The Next "Big Thing:" A Review of The Amazing Spider-Man #31

written by Zeb Wells

penciled by John Romita, Jr., Emilio Laiso and Ze Carlos

inked by Scott Hanna, Emilio Laiso and Ze Carlos  

(additional stories written and drawn by various)

Yet again, Marvel comes up with an excuse to stuff a bunch of previews for upcoming books into a so-called "landmark" issue and jack up the price. Given that this issue is the 925th issue of The Amazing Spider-Man (following Marvel's so-called "legacy" number) apparently the occasion is worth marking with extra pages of story, even more pages of filler stories and plugs for upcoming books...and a hefty price tag.

The main story is Randy Robertson's wedding to Janice Lincoln. Given that this issue is over a month old by now I'm sure most people know how it went, but I won't spoil anything anyway. It's quite an auspicious event, given that Randy's and Janice's dads Robbie Robertson and Lonnie Lincoln, aka Tombstone, were once mortal enemies, and given that Tombstone is still a crime lord. As one would expect, crazy things happen and Peter Parker aka Spider-Man, as Randy's best man, has to don the webs once more.

Apart from this main story there are a whole bunch of other stories which, if I'm perfectly honest, I don't consider worth discussing considering that they are all basically advertisements for a whole bunch of books I have no intention of buying. All they effectively did was jack up the price of this issue to rather exorbitant heights.  

As much as Zeb Wells' writing has turned me off of late, I thought this story was quite decent; I have genuinely enjoyed how he has handled Tombstone since reestablishing him as a major force upon the book's relaunch in 2022, and with the idiotic death of Ms. Marvel gimmick out of the way perhaps this new "mega arc" he's cooking up can tell a much more compelling story. It doesn't hurt that John Romita, Jr.'s in fine form for this extra-sized issue as are his co-artists Emilio Laiso and Ze Carlos. 

Main story: 8/10

Issue as a whole: 4/10

A REALLY Late Review: The Amazing Spider-Man #30

 written by Zeb Wells

drawn by Ed McGuinness (p) and Mark Farmer (i)

colored by Marcio Menyz

Due to a snafu with the shipping at my local comics shop I wasn't able to get my hands on this issue right away, and so I put off reviewing it, and before I knew it three more issues had come out. I sourced the comic elsewhere so that I could finally give my two cents' worth.

Last issue, Otto Octavius aka Doctor Octopus was just about to inject Norman Osborn with the Green Goblin serum in the hopes of returning him to his former, malevolent state. As this issue starts, he pushes through, albeit not with the expected results. Then, Peter Parker aka Spider-Man arrives on the scene wearing Otto's old arms, and a throwdown quite unlike any other in the history of the book ensues. 

I have to say: I am so very glad Ed McGuiness is on this book because I really was this close to calling it quits after Zeb Wells idiotic stunt involving Ms. Marvel. This four-parter has been a delight to read and I quite enjoy how Wells revisits the whole "Superior Spider-Man" era with Otto and Peter. It's something Marvel will expound on elsewhere, of course, but this story in and of itself is quite satisfying, and Ed is absolutely on the top of his game.  Of course, the story ends making mention of Kamala Khan, who was still dead at that point, and while it made sense to have the characters talk about it, it only reminded me of Marvel's limp marketing gimmick, and took me out of the story if only for a moment. 

Still, this issue was a great ride. 

9.5/10

A Boatload of Fun: A Review of One Piece Season 1

 directed by various

written by various

About a little over a week since its release at the end of August, the live--action adaptation of the wildly popular anime series One Piece (itself an adaptation from a super popular manga series by Eiichiro Oda) had proven to be a runaway hit for Netflix, who produced the show. After getting badly burned by their last live-action adaptation of a beloved anime, Cowboy Bebop, I was extremely hesitant to check out this series.   In fact, I did not immediately finish the first episode because I found it a little long. I had not seen the anime or read the manga and so I had no reference point, but I still had my misgivings. 

After I got around to finishing that first episode, though everything changed.

