Amazing Spider-Man #503 (#62)
“Chasing
a Dark Shadow” Part One of Two
Writers: Fiona Avery & J. Michael
Straczynski
Penciler: John Romita Jr. & John Romita
Sr.
Inker: Scott Hanna
PLOT: It seems as though Spider-Man’s
adventure through time alongside Dr. Strange in issue #500 had some
lingering effects. In this
case, an ancient sorceress named Morwen finds her way into the real world
and takes over a young woman’s body.
She promises to find the person responsible for her freedom, which
would be Spider-Man, and pay him back.
Thor’s rival, Loki, also senses something is amiss.
He uses his occult powers to get out of Asgard, undetected, and
makes his way to New York. He
witnesses Spider-Man talking to Morwen and confronts Spider-Man when she
leaves. Because Doctor
Strange is nowhere to be found, he wants Spider-Man to work with him to
send Morwen back where she came from.
Spider-Man declines, but is forced to work with him when Loki
threatens to kill an innocent bystander.
They agree on a partnership, but only on the condition that nobody
dies.
LIKES:
- Some people can’t stand Spider-Man being
involved with magical and/or other dimensional landscapes, but I kind
of like it. It puts a
wrinkle in the Spider-Man we all know, and puts him in some
interesting scenarios.
- Avery does a better job the second time around
in filling in for JMS. She
weaves a fun story in which we know Spidey is the good guy, Morwen is
the bad(girl), and we have no freakin’ clue what Loki is up to.
- I believe that mystical type stories always
bring out the best in John Romita Jr.
I bet he has all types of fun with all the weird characters and
energies floating around
DISLIKES:
- This character seems too Shathra like.
This fact is even brought up in the story.
- There’s too much of Asgardian lore that I
know nothing about. What
the heck is up with magic trees, rocks, and bridges???
RATING: 4
webheads out of 5. Maybe not
a Spider-Man traditionalist’s cup of tea, but I sure had a fun time
reading it.
Reviewed by AC-WEB
(Ariel Chaidez)
Amazing
Spider-Man #502 (#61)
Intermezzo Number Two- “You want PANTS with
that”
Writers: J. Michael Straczynski
Penciler: John Romita Jr.
Inker: Scott Hanna
PLOT: We get another single-issue
storyline this month. This
time, the story revolves around a New York tailor Leo Zelinsky.
He is no ordinary tailor, though, as he caters to superheroes and
super villains alike. While
on the job assisting a new villain named Killshot, he overhears his
client’s conversation in which he talks about the next job he is
undertaking. The job Killshot
is talking about is the assassination of a district attorney.
Unable to sit quietly with this information, Leo finds Spider-Man
and informs him about the plot. Spider-Man
intervenes and saves the day, but the villain escapes.
Killshot suspects his tailor squealed and goes after him.
Spider-Man is there ready for him and takes him down.
Leo then gives Spider-Man a plan for a new costume, the one future
Spider-Man is wearing in issue #500.
LIKES:
- Another great single-issue story by JMS.
This is a different kind of story, but effective either way.
- There were SOME great comedic scenes,
especially when Leo describes his work to Spidey.
I could just imagine a tailor trying to work with The Blob.
- Another stellar artistic showing by John
Romita Jr.
DISLIKES:
- The opening scene fell extremely flat.
I hope to never see that waiter again.
- Killshot was a lame villain.
He’s just an ordinary Joe with a scope gun.
- Even though I like single-issue stories, I
would rather have them spread out in between larger storylines, and
not one right after another.
RATING: 3 and ˝
webheads out of 5. Nothing of
great importance happens, but it is a good story nonetheless
Reviewed by AC-WEB (Ariel Chaidez)
Amazing
Spider-Man #501 (#60)
“Intermezzo Number One- Saturday I the Park with
May”
Writers: J. Michael Straczynski
Penciler: John Romita Jr. & John Romita
Sr.
Inker: Scott Hanna
PLOT: JMS switches gears from his
monumental and multi-superhero story arc and brings us a single-issue book
concentrating on Aunt. May. May
sits quietly on a park bench pondering the life altering events that she
has recently been facing with an unknown figure. She continues to struggle
with that fact that her nephew is the amazing Spider-Man, but she is
starting to accept that this is whom Peter is.
While this goes on, Spider-Man finds himself trying to figure how
to bring down the newest villain in his life, The Shaker.
The Shaker is giving Spider-Man more than he can handle, and
causing a great deal of property damage to New York.
After an exhausting back and forth fight, Spider-Man finally leads
The Shaker into a pool, where he is overtaken by the waves his costume
creates. We then get back to
May to find that she is at a cemetery and has been talking to Uncle Ben,
and Peter’s parents.
LIKES:
A single issue, character driven story.
I thought these issues were gone.
It’s nice to see a switch in gears from time to time.
Great artwork from JRjr. I’m
sounding like a broken record on this, but the man is one of the most
talented artists in the biz.
The creation of a new villain who doesn’t die.
JMS has a knack of introducing us to new bad guys, only to have
them never show up again.
DISLIKES:
The Shaker has too many similarities to The Shocker.
Too many sexually suggestive dialogue or situations between MJ and Peter.
This was understandable when MJ and Peter first reunited, but it is
now becoming stale.
Very generic and uninteresting cover.
RATING: 4 webheads out of 5.
Even though there weren’t any really important developments, it
was a strong story nonetheless. Hopefully
there will be a number of “Intermezzo’s” in the works.
