AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #654
“Revenge of the Spider-Slayer, Part Three: Self-Inflicted Wounds”
Plotter: Dan Slott
Scripter: Fred Van Lente
Penciler: Stefano Caselli
Inker: Stefano Caselli
Colorist: Marte Garcia
“Rebirth”
Writer: Dan Slott
Penciler: Paolo Siqueira and Ronan Cliquet de Oliveira
Inker: Paolo Siqueira, Roland Paris, and Greg Adams
Colorist: Fabio D’Auria
Cover Art: Stefano Caselli and Edgar Delgado
Be warned – there are SPOILERS ahead!
Dan Slott’s second arc as solo writer concludes here! You know, except that he isn’t the only writer. Um … ON TO THE REVIEW!
The Plot
Picking up from last issue, John Jameson arrives on the space station (with a hidden octobot in tow), but he’s stranded there due to damage to his shuttle. Max Modell confronts Peter over his connection to Spider-Man, but Max mistakenly believes that Peter is actually only supplying Spidey with equipment. Max helps Peter build a device to short out the communication of Smythe’s drones, but the device has to be detonated remotely because it could also cancel Spider-Man’s warning sense. The Avengers continue to hold off the spider-slayers at the spa and Daily Bugle offices, while Jonah and company are racing from Andru Air Force Base to Manhattan. Phil continues to be a dick and uses the confusion to trap Randy underneath a beam. Spider-Man locates Smythe’s “mothership” over the Flatiron Building, which leads to a battle with the Scorpion. Meanwhile, Marla Jameson whips up a device to screw with the slayers at the spa, while Robbie has Power Woman and Ms. Marvel take him away from the Bugle (since the slayers were after him). Scorpion damages Spider-Man’s detonator, so Spidey has to activate the device manually. The shockwave from the emitter wipes out his spider-sense, but it also takes out Smythe’s drones and leads to an easy victory over Gargan. Everyone converges together in the streets, and the day appears to be saved, but Smythe has not been affected by the device and attacks. Spider-Man is incapacitated due to his lack of spider-sense, and Smythe tries to kill Jonah. Marla lunges in the way and is killed instead. Spider-Man quickly defeats Smythe in the aftermath, while Jonah has a moment of anguish.
In the backup story, Flash Thompson is bonded to the alien symbiote for the first time and is trained in the use of his powers as the new Venom. We meet his handlers, get the basics of his “tour of duty,” and learn about the dangers of the program.
The Good
If there’s one consistent plus for this arc, it’s the artwork. Once again, Caselli does a fantastic job in the main feature. He balances the light moments and the dark moments well, giving a ton of variation across his pages. Considering the wide range of emotional states in this issue, he does a good job with the faces here. Similarly, the backup story also looks pretty solid. Though I don’t think that the styles of the two pencilers meld together particularly well, the backup still has a solid look to it that’s easy to appreciate.
Though I didn’t care for the story, I have to give Slott (and Van Lente, to a lesser extent) credit for packing the issue with movement. There are a lot of scenes and a lot of action, and it’s a fairly dense read overall. Compared to a lot of books on the stands, I can’t help but feel like Slott and Co. are making much more of an effort to pack in as much as possible. Just look at the panel count on some of these pages – it’s almost shocking to see how much they’re cramming in there.
Plus, I really appreciate that the backup story completely spilled the beans on everything that we need to know about the new Venom, because frankly I wasn’t planning on picking up that silly “point one” issue next week. (Wait … what’s that, Brad? I have to review that issue? FFFFFUUUUU–)
The Bad
I LOVED the first part of this arc, and I was really looking forward to seeing it all play out. Now that it has, I am sorely disappointed at how illogical and just plain stupid this arc ended up being.
I already bemoaned how weak and ineffective Spider-Man has become in his own series in my review of the previous issue, and this issue cranks it up to eleven (or, for Don, OVER NINE THOUSAAAAAND!!!). Max Modell helps Peter build the device and actually does most of the work. Marla Jameson saves herself at the spa by working out a device to damage the spider-slayers. Scorpion smashes the remote detonator and forces Spider-Man to activate the device manually, damaging his spider-sense. Spider-Man gets his ass handed to him by a piece of shrapnel that even I would have seen coming. All of these things, individually, would be annoying. Piling them one on top of the other makes Spider-Man seem like a blubbering idiot. Again, I have to ask the question: he is supposed to be the hero of this book, right?
