Amazing Spider-Man (Post-One More Day)

I'm just going to give a quick review of the way they've been handling Spider-Man since the controversial reset. I'm not sure what the current issue number is, so...whatever's current.

One-sentence summary: This is probably the best Spider-Man has been in long while.

I've been a Spider-Man fan since before I could read -- due to this, I can't really tell you what drew me initially to him. The colorful cast of villains? The substantial non-superheroics which are such an essential part of the character? The light-hearted delivery of the book? Probably a mixture of these.

As someone who has been buying Spidey books for the past 20 years, I can tell you my heart has been broken by it a number of times. The clone saga was the first blow, but, worse than that was the recent turn of it into a super-dramatic, super-serious comic. That's not to say Spider-Man should never be serious -- Kraven's Last Hunt is an excellent example of good, serious Spider-Man. But, having each month be this melodrama, to have some character circling the drain (i.e., dying slowly) at almost any moment, Spider-Man swearing terrible vengeance, etc...it just got old, and it got depressing.

I went into this new fashion of Spider-Man with some hesitancy; after all, they were beginning it with arguably the worst retcon that has ever been done. But it was with good intentions; they saw the same problems with Spider-Man as I mentioned above, and the lack of much that made the title unique and gave it its character. Though in an initially awkward manner, they've essentially dealt with this.

By having a near-weekly, on-going series, it's a bit of a new thing we're dealing with here. The old standards of comic book pacing are, well, essentially moot. I've enjoyed how they divide up some of these smaller arcs into three, maybe four issue stories; while not super-intense, these do allow for some development, and a conclusion to the main plot, within a month or so. The only issue I really have with things as they are are their current use of sub-plots. Even with three issues a month, some of the developments are moving very slowly, to the point where I'm wondering if they'll come up again. However, this isn't a big complaint -- more like growing pains (on whose side, I wonder).

So, let's do a quick checklist: Colorful cast of villains? Check. Substantial plots regarding the non-superheroes? Check. Light-hearted delivery? Check. Hopefully it's clear why I feel the way I do about the new take on the book.

Amazing Spider-Man #542

One-sentence summary: Peter seems to have taken a page from Penance's book and broods and threatens through this dark Spider-Man story.

So, thus far we have Spidey tracking down the Kingpin because Aunt May was shot on his orders, alright? This issue is the showdown between Spidey (or, rather, Peter Parker) and Kingpin, and it goes, in what was a pleasant surprise to me, exactly as makes sense. During the fight, Peter guarantees that he will kill the Kingpin, just not yet.

I don't like this storyline. Spidey's always been emotional, but never this angry. He could've just left the fight as is and not guaranteed the death (which I'm sure he won't go through on for some reason, but still). Why now? He's never struck me as a selfish character, really -- whiny, sure, but never selfish -- so why after seeing loads of other innocents die because of Fisk does this one make him so much angrier than the others and pushes him to a level he's never approached before? I don't know, really, but I'm not sure I agree with it. It doesn't feel right for Peter's character.

This was an alright issue, overall. The art's fine, I just don't like having such a dark Spider-man comic, and so consitently. I realize they need to be dark sometimes, but it's been this way for awhile now, and I just want a fun Spidey comic again. Hopefully in the upcoming stories we see some return of the character of Spidey.