One Piece, for the uninitiated like myself, takes place in a fictional, oddly anachronistic world which is run by a single government whose security force is a group of baseball-uniform wearing marines and whose biggest threat, apparently, is pirates.  The biggest pirate of them all, Gold Roger (Michael Dorman), is executed at the very beginning of the show and proclaims to the throngs gathered below that his fabled treasure, the One Piece, is theirs for the taking if they have the courage to hit the high seas.  Years later, the young Monkey D. Luffy (played by Inaki Godoy), dreams of finding the One Piece and becoming the new King of the Pirates. He teams up with thief Nami (Emily Rudd) to steal a map of the Grand Line, where the One Piece is believed to be, and on his journey he recruits others to his crew, namely brooding swordsman Roronoa Zoro (Mackenyu), sharpshooter and teller of tall tales Usopp (Jacob Gibson) and chef and martial artist extraordinaire Sanji (Taz Skylar).   Finding the One Piece won't be easy, with other pirates like Buggy (Jeff Ward) and Arlong (McKinley Belcher III) standing in their way, as well as the Marines, led by no less than Luffy's grandfather, Vice-Admiral Garp (Vincent Regan). 

After getting through that first episode, I found myself binge-watching the rest of the eight along with my kids. The show is extraordinarily entertaining and has superb production value. It may have helped that, not having seen the anime, I had no point of reference like I did with Cowboy Bebop, but as a causal fan of anime in general I really got the sense that unlike Bebop, which seemed to treat its source material with disdain, this show wholeheartedly embraced its anime heritage, and all the quirkiness, silliness and occasional cheesiness it entailed.  Sure, some tweaks were needed to the dialogue and story beats here and there, but this series definitely has a distinctly anime sensibility in every single episode.

It helps, I think that the showrunners, headed by Oda himself, has assembled a winning cast headed by the energetic and charismatic Godoy as Monkey D. Luffy, all of whom have fantastic chemistry together, and all of whom are really game for the series' very physical stunt sequences. 

I really immersed myself in this world because the cast and crew were so clearly invested in it, bringing to life an unlikely combination of whimsy and, well, pretty intense violence that must have been a really tough balance to strike. Everything about this production, from the cinematography to the art direction to the fight choreography and visual effects, was quite lovingly rendered, and the love shows. 

The best part was how the first eight episodes tie together and tell a story that gets a satisfying conclusion, even as it clearly sets the stage for much more to come. 

8.5/10

Post-Matt Murdock: A Review of Daredevil #14 (Minor Spoilers)

 written by Chip Zdarsky

drawn by Marco Checchetto

colored by Matt Wilson

In the wake of Daredevil's heroic sacrifice last issue, the people nearest and dearest to him look back fondly on him and can't help but feel like he's still around.  Foggy Nelson, in particular, has moved on, continuing his legal practice, but this time with the assistance of former police officer Cole North who works as his investigator and muscle, and Elektra is trying as best she can not to fall back into her old life of killing people, whether for hire or otherwise, and instead tries to keep Hell's Kitchen safe, as Matt did. Both of them, however, struggle with their loss.

I basically called it when I said in my review of the last issue that this issue, which is also extra-sized, would be spent with the supporting characters mourning the loss of Matt Murdock, though I didn't quite figure on the tease for the new status quo in the last few pages of the issue; I thought it'd be something a lot more coy than that.

Anyway as predictable as this issue's story beats were I liked seeing Foggy Nelson's new status quo with the non-lawyer North as his business partner, which is basically a new twist on Nelson and Murdock.  I may have had my issues with Chip Zdarsky's five-year run on this title, but I think that ex-cop Cole North was one of the truly good things to come out of it. I honestly hope Marvel keep him this way and not power him up through some story contrivance.  

I was less enthused by Elektra carrying on the Daredevil mantle, something she has shared with Matt for a couple of years now, but I do appreciate how Zdarsky has really tried to do something different with her character than what's been written all the years before he came along, where she'd either be stoical or tortured about her past. 

I like that Checchetto is closing out his run with some pretty strong art, the kind that was on full display in the "Devil's Reign" miniseries that remains, for me, the high point of this creative team's now-finished tenure. 

I am genuinely excited to see what Saladin Ahmed and Aaron Kuder can bring to the table in the upcoming series reboot. 

9/10

Jailbreak: A Review of The Amazing Spider-Man Annual #1 (2023)

 written by Erica Schultz

drawn by Julian Shaw

colored by Andrew Dalhouse

Following the events of "Dark Web" from earlier this year, Peter Parker aka Spider-Man finds himself chasing down Janine Godbe, aka Hallow's Eve, as she attempts to free her lover Ben Reilly aka Chasm from the Madelyne Pryor's realm of Limbo, where he has been imprisoned since failing in his attempt to conquer New York with an army of demons. While Janine's powers of disguise get her pretty far in her mission, ultimately she learns the hard way that she's dealing with the Goblin Queen.