The Max Modell scene made me want to scream. Honestly, I was expecting something like this to happen, but that doesn’t make it any better. The execution of it was simply maddening: Max comes to the conclusion that it’s impossible for one man to be both brilliant and super-powered, and thus Peter couldn’t be Spider-Man. That’s just plain dumb. Is it the work of the mindwipe? If that’s the case, it once again calls into question just how the goddamn mindwipe works, which after several years has still never been explained. This just sucks the drama out of the secret identity entirely, because it seems like NOBODY can ever discover his identity without being told. Additionally, Max must live a pretty sheltered life if he’s never heard of Reed Richards, Tony Stark, Hank Pym, Robert “Bruce” Banner, Victor Von Doom …
The Daily Bugle sequences made me want to pull my hair out. First of all, Phil is the most suspicious motherf***er on the planet. He constantly shows up with high-quality video of all sorts of stuff he shouldn’t, he’s always making evil-looking scowling faces, and the dude just seems like he’s always up to something. Yet, nobody ever suspects that something is wrong. But that’s a minor point compared to what happens with Robbie and Randy. Randy is pinned under a column and can’t move his legs, and Robbie has an epiphany that the slayers are after him. He goes to Power Woman and Ms. Marvel and tells them to whisk him away from the building, which they do immediately. So … what happened to Randy? It was clearly established that he was stuck pretty solidly. Why didn’t Robbie tell Ms. Marvel (who wasn’t doing anything, since Power Woman could carry Robbie by herself) to lift the column off of Randy? In fact, we don’t see or hear anything about Randy for the rest of the issue.
Speaking of Ms. Marvel, WHAT THE HELL IS HAPPENING ON THE RIGHT SIDE OF THIS PANEL?!
Of course, none of this nonsense can top …
The Ugly
… the complete clusterf*** that is the finale.
Spider-Man arrives at the scene with all the major players already gathered. Smythe’s ship explodes several feet away as Smythe jumps through the hull, sending a SINGLE PIECE OF SHRAPNEL flying that, of course, hits Spider-Man squarely in the forehead and concusses him. It’s not an immediate concussion, mind you – it’s the “only hurts the hero at the precise moment he needs to be active” kind of concussion that affects neither his ability to give some expository dialogue (which he does, immediately after getting hit) nor his ability to leap into action moments after somebody gets killed (which he also does). Really, Spider-Man is only incapacitated for the brief moments it takes for Marla to meet her fate. This is dumber than a bag of doorknobs, but I guess it was necessary to lead into the dramatic, major death:
Oh right, nevermind. They only killed off a very minor character that nobody gives a damn about.
Seriously … MARLA JAMESON? The absolute, number one reason that this issue – and the arc as a whole, really – fails is that we as readers have no emotional investment in this scene whatsoever, because the character that is killed barely registers on the radar. The entire arc builds to this one scene, and it completely and utterly fails on a dramatic level. Of all the characters that they could have killed off to create some kind of lasting ripple, they picked one that has barely appeared at all outside of her initial stories, save for her overly played-up appearances in the last few issues.
I’m not saying that it’s impossible to have a character that is only around briefly be killed off with a major emotional impact. Uncle Ben only appears briefly before he’s murdered in Amazing Fantasy #15, and it’s one of the most lasting deaths in comics. Look at a movie like The Lion King. There wasn’t a dry eye in the house when Mufasa fell to his typically sanitized Disney death. We cared because we connected to the character in the brief time that he was present in the story. My favorite part of the movie Iron Man is when Tony comes across the dying Dr. Yinsen. The character was barely in the movie, yet his death carried a lot of emotional impact because of how well the character was written and especially because of the strong, sensitive performance by Shaun Toub as Yinsen. I can even admit that I cried in the theater when Uncle Ben died in the first Spider-Man film, even though (as a fan of the comics) I knew it was coming. This issue? I AIN’T SHEDDING A TEAR OVER THIS BULLSHIT.
The Bottom Line
Slott completely wasted the interesting premise and strong opening chapter with this crappy installment – by far the worst issue of his run to date. 1 out of 5 webheads.
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great comic.. needed a little editing but still great.
yeah, I guess the blast made him weaker but the same blast that can make scorpion weaker (considering how durable he was shown to be in the last issue) should disable Spidey since he was right next to the “bomb”.
It was not obvious to me the first time I read this issue. But after re-reading the whole arc from the first issue made it really stand out. Anyway, I suppose I’m just nitpicking. I’m still glad people love the books and to be honest, I can’t wait for the next arc.
I chalked it up to the fact that the Scorpion was reeling from the effects of the nullifying blast making him weaker… you can argue that then Spider-Man’s punch shouldn’t have been strong enough to knock him out, but its a comic and the hero needs to get the upper hand every now and then.
