AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #656
“No One Dies, Part Two: Resolve”
Writer: Dan Slott
Penciler: Marcos Martin
Inker: Marcos Martin
Colorist: Muntsa Vicente
Cover Art: Marcos Martin and Muntsa Vicente
Variant Cover Art: Joe Quesada, Danny Miki, and Richard Isanove
Be warned – there are SPOILERS ahead!
I’m back!
Well, okay, I wasn’t really gone at all. Things got rough in the last month or so, and I had to skip out on the last one (issue 655) because I fell too far behind for it to be worthwhile. So for all those people asking: no, Brad hasn’t “fired” me … yet.
The Plot
Following from last issue’s teaser, a new villain called Massacre has a group of hostages held captive in a bank. Unlike most hostage situations, however, Massacre has killed hostages and threatens to kill more. Spider-Man arrives and tries to help, laying a spider-tracer on Massacre, but he is shot in the ensuing chaos because of his lack of spider-sense. Because he doesn’t have his spider-sense, his tracer also proves to be completely useless, so loses Massacre in the sewers. After visiting the Night Nurse for some help with the gunshot wound and coming across Paladin, Spidey is inspired to create a new armored costume. Mayor Jameson holds a press conference to discuss the killings at the bank, and later, he decides that enough is enough with the murder rate in New York City. At Horizon Labs, Peter has an antagonistic run-in with his colleagues before one of them takes him to one of the labs to check out a new piece of equipment being worked on – an application to identify criminals based on photographs from crime scenes. Peter learns Massacre’s backstory and whereabouts, and he quickly dashes out. At his former workplace, Massacre has taken more hostages, and Spider-Man soon arrives in his (butt-ugly) new costume. Using magnetic webbing to protect the people from Massacre’s detonator, Spidey quickly defeats Massacre. The villain steps outside of the building unarmed, but the police chief (acting under Jameson’s orders) commands his men to kill Massacre. Spider-Man protects Massacre, leading to getting his ears blown up by Jameson (figuratively, of course).
The Good
There was nothing particularly outstanding about this issue (and boy, were there some bad aspects!), but several things about it made me smile.
For starters, the “inspiration” for the new armored costume actually made sense in the context of the story. Paladin – who, for those that may not be familiar with the character, is a notorious jerk – hits Spider-Man with an insult that’s a little too close to the bone, sending Spidey into a rage, and when Spidey notices Paladin’s armor, the inspiration hits. This is a moment that hits both a character beat (namely, Spider-Man’s current mental state) and a key plot point at once. More moments like this would make the book a hell of a lot easier to read, in my opinion, because it’s one of the rare occasions in which we’re allowed to see something without having to have it explained or told to us as well.
Jonah’s character arc here begins superbly. He’s wracked with sadness and guilt, but as mayor of New York City, he isn’t allowed to be away for long – and in this issue, he’s already back to work. His wife’s death still haunts him, and he has to address the citizens about the murders at the bank. Both the artwork and the script present Jonah as a broken shell of a man in these scenes, and it plays well. This is about as real as Jonah has ever been, and while I much prefer Jonah to be the cartoonish madman that we all know and love, I have to tip my cap to Slott and Martin for taking the character in this direction at this moment. Later, however, is another story …
I appreciate that we get a brief moment with the other TriCorp Horizon Labs employees. With the book currently packed with supporting cast members, this relatively faceless portion of the cast has slipped far, far to the back of the room. At this point, we know little to nothing about them, and it’s hard to muster up any kind of attention whenever they appear. Here, however, we get a brief moment to understand what makes these people tick. In particular, I can openly admit that I subscribe to the same train of thought that they do – that trivial nonsense is a great distraction from the crapsack world we live in. (Anybody that knows me personally understands exactly what I mean.) That’s a good character insight to the Horizon crew that I hope is followed up on later.
The Bad
Unfortunately, the issue was also jam-packed with stupidity, from both a character standpoint and a plot standpoint.