I remember when annuals were an event, written and illustrated by some the most talented creators in the business, often people who couldn't really be counted on to put out monthly work on a timely basis but whose talent could really shine in this annual one-shots. 

In this context, I honestly don't understand what is even remotely special about this story, which is only twenty pages long, doesn't feature any new characters or any auspicious events, or even particularly talented creators. This could basically have been a one-shot issue of the main title, yet it found its way into an overpriced one-shot like this.  

6/10

Backup story: 

written by Celeste Bronfman

drawn by David Lopez

colored by KC Diaz

This marked a slightly different approach to an annual; this story is a teaser of things to come. When Peter, MJ and (ugh) her new boyfriend Paul throw a party for MJ's aunt Anna, the normally sweet old lady suddenly turns savage and starts punching everyone present. Can Peter and MJ get to the bottom of what has afflicted her aunt, and apparently many other people?  Well, not in this issue.

Not that it needs reiterating, but I loathe the current status quo between Peter and MJ, which has been nothing but mean-spirited and lazily-written, and anything that reminds me of it automatically pisses me off, especially a story like this that doesn't seem to have anything to offer. I will admit to liking David Lopez's art a little bit but that's about it. 

4/10

Marvel, if you're going to do "annuals" like this again, please don't bother. 

Anticlimactic: A Review of Daredevil #13 (Mild Spoilers)

 written by Chip Zdarsky

drawn by Marco Checchetto

colored by Matt Wilson

And so Chip Zdarsky's supernatural epic which has been in the making since 2018 finally comes to a conclusion with Matt Murdock aka Daredevil going down to hell to fight the Beast himself, clad in a white version of his costume and convinced that, with the ghost of his dad Jack Murdock by his side, he is doing the will of God. Things do not quite turn out as he had expected, though, and even though he finds the souls of Foggy, Stick and several others and sets about rescuing them all, he realizes with a sinking feeling that there may be no turning back for him.

After finally taking down the Hand a few issues back and then clobbering their financial backers, the Stromwyns, Matt Murdock's showdown with the Beast had the trappings of a classic showdown, reminiscent of his grand final battles with Wilson Fisk, but instead it featured a rather limp twist and ended with a bit of a thud.  This was what Zdarsky spent years setting up? About the only thing it does is make like hard for the incoming creative team of Saladin Ahmed and Aaron Kuder. 

After the Zdarsky/Checchetto team really solidified their credibility with Devil's Reign, it was genuinely sad to see how inconsistent in quality this "War on the Hand" storyline has been, and this showdown really is just the final insult.  I'm at least glad that it's over, save for one more issue which will no doubt be an epilogue of sorts before the new creative team takes over.   

6/10

The Ties that Bind: A Review of The Amazing Spider-Man #29

 written by Zeb Wells

penciled by Ed McGuinness

inked by Mark Farmer, McGuinness

colored by Marcio Menyz

As Otto Octavius, aka Doctor Octopus continues to exact his revenge against Norman Osborn, formerly the Green Goblin, for the humiliation Otto suffered at Osborn's hands back in the dying days of his tenure as the Superior Spider-Man, Jonah Jameson and Otto's old set of octopus arms whisk the beaten Peter Parker aka Spider-Man to safety. After a brief moment of recovery, Peter sets out to rescue Norman with the help of Otto's old arms...for which seems to have an affinity he cannot explain. Meanwhile, even as the captive Norman's repentance from his old ways catches Otto off-guard, Doc Ock is still determined to wreak havoc on his old rival's life.

With Wells' big gimmick now firmly in the rearview mirror, this new story involving Otto Octavius, which actually launched back in the landmark 900th issue of The Amazing Spider-Man, is genuinely intriguing, in particular because of how it references a very interesting time in Otto's life: the year and a few months that he lived in the shoes of Peter Parker.  This Otto/Osborn rematch is something I have been genuinely interested in seeing, especially with Osborn having turned over a new leaf.  It's an interesting contrast to Otto's crack at being a good guy, which was ultimately undone by his own ego. I like that they're slowly revisiting the story beats that led to the Superior Spider-Man saga, because I'd like to think Otto's desire for redemption that Wells' briefly flashes here is something genuine. 

It also helps, of course, that McGuinness' work here is nothing short of sublime. This is peak McGuinness, displaying the kind or artistry that truly made Deadpool a household name and ushered in a new era of glory for Superman in the early noughties.   I am so glad I stuck around for this, no matter how bad a taste issue #26's gimmicky death left in my mouth.  McGuinness is just pure gold on this book.  Here's hoping he keeps up the good work!

9/10