Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 1) #550 Review

THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #550
TITLE: “The Menace of … Menace!!”
WRITER: Marc Guggenheim
ARTIST: Salvador Larroca
COLORIST: Stephane Peru

PLOT:

Jackpot reluctantly helps The Blue Shield (some Z-lister out of a 1981 Dazzler ish) reign in Spidey’s unregistered tuchus, but the glider-mounted villain Menace interrupts them, making short work of our hero with a few cheap gimmicks. Later, Jackpot assists Spider-Man in combing Menace’s layer for clues. They find blueprints for the Apollo Theater, the night’s mayoral debate venue.

At the hospital, Jonah rages over Peter’s supposed verbal assault on him, but he’s oblivious to the Bugle buyout. Elsewhere, the construction worker whom Spidey saved last issue conspires with a lawyer to sue the wall-crawler!

Wall-crawlers lead busy lives, so Peter also has to solve the Spider-Tracer Killer case. He meets with the detective running the investigation, and it turns out at least six corpses have turned up with Spider-Tracers. Menace attacks the Apollo Theater, which Spider-Man can see from the distant explosions. He’ll have a tough time getting there while surrounded by NYPD cops who want to question him for murder.

THOUGHTS:

The number of new characters and plots going on at once is getting kind of nuts. I’d hate for Amazing to start giving a bunch of separate storylines minimal airtime each week without significantly advancing any one of them. That hasn’t happened yet, but Brand New Day’s focus is wavering with a clumsier integration of plots. For example, Spider-Man abruptly stops hunting Menace to investigate the Tracer Killer with no clear reason for him to shift his attention. I’m being overly critical here, but the “Spidey Braintrust” has set a high bar with respect to how one story flows into another, and I want to see that level of quality maintained.

I don’t know what to make of Menace. Nothing distinguishes him (or her?) from New York’s half-dozen other glider-riding maniacs, so he’s awfully generic compared to last month’s Mr. Negative. And those horns are butt ugly! Of the other new characters, Detective whatshisname is boring, but the ambulance-chasing Matt Dowd has a sleazy charm. No one is more interesting than Dexter Bennet, however. I didn’t touch on him in the synopsis, but he has a moment that makes one wonder if he isn’t actually a better publisher than Jonah.

Speaking of Jameson, I hate the way the writing and art portray him as a big baby and not as the volcanic public crusader we all know. Guggenheim demonstrates masterful characterization for everyone else, so that’s my only gripe with the writing, but that’s NOT my only gripe with the art. I’d like to blame my displeasure on the faded coloring (are these the printer problems Steve Wacker mentioned on the February podcast?), but the faces are so inconsistent that there’s really no excuse for Larroca not rising to the damn beautiful level he’s achieved before. If you were hoping for the second coming of Sensational Spider-Man Annual #1, prepare for disappointment.

FAVORITE QUOTE:

MENACE: “You — !”

SPIDER-MAN: “Me!”

RATING:

3 webheads out of 5. You’ve been reading this far, and you have an idea what to expect from a Brand New Day issue. #550 will meet but not exceed those expectations.

REVIEWED BY: CrazyChris