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AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #645
“Origin of the Species, Part 4”
Writer: Mark Waid
Artists: Paul Azaceta and Matthew Southworth
Colorist: Javier Rodriguez
“Spidey Sundays”
Writer: Stan Lee
Penciler: Marcos Martin
Inker: Marcos Martin
Colorist: Muntsa Vicente
Cover Art: Marco Djurdjevic
Variant Cover: Bryan Hitch and Paul Mounts (NOT Paolo Rivera, as the issue itself claims)
Be warned – there are SPOILERS ahead!
The Plot
Spider-Man goes on a bitter, angry rampage against the villains that pursued him in the previous issues. Harry Osborn retrieves his Green Goblin paraphernalia. Tombstone tails Carlie to the location of Mary Jane and Lily, but Lily uses her Goblin glider to defeat him. Spider-Man interrogates some villains to discover who is behind the plot and where he is located. At Kravinoff Mansion, Spider-Man encounters a scared Chameleon, who tells Spidey that the baby is alive and was kidnapped by the Lizard.
The Good
Waid begins to pay off the tension created in previous issues here by having Spider-Man come to grips with his failure from last issue. Of course, Spidey is completely misguided in his quest, because the death of the baby is fabricated, but from a dramatic irony point of view this is solidly constructed. We, as the audience, are completely aware that the baby is alive, but the groups of characters all believe different things – Spider-Man thinks the baby is dead, Lily and Mary Jane think the baby is alive and with Spider-Man, Doctor Octopus believes the baby is alive and with the Chameleon, etc.
The artwork is somewhat improved from previous outings. I honestly can’t tell if the majority of the artwork is made up of breakdowns by Azaceta and inks by Southworth, or if the art on those pages is all Southworth. Either way, the first three-quarters or so of the book is a welcome improvement in quality.
Although the sequence is brief – it’s only two panels – the bit with Harry retrieving his Green Goblin stuff was the most interesting segment of the issue. Could we be witnessing the birth of a new, heroic Green Goblin? There hasn’t been a hero Goblin since Tom DeFalco’s short, fantastic Green Goblin from the mid 90s (which featured Phil Urich, the nephew of then-Daily Bugle and current Front Line writer Ben Urich, as the Goblin). Perhaps he is only out for some kind of revenge? Either way, I welcome some kind of major shakeup for Harry, because his lack of importance to the ongoing story is one of the major disappointments of Brand New Day.
The Bad
Unfortunately, the bulk of the issue failed to interest me. The biggest problem is the overused “Spidey gets pissed” plotline. Mainly, whenever Spidey gets in one of these dark moods, it gets eerily close to the “I AM THE SPIDER” period from the 90s. Spider-Man is a character that is well-developed enough to be capable of more than two emotional states, but writers always default to either “happy-go-lucky” or “the Punisher in a Spider-Man costume.” That’s just lazy, incompetent scripting. Spider-Man’s goals also seem to have no rhyme or reason beyond making him look dark and menacing. He doesn’t even interrogate the Shocker near the end so much as he simply lets Shocker spill his guts to avoid being killed. Waid also manages to find time to pay off the money issue from the beginning of the arc, having Peter quietly trade his photography equipment for stolen lab materials. Let me repeat that: Spider-Man breaks into a lab, steals material and makes webbing with it, and leaves some photography stuff – which is probably a pretty inequitable trade in favor of Spider-Man – behind as “payment.” That is not Spider-Man. If the writers want to go write Batman, GO WRITE BATMAN.
The twist at the end is more annoying than it is interesting. First of all, we have no reason to believe that this is even true, which saps its effectiveness as an ending. This is especially true if, at the beginning of next issue, they simply handwave the revelation away as a lie. Secondly, if it is indeed true, it just reminds me of how shitty “Shed” was. Do we really need to go back to that again?
I haven’t mentioned the Spidey Sundays strips a whole lot in my reviews, mainly because they hardly register a blip on the radar most of the time. Now that the storyline is finished, it’s a good time to just come out and say it: the entire thing sucked. I love Stan Lee’s writing to death – regardless of how much the current establishment loves to slag him in interviews and attempt to undermine his contributions to comic book history at every opportunity – but this was a poor effort. There were occasional moments that were funny, like the mention of Red Hulk and the scene between Spidey and the Fantastic Four, but otherwise it made for a dumb story. The artwork was also very underwhelming. Stan (Ever notice how we always refer to people like Stan Lee and Jack Kirby by their first names rather than their last names? Take notes, Wacker and Brevoort.) gave Marcos Martin plenty of opportunities to experiment, but Martin dropped the ball and turned in very pedestrian work. His style was ill-suited to this story, and it shows.
The Tombstone subplot went absolutely nowhere. In fact, it went less than nowhere. The entire thing was completely contrived for the purpose of cramming in more unwanted Carlie Cooper appearances. Speaking of which …
The Ugly
I don’t even have the capacity for words anymore with regards to THIS annoying topic, so I’ll just post this here and let you add your own commentary:
The Bottom Line
Like Grim Hunt before it, The Origin of Species is turning into a story that shows flashes of excellence, but ultimately falls apart under its own weight. I’m more than ready for the era of the Brain Trust / Webheads to end at this point. 2 out of 5 webheads.
