*Cue scene from the Crawl Space’s Bulpen*
Brad, channeling his inner JJJ, starts to Bark at Zach’s cubicle.
“WHERE’S FAMILY #4! 5 IS OUT TODAY!”
Okay okay, while Brad’s not only channeling his inner JJJ, he’s also channeling his inner Wacker, while I channel my inner Brennon, and be the invisible assistant editor. (Check out the assistant editors book for more) But nevertheless, I come here before you as the reviewer of the Spider-Family title with the official debut of the Spectacular Spider-Girl, along with a screwball story and Carile Cooper as well, add that to a Sensational Swiney-Girl. and you’ve got our issue for the month.
Amazing Spider-Family #5
Who is Gwen Reilly?-Relevant Experience-Treasure Hunted!-No More HAY!
Writers: Tom DeFalco, Marc Sumerak, Tony Lee
Art: Ron Frenz and Sal Buscema, Todd Nauck, Mark Robinson, Shawn Moll
Editors: Steve Wacker and Tom Brennan
Let’s Start from the last story and work our way back, becuase I want Spider-Girl to be the last thing with this issue, not the first. Plus we’ll go from cute to serious that way. Back in the 80s, you had Peter Porker, the Spectacular Spider-Pig. Now his Daughter, the Sensational Swiney Girl takes place in a simular universe as the Universe that created Spider-Girl. Who Better than Tom D to tell the story? In this universe, you have May in the Black Costume, with Peter still adventuring, unlike his counterpart. The Hay Monger is attacking the city, stealing, well hay. The guy who think’s he’s a world class Super-Villain, who is mad that he got attacked by the sidekick. He wants to create a shortage, and get fame, riches, and Millie the Model comics. Peter lecutres his daughter, and he eventually relents, and we get the action, a fairly short battle, but it’s mainly due to the size of the story. We reveal that the villian is actually the twin of the person whom he was taking from, all along the while that the Daily Beagle starts to like Swiney-Girl.
Thoughts: Well, this was a cute, family friendly story. I really really liked it, and it had a classic goofy feel. Anytime I see Tom’s name there, I know it’s going to be classic, And he does a wonderful Job in this book. The art is very fitting, and enjoyable. I wasn’t keen on the villain, but this was a fun way to end the issue, and it was good stuff. I’ll give it a B for effort. Entertained, but not blown away.
Story 2: Screwball Vs. Spidey vs. the Mad Hacker. “Treasure Hunted!” Deals with Screwball getting hacked, a Boys life in the balance, and Spidey Banter.
Thoughts: Well, there isn’t much to this story. The Hacker was all set up, and it was just a way to get ratings. Screwball has potentional, and I’ve liked her more than I did when she was introduced, but I can’t shake the feeling that they’re turning her in Black Cat Ver. 2.0 as a bad girl love interest for Peter. But it was a nice little romp and one of the few stories that i’ve liked on this title from the current direction. Solid B.
Story 3: Features Peter Parker and Carile Cooper. Yup TWO BND stories this month, as we get Peter taking pictures of crime scenes. Although he can’t seem to keep his mouth shut and it looks like that our loveable loser stays that way.
THOUGHTS: I really like the premise. But must he continue to be a huge loser? Must we get character development of Carlie in THIS title and not in ASM? Couldn’t this been a bigger subplot? I felt like this was a missed oppertuinty. It was good, But I’d wish that they’d talk more about this last year when we could’ve had things move along at better clip. Still, I liked that they treated Peter as an experaened veteran with Super-Villians. Although he didn’t get the job, we get a good interaction with Peter and Carlie.
B-
And now, the bulk of this issue: WHO IS GWEN REILLY?! We get a GREAT story that picks up where ASM 30 left off. Although we got this story two weeks ago, I’d rather review it with the physical book, although if we continue with the Spider-Ma’am mockery a pages, I may need to shoot myself in the face. This book is what made the issue for me. As we get a new mystery, a new villain, and a continuation of Sub-plots from ASM. Good News is, you don’t need to know everything about Spider-Girl’s world to know what’s going on.
