Manna
colored by Carlos Lopez
Given that I'm posting this review at least a month late I was initially tempted to not post anything at all, but given the content of the story and what it may portend for Peter Parker and Mary Jane, I really couldn't help but drop a few lines to share my thoughts on this story.
Following the tumult of "The Hunted" and just before Nick Spencer finally starts to unravel the mystery of the walking centipede farm named Kindred, he and guest artist Francesco Manna tell a relatively quiet tale about Peter and MJ's relationship. MJ has just taken an acting job (for, unbeknownst to her, Mysterio) which will take her away from New York and out to the West Coast. Peter wants to see her off at the airport, but instead gets drafted by his long-lost sister, superspy Teresa Parker (who was introduced as a retcon in an original graphic novel over five years ago and who has periodically popped up since then) into a mission to save a fellow agent. Anyone familiar with Spidey's stories will know how this turns out.
On its face, this seems to be a pretty innocuous, throwaway story between big events, with decent art and some nice character moments, particularly a heartwarming couple of pages of dialogue between Peter and Aunt May, but thanks to the last-page revelation (which I won't spoil) I'd say there's a bit more to it than that. With the exception of "The Hunted" I've quite enjoyed Spencer's run so far, and I'm starting to understand why: like me, Spencer appears to have grown up on comics of the 80s, which would explain his misguided love letter to "Kraven's Last Hunt," and one of the seminal storylines of that era was--what else?--the marriage of Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson. Is that where Spider-Man is headed? I sincerely doubt it; while Marvel endured far more grief for the infamous "One More Day" than they would have wanted, they did get to their end-goal of an unmarried Peter, and to be fair, in the eleven years that have passed since then, writers like Dan Slott have done a fairly respectable job of telling the kind of stories that Marvel had hoped to tell with a single Peter. Spencer may flirt with the idea of undoing "One More Day" and maybe one day he'll even pay off the last of the mysteries it teased, like the woman in red, but personally, I sincerely doubt Marvel will let him take the plunge.
It was fun to enjoy this little bit of nostalgia, though, which hearkened back a little bit to the David Michelinie/Todd McFarlane issues I enjoyed in elementary and high school. Next issue it's back to regular programming, with the Absolute Carnage crossover.
8/10
drawn by Francesco Manna
colored by Carlos Lopez
Given that I'm posting this review at least a month late I was initially tempted to not post anything at all, but given the content of the story and what it may portend for Peter Parker and Mary Jane, I really couldn't help but drop a few lines to share my thoughts on this story.
Following the tumult of "The Hunted" and just before Nick Spencer finally starts to unravel the mystery of the walking centipede farm named Kindred, he and guest artist Francesco Manna tell a relatively quiet tale about Peter and MJ's relationship. MJ has just taken an acting job (for, unbeknownst to her, Mysterio) which will take her away from New York and out to the West Coast. Peter wants to see her off at the airport, but instead gets drafted by his long-lost sister, superspy Teresa Parker (who was introduced as a retcon in an original graphic novel over five years ago and who has periodically popped up since then) into a mission to save a fellow agent. Anyone familiar with Spidey's stories will know how this turns out.
On its face, this seems to be a pretty innocuous, throwaway story between big events, with decent art and some nice character moments, particularly a heartwarming couple of pages of dialogue between Peter and Aunt May, but thanks to the last-page revelation (which I won't spoil) I'd say there's a bit more to it than that. With the exception of "The Hunted" I've quite enjoyed Spencer's run so far, and I'm starting to understand why: like me, Spencer appears to have grown up on comics of the 80s, which would explain his misguided love letter to "Kraven's Last Hunt," and one of the seminal storylines of that era was--what else?--the marriage of Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson. Is that where Spider-Man is headed? I sincerely doubt it; while Marvel endured far more grief for the infamous "One More Day" than they would have wanted, they did get to their end-goal of an unmarried Peter, and to be fair, in the eleven years that have passed since then, writers like Dan Slott have done a fairly respectable job of telling the kind of stories that Marvel had hoped to tell with a single Peter. Spencer may flirt with the idea of undoing "One More Day" and maybe one day he'll even pay off the last of the mysteries it teased, like the woman in red, but personally, I sincerely doubt Marvel will let him take the plunge.