Right off the bat, we’re beaten to death with the concept that Peter has lost his spider-sense. It’s mentioned REPEATEDLY in the opening scene, with everything from webslinging, dodging, and using his spider-tracers affected. A writer with more skill would have spread these ideas out over the course of the issue, or perhaps even multiple issues, to avoid coming across as heavy-handed. Unfortunately, Slott’s script has all the subtlety of a wrecking ball, so we’re inundated with this immediately and constantly – and naturally, Spider-Man then has to explain it to the audience while it’s happening. I swear, somebody thinks that the audience is composed entirely of slobbering morons. (By the way, Spider-Man has used external devices to track his spider-tracers before. Considering that the problem was solely a matter of frequency modulation, it should be a matter of mere minutes for the “Big Time, super-genius” Peter Parker to put together a new tracker … right?)
As I said earlier, I liked Jonah’s characterization at the outset. Unfortunately, that quickly went south when Jonah suddenly decides to throw out all adherence to due process and order his police chief to kill accused murderers on sight and execute Alistair Smythe. Let me repeat: the mayor of New York City issues a direct order to the police to murder a criminal regardless of the circumstances and to execute somebody without a trial in a state in which the death penalty was ruled unconstitutional. Now, granted, it’s not like New York City has never had a mayor that repeatedly urinated on the Constitution in order to create a near-dictatorial police state bent solely to his elitist, wildly divergent will.
However, everyone’s willingness to go along with this plan is mind-boggling. (The only character who even thinks twice is Captain Watanabe, and she is in no position to do anything about it because the chief relieved her of duty to take over the scene.) I may be willing to accept the idea that Jonah would wildly exceed his authority and order a hit on somebody using the NYPD (you know, if I was high), but to have high-ranking officers then simply agree to do it and actually carry out those orders is horrifying. And I’m not making this up – the chief actually gives the order to shoot and kill Massacre even after he emerges with serious injuries and the police identify that he is completely unarmed. In fact, Chief Pratchett is apparently so eager and bloodthirsty that he orders Massacre shot on more than one occasion. WHAT?!
The Massacre character himself doesn’t really do much for me. This isn’t “The Bad” so much as “The Eh,” but it’s worth mentioning that outside of a trip to exposition hell in which his origin is spit at us by the talking head of Dr. Ashley Kafka (who, by the way, is suddenly middle-aged and chubby again), Massacre barely makes an impression. The design of the character is silly, but not lousy enough to really draw ire. Perhaps, if they put that character away for a while and use him differently in a couple of years, he could be worthwhile. His origin is certainly interesting enough to warrant a second look.
The Ugly
The biggest, number one problem with the issue, however, is how moronic Peter acts throughout the story. He forgets that his spider-tracers are tracked by his spider-sense, he injects himself into an entirely volatile hostage situation in an obvious fashion (which negates any element of surprise that he could have used), and, worst of all, he actually manages to convince himself of the idiotic premise that he is capable of preventing any and all murder in the entirety of New York City. There are many, many reasons why this is foolish. Here’s a sampling!
(1) New York City has over eight million residents spread out over five boroughs. The five boroughs are all connected by bridges, tunnels, and ferries because they are all located on islands (except for the Bronx, which is located on a peninsula … but I digress). The point is, there’s no way in hell Spider-Man could possibly cover that area. As it is, his webslinging pretty much limits him to select areas of Manhattan only – he needs to actually hitch rides on buses or trains just to get from borough to borough. How the hell will he prevent murder on Staten Island, which can only be reached from Manhattan by a ferry? Is he going to swim? Does Staten Island not count?
(2) The sheer number of murders committed in New York City would overwhelm Spider-Man almost immediately. There have been over 500 murders a year here in all but two years since 1963. That’s more than one murder a day. Even if he focused solely on murder, which would make him a shitty superhero as is, he would need to prevent more than a murder a day, every day, in order to stop them all. And remember, as I pointed out in item 1, that’s a huge area to cover. He might have to stop a murder on the southern tip of Staten Island and the northern border of the Bronx within minutes of each other. How are you going to do that, Spidey?
(3) The crazy thing about murder is that it’s pretty unpredictable. People can get murdered in an instantaneous moment of insanity or in ways that nobody sees coming. Somebody once got shot and killed in front of my building by a dude riding a bicycle. Yes, a drive-by bicycle murder actually happened. (The recoil from the gun pushed the killer off of the bicycle, and he escaped on foot. In a sequence that we still laugh about to this day, the guy actually returned to the scene of the crime later that day and took his bicycle back right under the nose of the NYPD. Now THAT is some incompetence right there.) Anyway, the point is, there’s no way for somebody to learn about a crime and then travel to the location and prevent it before it happens. There’s just no way.