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I dislike Carlie Cooper as much as the next guy but what MJ says to Carlie is extremely in character. MJ was always really supporitive of Peter and Gwen and I don’t see how this is any different. Especially since Carlie is basically Gwen Stacy + Debra Whitman anyway.
Anyway JQ hinted before that Spidey and MJ will date again. Hopefully the Carlie thing doesn’t last too long. If we can’t have Pete and MJ married then dating is the next best thing. Looking forward to Big Time.
And so another underwhelming event comes to an end. Okay, it was at least better than OMIT, and if you just want a lot of action with a lot of villains I suppose this story can be satisfying. For me though it just felt like reading an adaptation of a Michael Bay-directed Spider-Man movie
I thought this issue was ok. im glad that charlie is actually going somewhere, but i fear it may be too late for her character.
You guys hear something?
@Doc Folsome – Heroic death you say? Could be. She’s such a “Mary Sue” that she would be the type to put herself in harm’s way for Peter.
Who wants to bet her last words will either involve the words “Brand New Day” or “Parker Luck”?
Spidey Sundays were funny and Marcos was quite impressive with his lay-out experiments. I don’t see why anybody wouldn’t like this cool kind-hearted piece of comic.
And I don’t understand: when did the current regime (Wacker? JoeQ?) slag Stan The Man? There was some joking in interviews and letter pages but not to undermine Stan’s legacy. Quite the contrary in my opinion…
This part is a joke right?
Re: Stan
“regardless of how much the current establishment loves to slag him in interviews and attempt to undermine his contributions to comic book history at every opportunity”
SW
Come back Sin-Eater! We have an other strawberry blonde you can “blow away”.
Nice review…but there’s a really high probability that the chemicals Peter ‘stole’ were less expensive than his camera/etc…Especially if it was a quality camera, a lot of everyday chemicals sitting on a benchtop are actually inexpensive for labs to purchase (their black market value is another story ;))…so if you give Peter the benefit of doubt, I’d bet he knew the cost of what he took and left the photography equip that would more than compensate…imo…although i should mention that i haven’t read this issue yet, i’m only going off of what you posted here, so i’m not sure of the context…
@steerpike, if Carlie and Peter do end up in a relationship…she’s a dead-lady walking…no cheating, i’d bet death…possibly even a heroic death…
@Steerpike – Find me a betting site where I can put money on your scenario. Brilliant, just brilliant!
after years of our time with MJ as his WIFE, her explanations should be a lot smoother than that, even with her time away. smooth…not!
@Wheatcakes – I know why his leg looks weird: It’s poorly drawn.
@Two-Bit Specialist – Crap… I should’ve kept it as a thought. I’d crap a solid gold brick if it did happen that way, though.
@Steepike – Bite your tongue, man. Though it’s not outside the realm of possibility. All bets are off with Joe Q.
Spidey’s left leg looks kinda weird in the variant cover. Good review Gerard.
Just had a thought: Ok So Carlie is definitely a “Mary Sue” character right. Practically Quesada’s pet. Right? Right. And he pretty much hates MJ. Right? Right. And with the upcoming “Big Time” Storyline arc, Carlie and Peter are an item. I see in a future storyline that Peter will cheat on Carlie with MJ. Thus making MJ look worse than Quesada has already made her, and thus breaking off Peter and Carlie with Carlie being the victim and Peter trying to make things right with her.
Just a thought.
I disagree, I loved Marcos Martin’s stuff, the way he arranged the panels and moved the characters within them was awesome!
You also accidentally mislabeled the Phil Urich Green Goblin series as “fantastic.” I believe this is a typo. (You did intend to say “craptastic,” right?)
Mary Jane’s just a mouthpiece for Quesada at this point…
If Marvel wants Spider-man as the Spider then freakin’ make him the Spider! A merciless vigilante with spiderpowers should freakin’ put all of New York in lockdown. The Spider puts Daredevil in the black outfit to shame.
yup nephew…
Let’s examine every girl Peter had dated to see if MJ would consider them one that he “picked” good. For the purpose of this only girls he’s dated not flirted with like Norah, Joy or Amy..
Betty Brant – Well there are tons of reasons MJ wouldn’t approve of that.
Gwen Stacy – By all accounts MJ seemed to approve of that…even to the point of worrying if Gwen had more in common with Peter than her.
Cissy Ironwood – I doubt MJ even knows who Cissy is.
Debra Whitman – After the book in CIVIL WAR…yea
Felicia Hardy – Well we could see why MJ doesn’t approve there…
Michelle – Same.
Ok actually MJ’s comment to Carlie might make sense…maybe the only girl Peter picked well was Gwen…here I thought I was going to tear that comment up.
@Donovan Grant: Whoops, you’re right. My bad! It’s fixed now. 🙂
Mary Jane calling Peter “Parker”? Uggh…
Not to nitpick, but Phil Urich was Ben’s nephew, right? I thought he was.