AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #615 REVIEW

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN # 615

Writer: Fred Van Lente

Penciler: Javier Pulido

Inker: Javier Pulido

Story Title: Keemia’s Castle

Plot

Keemia and her “kingdom”. Problems with evidence. Spider-Man does some digging. Sandman(s) returns!

The Commentary

While I didn’t get that rush of excitement with the first part of this story that I did with the previous arc I do like what I’ve read so far. It felt more like a Brand New Day story than a more classic Spider-Man tale but despite this it was a solid opening complete with a very enjoyable cliffhanger ending.

I was rather taken with the opening scene though to my mind it went a little long. That’s just me though. I think the current crop of writers spend too much time on specific character beats instead of achieving a better balance of character and plot. I will admit that the pacing worked in favor of the revelation that just about everything around her was made of the Sandman but still. I am not a patient comic fan anymore.

The part of the issue I liked the best was the route that Peter had to take to get to the Sandman. It was a pretty straight forward investigation and I REALLY dug that. It engaged me as a reader and kept me wanting to turn the page. It wasn’t a nail biting, tense whodunit because I was fairly certain from the cover that the Sandman was involved (nothing slips by me, he said sarcastically) but at the same time we got to see Peter go from Point A to Point Sandman, which made for a good read. Van Lente also made the supporting characters believable as well, which was nice to have. I like caring about the characters even on a small scale.

Parting Thoughts

Like Electro before him the Sandman seems to have gotten an upgrade, which I am on the fence about but it was some potential. I like the fact that the last page included that ugly Sandman costume from the seventies but that’s a pure fanboy thing. I will admit that I’m a bit nervous to see how this story is going to go because of how I have felt about this book in the past few months but I am going to wait and see. There is the potential for disaster but at the same time I could end up really liking it. We shall see.

One last, minor point; is it me or is there something wrong about the fact that Betty is using the fact that Gloria talks in her sleep for inside dirt for her blog? While I am not expert on Betty this seems a little out of character for her. I thought these two were friends. More than anything I hope this doesn’t lead to a big fight between the two for the sake of some tacked on drama.

Again, we shall see.

3.5 out of 5 webheads.