It was fun to enjoy this little bit of nostalgia, though, which hearkened back a little bit to the David Michelinie/Todd McFarlane issues I enjoyed in elementary and high school. Next issue it's back to regular programming, with the Absolute Carnage crossover.
8/10
Sunday, October 13, 2019
Stopped, For Now: Unstoppable Wasp Unlimited Vol. 2
written by Jeremy Whiteley
illustrated by Alti Firmansyah, Gurihiru
Jeremy Whiteley's second Unstoppable Wasp series comes to a close, this time with a compassionate look on the challenges of being a teenage girl, whether it's because you're struggling with bipolar disorder, having a hard time coming out as gay to your authoritarian parent, or being recruited by a supervillain organization to fight their battles for them.
Nadia still grapples with her bipolar disorder, but with the loving help of Jan, her therapist, and her friends, the indefatigable members of G.I.R.L., she comes to terms with her condition and realizes that she cannot simply "conquer" it like she does other challenges in her life. In the meantime, G.I.R.L. member Shay, who is now in a relationship with fellow G.I.R.L. member Ying, struggles to come out to her overbearing soap opera actress mom. Finally, the agents of A.I.M. strike again, but this time the agents of G.I.R.L. won't be such easy targets.
Whiteley's story is nicely compact and, like I said earlier, compassionate, but it's not terribly compelling stuff. For one thing, there's a rather anemic subplot involving Mockingbird and special guest star the Winter Soldier which feels like a half-hearted attempt to goose sales a bit (not that Bucky is much of a draw), and apart from Nadia's and Shay's plots, there isn't really all that much going on, which feels like a bit of a contrast to the first volume, which had a lot more going on.
I liked the art, even though Gurihiru took a break for the first two issues, as Indonesian artist Alti Firmansyah turns in work that is pretty consistent with the overall vibe of the book. I was glad to have Gurihiru back to close out the story, though. These two deserve some A-list work, in my opinion, especially since this book's come to an end.
6/10
illustrated by Alti Firmansyah, Gurihiru
Jeremy Whiteley's second Unstoppable Wasp series comes to a close, this time with a compassionate look on the challenges of being a teenage girl, whether it's because you're struggling with bipolar disorder, having a hard time coming out as gay to your authoritarian parent, or being recruited by a supervillain organization to fight their battles for them.
Nadia still grapples with her bipolar disorder, but with the loving help of Jan, her therapist, and her friends, the indefatigable members of G.I.R.L., she comes to terms with her condition and realizes that she cannot simply "conquer" it like she does other challenges in her life. In the meantime, G.I.R.L. member Shay, who is now in a relationship with fellow G.I.R.L. member Ying, struggles to come out to her overbearing soap opera actress mom. Finally, the agents of A.I.M. strike again, but this time the agents of G.I.R.L. won't be such easy targets.
Whiteley's story is nicely compact and, like I said earlier, compassionate, but it's not terribly compelling stuff. For one thing, there's a rather anemic subplot involving Mockingbird and special guest star the Winter Soldier which feels like a half-hearted attempt to goose sales a bit (not that Bucky is much of a draw), and apart from Nadia's and Shay's plots, there isn't really all that much going on, which feels like a bit of a contrast to the first volume, which had a lot more going on.
I liked the art, even though Gurihiru took a break for the first two issues, as Indonesian artist Alti Firmansyah turns in work that is pretty consistent with the overall vibe of the book. I was glad to have Gurihiru back to close out the story, though. These two deserve some A-list work, in my opinion, especially since this book's come to an end.
6/10
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