Part two of Marc Guggenheim’s female Kraven story has arrived. Is it as good as the concept sounds? It is! Leave a comment or suffer my wrath.
THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #566
“Identity Crisis!” (Part 2 of “Kraven’s First Hunt”)
WRITER: Marc Guggenheim
BREAKDOWNS: Phil Jimenez
FINISHES: Mark Pennington
COLORS: Chris Chuckry & Jeromy Cox
PLOT:
Peter notices his costume is missing and assumes Vin found it and took it to his fellow cops. He borrows Daredevil’s costume and visits Vin’s station, only to learn enough to piece together that a villain who thinks Vin is Spider-Man has kidnapped him and taken him to the sewers. Spidey (still dressed as Daredevil) tries to rescue Vin, but Vermin ambushes him on the way. As the fight takes a bad turn for Spider-Devil, Kravette injects Vin with Mutant Growth Hormone and releases him so she can hunt him like a super-powered man-animal!
THOUGHTS:
I’m beginning to wonder if the thrice-monthly schedule isn’t a curse for the quality of this title. Everything about this issue screams rushed, from the plot to the dialogue to the art. Vermin’s appearance comes out of nowhere and adds nothing other than to pad the story and make it more vaguely reminiscent of Kraven’s Last Hunt. Sometimes decompression can enhance a story’s mood and give the writer room to insert little moments that steal the show (see Zeb Wells’ blizzard arc for a good example of this), but this is the bad, frustrating type of drawn out storytelling. Combine that with an abrupt and unsatisfying cliffhanger ending, and it’s clear that Marc Guggenheim’s story structure was only half baked when this thing went to press.
Maybe if he had more time, Guggenheim would have remembered that Peter wouldn’t need a web mask to visit a blind man, or that said blind man should be able to hear someone talking on a cell phone right outside his office window. Maybe a second draft would have allowed for the removal of the more painful lines of dialogue, such as “gotta make this quick … I mean, ‘make this quip,’” or Spider-Man altering the words of his theme song for the SECOND time in Guggenheim’s first FIVE issues.
In another symptom of rushed comic creation, Phil Jimenez does breakdowns instead of full pencils. Compared to #565, #566 looks simple and cartoony because the finisher can’t match the detail and vitality Jimenez achieves when it’s just him and an inker. Peter’s face looks overly goofy in the Daredevil mask, which may be intentional. Even so, Peter Parker’s nose should not take up 60% of his face.
RATING:
1.5 webheads out of 5. I’m now at the point where, if not for these reviews, I would drop Amazing Spider-Man without hesitation. The Spider-Man team has proven over twenty issues that they do not intend to take the character into directions we haven’t seen before. I’ve seen riffs on Most Dangerous Game before. I’ve seen what happens when a villain guesses a hero’s identity and gets it wrong. Kraven’s First Hunt has been both unoriginal and poorly written. How many more stories meeting that description can this title really withstand?
REVIEWED BY: CrazyChris
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I’ve always liked Daredevil’s run ins with Spiderman
Maybe, but when I pick out all the nits, there isn’t much left. 🙂 I hope that you see from my other reviews that I tend to focus more on broader problems in the issues I don’t like and less on the little annoying details. However, I feel like the broad gripes with Brand New Day have been harped on enough, so I have to think of a way to do this without typing the same thing week after week. It’s really hard finding a different angle for each review, actually. This time I tried to make the central point that the issue felt like it was rushed to the shelves after baking only halfway in the oven, and I used specific examples to show why I thought that. On their own, each example is a nitpick, but I had hoped that I could show how, when seen together, they are symptomatic of the broader issue here.
If Spider-Man was worried about other New Yorkers seeing him, why did he climb up the wall at all? He had Daredevil’s phone number, and Daredevil can recognize people by their heartbeat so he definately can tell who’s talking to him on the phone. Any way you slice it, that scene was pretty dumb.
Yes, Michael. good point. Also it’s interesting to see what they’re doing with Vin. I wonder are they they setting him up to decend into madness at some point and become a new Spidey villain or will they keep him on as a straight up supporting character. I also wonder how if Vin will realise that Pete is Spider-Man and how they can dodge or take that bullet.
I think most of the review is more nitpick than anything. Sorry Chris 😉
maybe he wore a web mask incase someone else saw him. New York buildings have been known to be busy.
the funny thing is… I thought the unmasking/outing/ fugitive thing WAS something we hadn’t seen before…
And an off topic question… isn’t Captain America getting a LOT of mileage for a dead guy?
Oh, I was talking about the artist – not the writer. But I just noticed that wasn’t Jiminez either but Mr. Bachalo. See, I’m getting confused by all the different team-ups. It’s about time we get Romita Jr. back so I know what I’m at. 😉
Guggenheim didn’t write the Blizzard arc, tickbite. That was Wells.
I agree one hundred per cent with your review. And I’ve been just as disappointed by the art of those last two issues. I can’t believe this is the same guy who did the “blizzard arc”. And while the story was probably supposed to be some kind of homage to “Last Hunt”, it comes off more as a rip-off.
One thing I liked, though, was Daredevil’s line on the phone “…even one or two [calls] from Superman – which is kind of impressive considering he’s fictional” – even though it ignores that Spidey and Supes have actually met before.