Reviewed by AC-WEB (Ariel
Chaidez)
Amazing
Spider-Man #500 (#59)
“Happy Birthday Part-Three”
Writers: J. Michael Straczynski
Penciler: John Romita Jr. & John Romita
Sr.
Inker: Scott Hanna
PLOT: Last issue, Spider-Man and Doctor
Strange accidentally get trapped inside the moments in between time.
Spider-Man leaves Dr. Strange’s side in an attempt to save MJ but
now finds himself lost in the past and the future of his own life.
He witnesses his future self get shot down in a last stand.
Time shifts and then he sees himself right before being bitten by
the radiated spider that made him who he is.
Spider-Man has the chance to intervene and change everything, but
decides not to and let life take its course.
Dr. Strange finally finds Spider-man and throws him a lifeline to
get back. The only problem is
that Spider-Man has to literally jump through all the battles of his past
and catch up to the future. After
a roller coaster and tiresome sequence of events, Spider-Man is able to
get back to the point in time before our heroes mistakenly brought back
Dormammu to this dimension. Spider-Man
warns the heroes of what will happen, and pleads for more time until Dr.
Strange can show up and finish the battle via magic.
The heroes trust Spidey, and that is exactly what happens.
Spider-Man then informs Dr. Strange of what he had just gone
through, and Strange gives Spidey a present that was somehow in his
pocket. Spider-man returns
home to celebrate his birthday with his loved ones.
After the festivities, Peter goes to the roof of the apartment and
examines the gift given by Strange. It
turns out that this gift magically brings back Uncle Ben to speak with
Peter for five minutes. After
a heart to heart, Peter realizes that even through all his trials and
tribulations, he is happy with his life.
With that, Uncle Ben disappears.
LIKES: A great book for the nostalgic
Spider-Man fan. The artwork
was phenomenal. JRjr’s
pencils blew me away especially through all the fight scenes.
JRsr’s work was appropriate.
I don’t know whom else I would choose to pencil such as emotional
scene with Uncle Ben than JRsr. The
story was good, but more of a flashback issue.
I was expecting something huge for issue #500, and that was just
not the case.
DISLIKES: The story was good,
but more of a flashback issue. I
was expecting something huge for issue #500, and that was just not the
case. There is also too
much Dr. Strange and other hero involvement. JMS
uses this opportunity as a launching point to his Dr. Strange mini-series,
and I fell that this is not the appropriate forum to do that.
RATING: 4 webheads out of 5.
A very nice compilation of Spider-Man’s past and possible future,
but not the huge story I expected for such a milestone issue.
Reviewed by AC-WEB
(Ariel Chaidez)
Amazing
Spider-Man #58 (#499)
“Happy Birthday Part-Two”
Writers: J. Michael Straczynski
Penciler: John Romita Jr.
Inker: Scott Hanna
PLOT: A
group of heroes, including Spider-Man, have unwittingly brought back from
the dead the dreaded Dormammu, Dr. Strange’s arch foe.
Strange dispatches the rest of the heroes to continue to fight The
Mindless Ones while he battles Dormammu toe-to-toe.
After some heroic feats to save innocents, Spider-Man decides to
back up Dr. Strange and stop any Mindless Ones from interfering in the
fight between he and Dormammu. Too
bad Spidey is uppercutted and thrown in the magical battle and in between
the two sorcerers, disrupting the magical spell Strange was working on to
defeat Dormammu. Strange and
Spider-Man end up in the void, trapped outside time and space.
Strange conjures up another magic spell and the two find themselves
between the time the Mindless Ones appeared, and after Dormammu destroyed
everything and killed all the heroes.
Strange explains that this is one of many possible realities that
can happen. Before anything
else happens, Peter leaves Strange’s side because he sees MJ in danger.
He tries to protect her from the Mindless Ones, but fails.
We then see Spider-Man crashing into the tombstone of May Parker.
Spider-man sees an aging Peter Parker, with an alternative
Spider-Man costume visiting her. We then flash back to Peter Parker right
before an irradiated spider bites him. Before anything happens, Peter
remembers Strange’s words, “We are inside the moments between moments.
We may even be able to affect what happens when the quantum
possibilities collapse into one reality.”
What happens next continues in Amazing Spider-Man #500.
LIKES: The art is amazing, no pun
intended. JRjr really outdoes
himself, especially with the impressive magical battle between Dormammu
and Dr. Strange. JMS does do a good job explaining quantum physics to a
layman like myself. I think
the story itself is pretty strong.
DISLIKES: Even
though I am enjoying the story, I am beginning to turn with the masses in
the belief that Dr. Strange, his enemies, and/or Earth’s mightiest
heroes do not mix well with Spider-Man.
The magic and totem storyline would do fine for a mini-series or
for a storyline other than Spider-Man’s blockbuster 500th
issue. I really hope the JMS
does not change Peter Parker’s origin like Byrne tried to do in the
past, but I guess we’ll find out next issue.
Also, killing MJ was not cool at all, but we all know that she will
be back when everything is said and done.
RATING: 3 webheads out of 5.
I was really hoping that Dormammu and Dr. Strange were not going to
play an important part in Spider-Man 500th issue, but I was
wrong. The mystical angle
comes to a head in Amazing Spider-Man #500, and we will see what surprises
and plot turns JMS has in store for us then.
Reviewed by AC-WEB
(Ariel Chaidez)
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