Comic Book Review: Amazing Spider-Man #548

The Revolution is in the middle of the road with Amazing Spider-Man. I do enjoy Slott’s dialogue and his version of Spider-Man. And I love McNiven’s artwork. However, the last issue was nothing more than a standard issue story. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t great. Hopefully, Amazing Spider-Man #548 will crank up the intensity a bit. Let’s do this review.

Creative Team
Writer: Dan Slott
Pencils: Steve McNiven
Inks: Dexter Vines

Art Rating: 9 Night Girls out of 10
Story Rating: 5 Night Girls out of 10
Overall Rating: 7 Night Girls out of 10

Synopsis: We begin with Spider-Man realizing that he is not dying from the red poison gas unlike all the other mobsters. Spider-Man then notices that there is one mobster who is also unaffected by the red gas. Spider-Man learns that the mobster was adopted by the Kanelli family so he doesn’t have their blood. Evidently, Mr. Negative used Bruno Kanelli’s blood from the last issue to create a red gas that is deadly only to people who have Kanelli blood.

The adopted Kanelli tells Spider-Man that the wives and children of the mobsters are all at a circus and for Spider-Man to go save them from Mr. Negative. We cut to the Spider-Mugger meeting back up with the guy that the Spider-Mugger sold the stuff that he stole from Peter. The Spider-Mugger wants the stuff back since he wants to see the name and address of Peter because the mugger knows Peter is Spider-Man. The guy who bought the stuff from the Spider-Mugger begins to strangle him and demands to know what the Spider-Mugger is hiding from him.

We cut to Spider-Man hitching a ride on top of a cab in order to get to the circus where the Kanelli wives and children are. We then hop over to Mr. Bennett arriving at the Daily Bugle and lording over everyone. Mr. Bennett announces that J.J.’s wife sold him all of J.J.’s shares of stock in the Bugle. Mr. Bennett then tells Robbie to go get him some coffee.

We see Spider-Man arriving in the circus tent. He yells for everyone to leave immediately. Unfortunately, everyone at the circus thinks that Spider-Man is a part of the show so they stay and clap. Mr. Negative’s thugs are on the scene and they attack Spider-Man. Spider-Man kicks ass on Mr. Negative’s thugs as the crowd cheers what they all think is simply a staged part of the circus show.

Mr. Negative launches a container of red gas. Spider-Man uses some of the circus bungee cords to launch the container far away from the circus tent where it explodes harmlessly. Unfortunately, everyone in the circus tent runs in fear and blames Spider-Man for the attempted gas attack.

Spider-Man then exits the circus tent and sees that Mr. Negative has a young girl hostage. Mr. Negative tosses a needle and vial to Spider-Man and tells him to draw his blood into the container or else Mr. Negative will kill the girl. Spider-Man draws his blood into the container and throws it back to Mr. Negative. Mr. Negative says that his gas is called Devil’s Breath and now he will use Spider-Man’s blood to concoct a special Devil’s Breath gas that will kill Spider-Man and any of his blood relatives. Mr. Negative warns Spider-Man not to cross his path again for the sake of Spider-Man’s loved ones.

Mr. Negative then throws the girl into the water. Spider-Man dives into the water to save the girl while Mr. Negative uses this opportunity to escape. Spider-Man brings the girl back to dry land and one of the Kanelli wives tells Spider-Man that the Mafia will forever be in his debt and that Spider-Man is now family. The police arrive on the scene and Spider-Man exits quickly thinking how the cops are going to think that Spider-Man is now working with the mob.

We cut to Charlie reporting to work at the Medical Examiner’s Office. She prepares to work on a male corpse that was pulled from the river. Charlie notices something in his mouth. Charlie pulls out a Spider-Tracer.

We cut to Peter thinking about all that just happened with Mr. Negative. Peter thinks that it is a good thing that the only family he has is Aunt May and that she is not a blood relative. We zip over to Mr. Negative arriving at his secret lair. He turns back to normal and walks through a secret door into the homeless shelter that Aunt May volunteers at. Mr. Negative is none other than Mr. Li who runs the shelter.

We shift to Peter’s spider-sense suddenly going nuts. Peter swings down to an alley where he finds the dead body of the Spider-Mugger. Peter retrieves his web-shooter and spider-tracer from the corpse. Just then, the police show up and tell Spider-Man that he is under arrest. Peter quickly flees the scene. Spider-Man thinks how he is back in costume for one day and now the cops think he is a killer, a new super villain wants him dead. The only people who like him are the mob and that he didn’t get pictures of any of it. End of issue.