Ok, so in the last we see Scorpion manage to stand and fight on the rocket with Spidey clinging for dear life .. then we see him get hit by Miss Marvel and fall SEVEN MILES and laugh it all off even thinking to himself he can take on The Sentry. And in this issue he falls in ONE PUNCH from Spidey … it was a serious WTF moment for me.
I really enjoyed this arc and issue…
Just sayin …
i dont know what all this bitching is about.this arc was realy good. it had tension, good artwork, good spidey moments, and a great ending. i loved it. it was the best post-BND story
I haven’t really discussed the blind spot or read into. Is there a forum dedicated to people discussing how it works and people’s opinion. The blind spot, to me, seems to work like the new suit Spider-Man created. If anyone stares right at the answer their mind is just bent around the truth, making them come to some other illogical conclusion. Its kind of like the sphere that Dr. Strange created to erase his memory. Everyone that was outside of that sphere had their minds warped now unable to see what’s in the center of that little sphere (spidey’s secret identity). I don’t have the comic in front of me, but did Peter have the mask on when he stepped in the sphere? I think it’d be possible to break that sphere and retcon the whole Brand New Day storyline, whenever that time needs to come.
@butters911, #89 comment – You and me both man, you and me both.
But Gerard is doing a good job. I may not agree with his opinions on some issues and even though I may think it deserves a different rating, that’s HIS opinion and I respect that as long as he backs it up. I liked this arc personally but I’ve already listed the small problems I had with this issue (look at comment #8 to see what I said). The reviews are here to help people voice their own opinions or help people who currently aren’t reading comics due to possible financial issues, they currently don’t like the direction of where Spidey is or any other reasons and help them catch up on what’s happening in his universe; at least that’s how I see it anyway. There are ways to have a discussion without getting angry. The reviewers are here to help, were not here trying to stir up s**t. That’s where the readers come in. 😉
Now that I’m off my chair, I’ll talk about the blind spot. I think the reason for Max to not figure out Peter is Spider-Man is weird. I mean we have smart super heroes like Reed Richards and Tony Stark yet Spider-Man isn’t smart enough to be one of them? This didn’t really bother me at first but I did shake my head at it. As for the spider sense, I’m interested to see how Spidey will work without it for the next few issues before it begins to return to him.
“Do some push ups, eat a steak, and watch ‘Unforgiven'”…. is this what men are supposed to do? If so, I’ve been totally striking out on the ‘being a guy’ front…
ha, butters. I thought the same thing.
Let’s all talk about that blind spot again, those were good times.
#82
Ok, Stephen thanks for the conversation. I’ll stick with Astonishing for now, but will keep an eye at the Adventure and Ultimate books solicits for stories that interest me
Aw I wish I reviewed Amazing. Look at all the comments!
I think people are having a hard time distinguishing between “criticism” and “attacking.”
There’s a difference between a good post like this …
… and a worthless post like THIS …
Peter actually has points to articulate, and he states them coherently without resorting to insults and calling for the reviewer to be fired. Whistler … well, I’m not going to say what I think about Whistler, because that would get me banned. 😉
I honestly don’t give a damn whether or not you agree with me, though I’m interested in hearing WHY so long as you can discuss it logically. Frankly, I have much bigger things on my plate right now than whether or not some jerk wants me to be fired and thinks I’m an ugly poopyhead.
@Correy Campbell
What’s the matter, did they kick you off a political message board or something? I don’t care how entitled you think you are, we all have to follow the rules. This is his site, not ours. Why do you think I’m not cursing anyone out right now? And believe me, I have the urge…
@hermann22
If you could do it without downright attacking the guy, do you think anyone would care? Lemme answer that… NO. And the fact that you’re a Wacker fan surprises absolutely NO ONE.
@BD
I honestly don’t care; you can outright ban me now if you wish. This is a comic book message board right? COMIC. BOOK. MESSAGE. BOARD. This is what happens when you give an insecure man some power. I must ask: Do you sit when you pee? I just turned 30 on Monday and I’m too old for this 13 year old girl nonsense. Do some push ups, eat a steak, and watch “Unforgiven”. Good luck with the website, podcast, and you’re desperate Fox News-esque anti-comment philosophy. I didn’t mean to say your name Brian, I meant to say Gerard.
Whoah, why’d I get thrown under the bus by Correy? 🙁
/cry
I’m warning myself. Please don’t let it happen again!!!!!!
BD-You’re projecting. I’m indifferent to what your reviewer thinks. I think he knows his audience well and knows what they want to hear.
I was being sincere. This place IS entertaining with the dramas most of you cause and the constant threats of banning or what have you. This place is like one exposed and throbbing nerve sometimes.