(4) The randomness with which Spider-Man encounters crime would negate any possibility of preventing 95% of the murders in New York. Remember, Spidey is just one guy. He would literally need to come across a murder in progress in order to prevent it, which is a very remote possibility as is. Plus, considering that he now has no spider-sense, he would actually have to SEE is with his own two eyes in order to stop it. Sure, he could probably stop things like the events of this issue due to the lengths of time involved, but a botched robbery that turns into a murder would be impossible to find just swinging around town.
I could go on, but you’re probably already sick of this.
The Bottom Line
This story is dumb, dumb, dumb. DUMB. 1.5 out of 5 webheads.
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I thought this issue was totally meh, though not just because I also found the “no one dies” schtick to be a little OTT. (Yes, I understand that he doesn’t mean no one in New York dies. But, Slott is treating Peter like he just put on the costume. He’s not a 16-year-old anymore. He knows he’s not going to save everyone. He didn’t have a nervous breakdown when Councilwoman Palfrey was killed by Menace; in fact, he tried to console Jackpot, using his experience to let her know you can’t save everyone. I just don’t buy that Marla’s death was so horrible that it totally threw him off his game. Anywho, back to my point…) I was really bothered by how hollow Massacre was as a character. Slott left all sorts of questions unanswered. Why was he at the Ravencroft Institute? Had he killed people before? Had he escaped? Why was he robbing a bank if he just wanted to see if he could feel again? Why was he suddenly an ego-maniac? By neglecting to flesh out his character a bit (and the two-page exposition vomit doesn’t count), he also made it clear that Massacre was just a hollow device to make his larger point about no one dying. I hope Slott can shake off these last few issues and deliver more of what he gave us during “Big Time.”
This issue was great. If you applied the criteria here to other superhero comics they would all look stupid. It seemed like you were just looking for things to nitpick
Spidey’s declaration reminded me of Tennant’s 10th Doctor proudly declaring himself the “Time Lord Victorious”, where he vows that with this power, he can now ensure the survival of the humans in that story (Waters of Mars). He’s well meaning, but he’s lost the plot!
Completely agree with this review. Slott dropped the ball completely after a great start in my opinion. I hope this is a blip but my drop sense is tingling again. Oh no I forgot I don’t have that anymore
This issue was meh to me. Average, not bad but not great. the only downside is Jonah. He went from a strong supporter of good (or at least, the respect of the law) to a boot licking sociopath. First sucking up to Osborn (that he tried to shoot when he took over the bugle) then using his power as mayor to become bigger than the law. What happen to “with great powers comes great responsabilities”? And as i stated before, im starting to worry that his lab is becoming the Bat-Cave. He is now storing 3 suits in his “Black box”…
@Nathaniel: OLD?! I’m only 26! Grumpy, yes. Old, no. 😆
@Durabill: I agree with the Jonah sentiments. That’s why I can at least partially excuse his whacked-out behavior here. The thing that REALLY bothers me is that the chief and his officers have no problem executing these bizarre orders.
For myself, I am getting tired of the Super Genesis Peter Parker. Yes, he is intelligent. Smart enough to have created web shooters, and web fluid, but he is not Reed Richards. Dan Slott’s Peter Parker is starting to remind of the engineering room on Star Trek Voyager. Every week, they came up with new science in the third act to get them out of trouble. Also feel all these new costumes are a way of justifying new action figures. Shoot me if Slott writes in a Water Blaster Spidey Suit.
I know, he had a Spidey-Mobile at one time.
Sigh, seems like my Spider-man been gone for a while. Around issue 300. Before the return of Aunt May, Osborn, the Clone Wars, his Robot Parents, Civil War, and that deal with the Devil.
I picked up Big Time, to see how the new direction might be going……..but..sigh. I digress.
Durabill: I agree with you one thousand percent about Jonah’s hurting. There was real emotion in the last two issues, something that the previous brain trust never achieved.
