Creative Team
Writer: Dan Slott
Artists: Barry Kitson, Jesse Depergang, & Dale Eaglesham
Colorist: White Troy & Chuckry
Story – ‘Nuff Said
Review
The last issues of Amazing Spider-Man was a lackluster start to this two part Spider-Man/Fantastic Four story, with the revelation of Peter’s knowledge about what happened in One More Day. Also the last issue had a weird energy as it dealt with a past adventure of F4 and Spider-Man in the Macroverse, their current adventure in the Microverse, the OMD mindwipe, and also the aftermath of the previous Menace arc. Something about these elements being placed in one issue just didn’t seem right especially the cut away scenes to the aftermath of the previous Menace arc.
But it seems that Slott realized this problem with the previous issue and presented all these story aspects flowed nicely into one story. For some reason this issue felt a little more of an oversized issue than just a regular issue. This was one of the more deeper issues of ASM post-OMD with so many different plot elements being hit with Peter and Johnny arguing about Peter not wanting to revealing who he is to his friends, the war Spider-Man and F4 are trying to stop, and the scenes of what happens in the two months “real time” Peter misses out.
The one big difference from the last issue to this issue of ASM that helped improve the quality of the story was how the stuff in Peter’s life that he was missing out on for those two months he missed flowed much better in this issue and actually help the desperation of Spider-Man wanting to go back to Earth as he missed out on a lot. I don’t want to spoil the big ending for people who have yet to read this issue but I will say that during the two months Peter missed a lot of his supporting cast were rebuilding their lives from what has gone on with Brand New Day up until now. But if you do want to spoil these elements, especially the ending, or already read this issue I recommend reading the story run over on amNew York website were Slott and Waid talk about the ending of this issue and the 24/7 arc that starts in the next issue, which you can read here. All this stuff that went on during those two months also sets up Peter in both his normal life and his life as Spider-Man in an interesting setting as not only will he have to catch up to all that has happened but also adjust to these new developments as they are major developments that affect every part of his life.
As I said before, the revelation of Peter having knowledge of the mindwipe that happened in the OMD took some of the steam of a Spider-Man/F4 adventure. Though the explanation Slott gives (which is that when Peter unmasks, either willingly or by force, that person who sees his face will remember everything about Peter pre-OMD) was a rather simple explanation but once getting over the anger of OMD just being brought back into ASM, just because of how much I hate that story, I guess an explanation that was necessary when Peter reveals his identity to his other close superhero friends such as Daredevil and the Avengers. Though I said this when the whole mindwipe thing happened but I would have liked it that at least the F4 and Daredevil would still know Peter’s identities as I think they are as crucial to Peter’s Spider-Man life as his other supporting characters are are to his personal life. I just hope that Slott and the other Spider-Man writers, and Bendis, use this explanation given by Slott as a way to have other characters outside of the F4, the Avengers, and Daredevil learn his identity as it would be weak storytelling.
Now as far as the adventure Spider-Man and F4 had in the Microverse it was a pretty good adventure that felt like one of the old Fantastic Four adventures with Spider-Man tagging along as it was more a journey to fix what they did to this world due to their previous scientific adventure in the world. Kitson did a great job illustrating the war going on and how crazy the war got once Spider-Man and the F4 got involved. I loved how he drew Spider-Man and Johnny bickering while they were fighting their way through the Dregan Empire. Along with the Thing telling them both to shut up Slott and Kitson did a great job with the crazy battle scene. I also like the first page were Kitson and Depergang was headless once unmasked.
Also I did not mind that Eaglesham did the artwork for what was happening in the two months Peter missed back on Earth. With how he drew Spider-Man in the final pages I would love to see him get a whole arc on Spider-Man as he nails Spider-Man and his supporting cast by giving them a combination of their old and new school look.
Issue Rating
Story: 8.4/10 – Slott shows that he has a great handle of both Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four characters and reminds of how much I loved his Spider-Man/Human Torch mini-series.
Art: 8/10 – Though I would have preferred only one artist do the whole issue Kitson, Depergang and Eaglesham combine for a nice looking book.
Overall: 8.2/10 – This was a strong finish to this two-part arc and am excited to see were the Spider-Brain Trust take all the developments that happened in this issue for the next few arcs.