THOUGHTS: Best Story of the book. Gwen Reilly is a great edtion, I just hope that Ben Reilly’s Legacy is something that I’ll like. I have my theories, but I don’t want to say yet. As for Nu-May, er sorry April Parker, we’ll see I wonder if she’ll make it past this story. Now that last page has me worried. They’re throwing an ultimate Clone Saga Bone, and I need to know. I can’t wait for this book next month!
A+
Overall, this was the strongest book so far. It totally was worth my 5 Bucks.
What? I’m giving something ASM related a good grade. Sue me.
-Spideydude
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I got to say I grown quite fond of April seeing her interact with May. She brings alot of energy to the family, high school, and crimefighting scenes and provides a great foil for Mayday.
Growing Impatience for Issue 2 of SSG!
DD is his kid with Janie, who was the girl who Ben was with during his time as Spidey during the Redemption Mini Series, I wonder if Jackal created a clone with Ben’s DNA and Gwen’s DNA.
Although that last page makes me wonder if we’ll see Gwen for every long.
He doesn’t. May doesn’t either.
Lost Years shows why Ben is not just a good character, but a GREAT one, when with the right talent.
@Spideydude: I actually just read the Spider-Man: The Lost Years trade for the first time, and it was absolutely fantastic. It hit all the right notes, and was an interesting story in its own right. However, reading it only made me more angry that Ben was killed off. GRR!
But back to topic … does Peter know that Reilly Tyne is Ben Reilly’s son? The dialogue in this issue seems to imply that he doesn’t, but that strikes me as being pretty odd. Dramatic irony, I guess.
I’ve got my own theories on Gwen Reily, but I think it’s safe to say this is not MC2’s answer to Sins Past. I hope this hearalds the involvement of the original Gwen Stacy clone, as she and Ben were practically born together and may have had some flirtations here and there prior to his death in some lost tale….nobody bothered to track her down when she left NYC after Maximum Clonage.
She’s the only one that has an annoying habit of having her daughters look exactly like her
Well, I liked the Carlie story. But, it seems that we must treat Peter like a HUGE loser.
HUGE.
I’m tired of it.
TO Tours Question: Ben Reilly had a love interest in Spider-Man Lost Years and Spider-Man Redemption. They were together for several weeks (When Ben was in between Jessica and Desiree) After a long abcense. It’s assumed that they concemated during that time, and DD is Reilly Tyne. (Named after his dads aunt maiden name.) Elizabeth ended up dying in Prison I believe. I think this is a huge ploy to reveal who Reilly is.
I wish that these Spider-Man Family issues actually had interesting stories. The only one I care about is Spider-Girl. I don’t care about Carlie or Aunt May or any of those characters unless they’re supporting Spider-Man. How about doing some alternate universe Spider-Man stories? Get Peter David to write some more Spider-Man 2099 and then maybe some more Untold Tales of Spider-Man, or Mr. and Mrs. Spider-Man. Maybe write some new Marvel team ups. Spider-Man hanging out with different superheroes would be pretty cool. Let DeMatteis write some of those Ben Reilly stories he wanted to write! There are so many interesting things that they could be doing with this title to make it live up to it’s price of 4.99, and I’m just not seeing enough reasons to buy it. However, I’m probably going to end up buying this issue because I want to support the Spectacular Spider-Girl crew. Cool review Spideydude, I look forward to seeing where they take May.
Great review, ‘Dude! (Although … you might want to check your spelling before posting these. Just sayin’.)
I agree that this was the strongest of the series so far, and it helps that there was no “Amazing Spider-Ma’am” story or reprint. However, I also agree that the Carlie Cooper story would have made for a better ASM issue, i.e. a one-off in the vein of the Betty Brant issue from earlier this year. I also missed having a DeMatteis story, because those were always the highlight of the book for me.
The Spider-Girl story was, in a word, brilliant. They managed to squeeze more plot and character development into this story than we see in a month or two of ASM. Gwen Reilly was a surprise, since we all assumed it would just be the new May’s name, and I loved the John Romita homage for the big reveal — it’s based on that page of Peter walking into a party, delirious, and telling everyone that he’s Spider-Man (I forget the issue number, but for some reason I have ASM #87 stuck in my head).
One question: isn’t Darkdevil also Ben Reilly’s kid? Mayday and Co. aren’t aware that he’s Darkdevil, but don’t they know of his lineage?