Trivia Night: A Late Review of The Amazing Spider-Man #6

written by Nick Spencer
penciled by Humberto Ramos
inked by Victor Olazaba
colored by Edgar Delgado

"Superior Spider Foes" sequence drawn by Steve Lieber and Rachelle Rosenberg

Following his just-concluded body-splitting episode, Peter Parker aka Spider-Man settles back into his daily life, which has its good parts, like getting to make out with his hot girlfriend Mary Jane, and its bad parts, such as living with Fred Myers, aka the C-list supervillain Boomerang. Fred's presence grates on Peter because he knows that, thanks to the events of Secret Empire in which the villain actually fought H.Y.D.R.A., he's basically earned himself a clean slate despite his life of crime, which basically means Peter can't touch him. Even when Peter dons the Spidey tights and stalks Boomerang, all he finds is him playing card games with his old gang, who aren't doing anything illegal and hence can't be busted. When Fred tries to regale Pete's other roommate, Randy Robertson, with yet another spurious "how I beat Spidey" story, it proves too much for Peter's ego, prompting a correction from his part, whereupon Randy mentions Peter's credentials as Spidey's one-time "personal photographer" and walking encyclopedia on all things Spider-Man. Upon learning this, Fred seizes the opportunity to make some easy money...just not in the way that Peter may have imagined, and soon Peter and Fred find themselves on a "date night" at The Bar with No Name, of all places.

Following a generally excellent five-issue run with Ryan Ottley, Nick Spencer turns to longtime Spidey artist Humberto Ramos (with a little help from his Superior Spider-Foes collaborator Steve Lieber) for a sort of prologue to his next big arc. I had some misgivings about bringing Ramos back to the book as I felt that it had really benefited from the fresh approach that Ottley brought to the title, but so far, however Ramos does a decent job. While the story feels a little far-fetched even in spite of Spencer's efforts to basically justify his premise of Peter going, sans his Spidey outfit, to a Spider-Man-themed trivia night at a bar chock full of supervillains, it still works because it's genuinely funny. The vanity which spurs Peter to correct Boomerang's bogus Spidey-conquest stories is, in part, what propels him to take on (and predictably conquer) the villains' trivia contest, even as more serious concerns start brewing without his knowing it. I kind of found Peter's "supervillain name" of "The Liar" a bit on the nose, but like I said, I was able to forgive little niggles like this because the trivia sequence really made me laugh. It's kind of like how I was able to forgive Venom its many shortcomings because of its humor, and in this case Spencer's writing is conspicuously better than the script that three people cobbled together for that movie.

While it irks me that Ramos is sticking around for the next several issues, I take some consolation from knowing that, if nothing else, at least they aren't bringing back my least favorite Spidey artist of recent years, Giuseppe Camuncoli.

7/10