Amazing Spider-Man Reviews: Reboot Year 2

Amazing Spider-Man # 18
Plot: Down on your Parker is now scrubbing dishes at a greasy spoon. Strapped for cash, this is evidently the only job he can get. He then calls his Aunt May to see if he can come visit and get a shower, etc.
Peter then goes to Aunt May's house to find Anna Watson, MJ's aunt. Peter tells them that MJ isn't' dead, and that everything is going to be all right.
We then cut to the Green Goblin coming back to terrorize Liz Osborne. He evidently wants Liz to show him some secret files from the Osborne corp.
Spidey then comes to the scene and saves Liz.
Likes:This was Byrne's best looking issue, mainly due to the inking of artist extraordinaire John Romita Sr. Man is this guy an outstanding artists. He can turn Byrne's sub-standard pencils, with hardly any backgrounds, into perfection.
Unfortunately, Romita's inking of Byrne's pencils is the only good thing about the issue.
Dislikes: When you have dialog such as "It can't be Harry, I just ran into his holographic ghost" in the story, then you've got problems. There is no explanation to Goblins return, so the reader could care less. The battle of Spider-Man and the Goblin is anti-climatic and tries to set the stage to buy the Peter Parker book. The Goblin escapes, as Spider-Man tries to hold a transport tram from falling into the bridge.
I really didn't like the out of character Peter Parker sleeping on the streets. He's mumbling to his Aunt's how Mary Jane isn't dead, he's a dish washer at a local greasy spoon, and he's a bum that sleeps on the streets. Mackie and Byrne are taking this "down on your luck" superhero thing to a new level.
Rating: I'm giving this issue one and a half web heads out of four. Explain the Goblins motivation, advance the MJ plot, and stop going over the top with plots to crap on Peter,then you'll have a decent comic.

Amazing Spider-Man # 17
Plot: We open the story with the Sandman literally falling apart. Ever since Venom took a big bite out of him, he's been unable to bond himself together.
We then cut to Glory Grant knocking on Peter's door telling him that she's set up a job interview with a pharmaceutical company. Peter then gets dressed up, and walks to the job interview, and then of course trouble ensues.
While walking to the job interview a distraught mother pulls Peter into her apartment building. Her babies head is stuck in the cribs bars. Peter bends the baby's head out, and just as that happens police rush in a to do a drug raid of the building.
Peter then is taken to a police car to go into custody. The Sandman then begins to destroy downtown NY and of course the exact police, transporting Peter to jail, are called to the scene.
Likes: I actually liked this issue. Sure there were a lot of "convenient " elements of it, like a police raid just happens to occur when Peter's there and the Sandman just happens to be wrecking destruction nearby. But, overall I found it to be an enjoyable issue. Mainly due to the fact that Peter is always nagged at by his responsibility of others. This is the driving force of Spider-Man, a responsibility to always to the right thing. Doing the right thing, isn't' always the easy way out either. As witnessed when Peter doesn't get the job at the end of the issue because he's over-qualified for the job.
Dislikes: I didn't care for the fact that Mary Jane or no other supporting cast were used in the issue. Nowhere was there a plot element that moved the MJ mystery forward. Also I found Mysterio and Electro's appearance awkward. Why were they here in the story, what did they add? Perhaps this is just a plot builder for future stories, but I couldn't find a reason for their appearance.
Rating: I'm going to give this issue three out of four web heads. Granted it wasn't the best issue of Amazing, but it's an improvement from last issues plug for Byrne's mini-series.

Amazing Spider-Man #16
Plot: Mackie finally gets around to addressing some loose plot threads. First up is Peter's job at Tri-corp, which he hasn't been to since I think the first couple of issues. The second is that plot involving J. Jonah possibly knowing Spidey's secret id. In-between those two issues John Byrne works in a gratuitous plug for his new mini-series, "Marvel : The Lost Generation."
Likes: I enjoyed an appearance by the Ghost. He's an old Iron Man villain, and it's cool to see him again. I also enjoyed Mackie getting around to these long forgotten plot elements. Plus seeing Peter down on his luck again has its advantages, still MJ is missed.
Dislikes: Byrne pencils one awful looking Peter Parker. His Spidey is ok, but man take a look at his Peter. She-O-wee. Also I didn't care for the appearance of Cassandra Locke. Leave it to Byrne to push her appearance here two issues before he leaves. She seemed out of place, and has no effect on the Amazing title. A big waste of valuable storytelling space in my opinion.
Rating: I'm giving this two out of four web heads. It's a vast improvement over last, but still it's mediocre stuff at best.