Aitch-if you have trouble finding a replacement copy, send it in to me and I’ll get it replaced. It’s not Forbidden Planet’s fault. Just a printer error.
Zeppo- we also have a Bendis Spidey book and a Paul Tobin Spidey book. Overall though, you are correct, we do run Spidey much differently that the
Bat books are run.
OK, I actually reckon my copy has been sold to me missing pages (Thanks, Forbidden Planet London!).
The thing is here, that I’ve gotten so used to missing scenes and plot-points from interminable “events” and multi-title crossovers and such, that it wasn’t – by a long stretch – the first probability to occur to me. If one thing has killed any sense of fun and the will to keep up with a weekly floppy fix, aside from the ever-present continuity maze and endless retro-fits and resurrections, it is that stuff. Bleedin’ crossovers. I’m so used to it by now, I almost wrote this off as business-as-usual. Still, it seems a return trip to the comic shop is in order. Sorry to bother y’all.
I have ASM 653 and 654. On the “Daily Bugle” re-cap page that starts off 654 I have shrunk down panels of scenes that should have taken place in 653 – Daily Bugle offices attacked – Soho Spa attacked – Avengers involved – that are nowhere in that previous issue (653), although clearly, going by plot, they should have been. So in trying to read 654 I’m hyper aware of these gaping holes. What goes on? Is there some sort of tie-in crossover issue in between that I’m unaware of, and that isn’t mentioned anywhere in these publications? Or by some weirdness is my copy of 653 missing pages? Nobody else appears to be phased by this. So is it just me? Thanks for any pointers.
70 – Stephen
Thank you for answering my question. It was my enjoyment of Astonishing Spider-man/Wolverine that made me think Aaron would be a great Spider-man writer ongoing. I agree that the great stories should appear in Amazing, but now there is one writer (rather than several), if the current story isn’t for you there isn’t an alternative in the way I can read Scott Snyder’s Dick-Batman or Paul Cornell’s Dick-Batman. However I looked forward to your suprise annoucements.
If it was you who chose Kyle Yost for the Fear Itself tie-in, with Mike McKone on art….well done!
@BD
Yeah, you’re not the only one who noticed that… It’s almost like he’s trolling Gerard or something… [/stating the obvious]
Correy,
Please read the rules of the front page and the message board before posting. They are located here.
http://spidermancrawlspace.com/wwwboard/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=904
Posters are not allowed to discuss warnings in the threads. E-mail an administer or me if you have a problem with a warning.
Correy, you get your first warning.
Herman22-You get a second warning for discussing your first warning in an open thread. Again e-mail an administrator if you don’t agree with it.
Steve Wacker-Where were you the last couple issues where Gerard liked them? You didn’t reply at all on those threads. However if Gerard doesn’t’ like something, you come back with sarcastic remarks like “This place is always entertaining.”
Correy Campbell = 100% right. Shutting down the comments for people not agreeing with a review/reviewer seems kinda I don’t know…over the top?
I have to say that the “right wing” comment was not a good choice of words on my part. Sorry dudes. Only trying to convey that the reviews seem (not all the time) to have a agenda like a “right” OR “left” wing fanatic might have. Even my girl was giving me crap about how that wasn’t a good choice. My fault. (For the record she is 100% left wing.)
Kevin- Honestly, I totally did not remember. I didn’t think I was being “a sarcastic ass” either but hey I am not a moderator.
I also find it kind of amazing when SW comes in and stirs up the pot. Wish he could make another guest appearance on the show.
I stopped reading Spider-Man after “Origin of the Species”, and now read the synopsis and reviews to see what the issue was all about. I don’t care either way whether the issue gets a good or bad rating. But I can’t stand when moderators get up in arms when they put something on the internet for the world to see with the ability to make comments and then whine when the comments are negative. So what? One of my ex’s boyfriends had an entire negative blog post about me years ago and I didn’t bat an eye lash. I just don’t understand the thin skin of the people in our society these days. Also:
“And to everyone else – the attacks on Gerard will stop or the comments on this review will be closed.”
This sounds like it is right out of the Fox News handbook.
I like your podcast, but stuff like this kind of cheapens it. Just being honest.
Change “Brian Bradley” to “Gerard Delatour”.
@#54 and #55
Are you serious? You should just go ahead and completely disable the comments on all of your reviews since you so desperately want to control the criticism of people who actually come to this site like some kind of keyboard gangsters. I’m new here and started listening to your podcast a month ago, but I must say that the moderator bullying here is quite disappointing. Let people criticize and YOU just move on. A real man would take the criticism and just move on. I don’t know Brian Bradley but I’m sure that he is a grown man that can defend himself. Oops! I hope I don’t arbitrarily get reprimanded or warned for my own opinion as well! Good grief.