Comments
The Good: Amazing Spider-Man #548 was an average issue. Slott certainly serves up a fast paced issue. This issue starts off quick and there is no stop to this roller coaster until you hit the end. Slott also delivers enough action to make sure the reader never gets bored. The fast pacing and short scene cuts back and forth between the various plotlines made this issue a quick read and will make Amazing Spider-Man #548 appealing to readers who don’t mind a shallow story as long as it is quick with plenty of action.

I continue to dig Slott’s dialogue. Slott’s nice sense of humor and ability to fire out plenty of witty quips makes him a fine candidate to write Spider-Man. As a matter of fact, Peter’s personality is pretty much the only aspect of Amazing Spider-Man that is really captivating my interest.

I enjoyed the little twist of Mr. Negative being none other than Mr. Li who runs the shelter that Aunt May volunteers at. That is a neat revelation that should cause some problems for Peter at some point.

McNiven and Vines continue to impress me with their fine looking artwork. I love the attention to detail that McNiven gives his art. While Amazing Spider-Man’s story might be lacking in depth, the artwork certainly is not.

The Bad: Amazing Spider-Man #548 simply comes across as a paint-by-numbers issue. Slott is hitting all the necessary points that you need to generate a formulaic comic book story. There is nothing that seems particularly complex, intriguing or different with what we are getting on Amazing Spider-Man.

For the most part, the story is rather shallow. This story certainly is evoking feelings of the 1970’s Spider-Man that I remember as a little kid. And I’m sure that this is no coincidence since Joey Q has never been shy about wanting Spider-Man to return to how he was when Joey Q was a kid. The lack of depth with this initial story arc makes it hard for me to get that engrossed or captivated by this title.

This story arc is simply a standard and generic comic book story. It isn’t as mature or complex as most titles on the market. Even though I thought a majority of JMS’ run was absolutely moronic, it still was a mature story with plenty of depth. This version of Amazing Spider-Man seems that Marvel is trying to target a younger audience.

Again, it appears that Joey Q doesn’t understand his own stable of titles. I was under the impression that Marvel Adventures Spider-Man was for the younger readers. That Ultimate Spider-Man was the title that would appeal to older teens as well as older readers who desired to read about a young single Peter Parker. And then Amazing Spider-Man was the most mature title that sported an older and married Peter Parker.

Now it appears that Joey Q has combined Marvel Adventures Spider-Man with Ultimate Spider-Man with his new version of Amazing Spider-Man. With what we are getting on Amazing Spider-Man, the other two Spider-Man titles have lost their purpose and we no longer have three distinctive Spider-Man titles like we did before the Mephisto retcon.

Mr. Negative isn’t turning out to be a particularly compelling villain. He is rather generic and Slott hasn’t been able to give me any reason to either despise Mr. Negative or to feel sympathetic toward him.

I am also not even remotely interested in the Spider-Mugger plotline that is teasing the reader about Peter’s secret identity getting exposed. We just went through a massive retcon that dealt with giving Peter his secret identity back. It is too soon to start teasing the reader with the possibility of Peter’s secret identity already getting revealed once again. It is beginning to get a tired plotline. I would prefer that Marvel stop beating this dead horse and just stop revolving plotlines around Peter’s secret identity for at least a little while.

I also understand that part of Joey Q’s mandate with the retcon is that Spider-Man go back to his classic position of being wanted by the Police and generally hated by the public. But, I think that Slott went overboard with this theme in this issue. Having the police believe that Spider-Man killed the mugger in the alley was enough. I don’t think we also needed to have the Mafia also state in front of the police that Spider-Man is part of their family.

Overall: After finishing the initial story arc on this newly retconned Amazing Spider-Man, I feel that I have sufficient exposure to this new direction of this title in order to give a proper recommendation. I don’t find Amazing Spider-Man to be a horrible read. It simply is a bit shallow and immature. If this were a monthly title then I’d recommend it to readers who enjoy a light hearted read that isn’t very deep and makes for a fun and fast read. Pure popcorn for the brain.

However, the fact is that Amazing Spider-Man requires a reader to purchase this title three times a month. If a comic book company expects a reader to shell out money for three issues a month on a single title then the story better be one hell of a read like 52 was. And Amazing Spider-Man simply isn’t anything beyond an average read. Therefore, unless you are a die-hard Spider-Man fan, I simply cannot recommend Amazing Spider-Man due to the amount of money you have to expend every month. The quality of story on Amazing Spider-Man just isn’t worth the cost of having to purchase three issues a month.