Amazing Spider-Man #15
Plot: The story opens with Peter packing his bags and heading off to Latveria. Peter had received a phone call telling him that Mary Jane is still alive, and in Doctor Doom's country. So he stows away on an airliner and heads off.
Spidey then tries to brake into Dooms castle, but witnesses a Civil War with the citizens. He rescues one of the young gals fighting and she's trying to find her father. The young lady then hides Spidey in her humble HUD housing as the Doom-Bots fly off when they can't find the two . Meanwhile we find out this young girl is a big fan of superheroes.
Likes: Byrne turns in some better than average pencils. The guy draws a cool looking Dr. Doom, even if we know it's not the real deal.
Dislikes: Besides Byrne's pencils, there is nothing good about this issue. What is Spidey doing off in Latveria? Also what happened to Spidey' so called plan that he has to find MJ? He states he has one in the beginning of the issue, but abandons it to help find this poor girls parents. This girl was a cheap throw away character and added nothing to the story. Also Spider-Man didn't even fight the real Doom, he fought his robot clones. ...whoops, I mean doubles. Mackie reached a new low with this issue. Rating: One lonely Spider-head out of four. You didn't miss a thing if you skipped this issue.

Amazing Spider-Man # 14

Plot:We open the story with Spider-Woman reading in the Daily Bugle that Mary Jane has died in a plane explosion. She then rushes over to console her friend Peter Parker.
Cut to the "evil" Spider-Woman following her trail. Spidey-Gal changes clothes and surprises Aunt May by entering their multi-story penthouse, by coming in the balcony?
Anyway the evil Spider-Woman, who needs a new name, battles the good Spider-Man and Woman. The comic then closes with the good Spider-Woman needing mouth to mouth resuscitation from Spidey. And this 15 year old girl discloses her love for Petey.
Likes: The re-design of Spider-Woman's costume was a vast improvement over her current title. Also it was nice to see Spidey actually morning the loss of his wife. Some issues showed that Peter could care less. It's more like the writers could care less about this very important character.
Dislikes: I thought we were past the "guest star" problem that plagued the first few issues of the re-boot. For all intents and purposes this could have been Spider-Woman's sub-par comic.
Also I found it interesting that on the cover it says that Mackie wrote the comic, but we read on the last page that this was all Byrne's doing. How appropriate for him to come in and write the wrong book. I think he meant to send this script in for the latest issue of Spider-Woman. Also look at my plot description. I can't imagine coming up with such a lame concept and publishing it. Plus do we need another person knowing Spider-Man's identity? What are we up to, half the Marvel Universe knows by now!
Rating:One and a half for this sad piece of work.

Amazing Spider-Man # 13

Plot: There were three main plotlines happening here. The first involved Mary Jane leaving for the airport to got to a model shoot. The next involved Spider-Man racing to get on the plane with her. He was constantly distracted and lost time by buglers and criminals on their latest crime spree. The third involved some looser stealing the Rocket Racer's costume and skateboard. The cliffhanger then has MJ's plane blowing up and it's assumed she's dead. Yeah, like anyone stays dead in the Spider-Verse
Likes: Byrne's artwork seemed up to snuff this time. He had some quality shots of Spidey and he had a cool cover. I also enjoyed the demise of the looser Rocket Racer. He ran into a door on his first day on the job, and was knocked unconscious.
Dislikes: The extremely cheap plot element of "killing off" Mary Jane. If you believe she is dead, then you haven't been reading comics very long. There is absolutely no way she is dead. It seems that Howard Hackie, I mean Mackie can't write the MJ character very well, so he builds a year long plot element that will make her absent from the tile for an unspecified number of issues. Mary Jane is a very popular character, and it's a shame to loose her, and have us reading a moping Peter Parker until she comes back.
Rating: Two out of four web heads. I had hoped that the first issue, of the second year of the re-boot, would be fresh but this is the same old mediocrity.

Read reviews of Amazing Spider-Man Vol 2 # 1-12