@70
Thanks I shall keep my eyes peeled for the upcoming news.
Whoot! Thank Steve for the info. I’m posting on Spideydude.com….
#66-In general, I’m fine with satellite books in theory as long as they have a reason for existing. If someone just wants to tell some good Spidey stories, I’d just as soon they show up in Amazing.
We have a Jason Aaron Spidey book running right now called Spidey/Wolverine. We also have Carnage, Osborn, Spider-Girl, and the upcoming Venom book (as well as some other secret surprises coming up later in the year).
Batman is in a bit of different position right now as there is more than one guy in the costume. And without a doubt whichever book Grant is writing is the lead book.
#68-We’ll be announcing some news on this front soon. you will be happy (unlike SOME people I could mention!!!!).
#69-nothing was cropped. Just the way Stefano drew it.
That panel with Ben Grimm and Ms Marvel IS a little odd. If Ben and Carol are talking, why do we only see Carol’s legs? It almost looks like someone censored the panel, as apparently it seems Ms Marvel was showing off alot of ass in her thong-backed costume. 🙂
I wonder if that panel was cropped like that to hide Ms Marvel’s butt from the viewing public?
@ Stephen Wacker
Hey I was wondering do you know if the Clone Saga Epic Books are continueing or not? I havn’t seen any solicitation beyond epic book 5.
Fred. Lets stop being a jerk to Steve. Please?
There’s no need to obnoxious.
Stephen, what is your opinion on introducing a Spider-man satalite title? One of the reasons I think that the Batman books are doing so well at the moment is that there is a Batman book for whatever your mood. I think that a second book (in my mind by Jason Aaron) could give people somewhere else to go if the current book isn’t there flavour right now. I used to like that if Amazing wasn’t really what I was looking for I could pick up Peter Parker or Spectacular.
No “whatever” at all. Brian’s right.
I love my letterer. VC’s Joe Caramagna is the secret weapon of this book. He does a lot of the production work as well and I can’t sing his praises enough.
SW
How was the lettering you ask?!!! What can I say other than it was like a party in my eyes and everyones invited, get this guy a contract!!!
Poor letterers… they’re like the Rodney Dangerfield of the comic biz… can’t get no respect
Oh, no.
“How was the lettering?”
Whatever…
True enough. This might be the worst one ever. EVER!!!
How was the lettering?
SW
“Uncle Ben didn’t appear much either before he was killed. I would have to have seen the review of that gimmick-y issue!”
At least that issue was well written and well edited Steve. Can’t say the same with the current Amazing Spider-Man issue.
This place is always entertaining.
Uncle Ben didn’t appear much either before he was killed. I would have to have seen the review of that gimmick-y issue!
SW
In regards to the Spidey-sense thing, I hope it comes back but I’m with Brian Bradley in that I hope it’s not right away….make it start to come back gradually and not always work, that will add a little suspense to his fights and should make things interesting.
Thanks Kevin, nice to see you guys stick up for the reviewers. While I am one that disagrees with the review I respect that everyone has their own opinion and moved on. It’s really not that hard to do, some of you should try it. I really hope we don’t constantly drag “Fox News” and “right wing” talk into these comments, either, politics and news channel biases don’t mix well with comics in my opinion.
@#48 Sthenurus – I don’t recall them saying that there was a permenant damage to the spider-sense either but I really hope they don’t just bring it back in the next issue, otherwise I would then agree with Gerard on it being lame and gimmicky.
“True, but not everyone shares your’s either.”
Funny, I never claimed that they did. As for this review, the way some of you are acting by attacking Gerard is pathetic. If you don’t agree his review then fine, but attacking him only shows that you can’t take the fact that something you like is being criticized. Which shows how hypocritical some of you are because i don’t see you guys attacking him when he gives positive reviews, which proves hands down that the only reason you guys are attacking him is because you don’t like the fact that he does not share your views.
“You still read Spider-man.”
I read it when they need me to fill in on the podcast. Aside from that I don’t read it; never finished ‘Origin of the Species,’ for example, because they didn’t need me to fill-in on the podcast when the end of it was reviewed. I also read another board member’s issues when I do.
True, but not everyone shares your’s either. The only time it seems the reviewer gives a high score is when the issue is so obviously fantastic to do anything but would clearly show bias. The negative reviews are far more frequent, and generally focus on one or two nit-picks to justify a low score, like last issues rant about velocity/wind resistance, which was later proved false by an honest to god air-diver! Didn’t see the score changed to reflect that btw. Like Hermann22, this review amused me in a “Fox News” type way. 🙂