I loved, loved, loved the art (looking forward to Daredevil)
Story was OK
I never got the idea that Spidey was going to try and stop all the murders in N.Y.C.
the scene of Jonah calling Spidey “a @#%* idiot!” was priceless. A LOL moment.
You can tell Jonah’s hurting from Marla’s death and is acting totally irrational throughout the issue.
This will hopefully lead into some interesting character development in the coming months.
What do you mean “you people” Gerard? 😛
I swear, you have no idea how much crap anyone would get for saying that at my high school.
Gerard is that old grumpy guy you can’t help but care for. 😛
Or am I thinking of JR… 😆
Gerard, wasn’t attacking your review or your political stance. I respectfully disagree with some of the stuff you say but always enjoy reading the reviews and the comments that ensue. This would be a pretty boring message board if we all agreed with one another. It’s actually gotten to the point where I was reading the last issue thinking ‘gee, I wonder what good ole’ Gerard will say about this.’ Glad to see you haven’t abandoned us as I think the two person review on Amazing will be fun.
Told me what?
By the way, Brad … I TOLD YOU SO.
@Eddie: If you listened to Clone Saga Chronicles, you’d know that I think that the vast majority of the Clone Saga is pretty damn terrible. 😆
@Fred: I respect that you’re probably my biggest defender, but please don’t go starting flame wars on my behalf. I’m content with knowing that at least one person understands where I’m coming from. 🙂
(And naturally, the one and only time in my entire life that I ever wrote a single word slighting a political figure, people jump down my throat over it. I can’t win with you people, I really can’t. 😆 )
@12 – I can’t speak for anyone else, but I’m not attacking anything. Just throwing my opinion into the mix.
I love reading Gerard’s reviews by the way. There have been times (OMIT comes to mind) when I’ve anticipated the reviews from both Gerard and the Podcast crew more so than the actual issues that were landing. Bad times.
Also, after reading about the upcoming Punisher series today I wonder if Mayor Jonah “No Murder” Jameson might play some role in that comic. It might be interesting to see how serious Jonah is when it comes down to his new mission statement. Cage the killer or let him keep scum like Massacre off the street for good? With Wacker editing it’s certainly not impossible.
I haven’t read the issue so I won’t comment on it but yikes, that costume…especially with that glassy-looking texture of the helmet, for some reason every time I see it I think “Mysterio without a cape.”
“I’m not attacking Gerard’s review. I’m simply stating that I think the reason why readers younger than me don’t like Big Time is because they grew up reading Spidey in the 1990s, unlike me who grew up reading the series in the 1980s.”
Then i apologize then if i took that the wrong way. As for what you said however, i grew up with Spider man since the 70’s and i hated the clone saga but i hate big time just as much. Its not about what you grew up with in my opinion, its about what you think is good or not and in my opinion, Big Times does not even come across as well written as the stuff from the 80’s.
Gerard with your ranting and raving and picture of Bloomberg and not so subtle slap at him. Your reviews have finally jumped the shark.
You are no longer in review territory but rather have chosen to use your position of “reviewer” as “attacker” in both the ASM and real world.
I for one am becoming tired of it, and believe the Crawlspace can and should do better.
Gregg
I’m not attacking Gerard’s review. I’m simply stating that I think the reason why readers younger than me don’t like Big Time is because they grew up reading Spidey in the 1990s, unlike me who grew up reading the series in the 1980s. I make the point that Big Time feels like the Spidey I know as opposed to someone younger who grew up reading during the Clone Saga and doesn’t like Slott’s writing. I’m not trying to disrespect Gerard or his review, I’m only trying to disagree with it.
“Disagreeing does not equal attacking.”
True, maybe that was a bit strong and i apologize for that.
“I don’t necessarily agree with Gerard’s views but he expresses WHY he doesn’t like the issue, so, to me, that’s a good review.”
I agree with you there. Even if i disagree with a review, if the reviewer at least gives the reasons why they do not like something, then i find it a good review as well.
“No one’s saying Eddie didn’t respect his opinion Fred.”
I’m calling what Eddie said as a disrespect of Gerard opinion by his accusation;
“I get the feeling that Gerard as other readers who continually bad mouth the current series grew up on the Clone Saga and are nostalgic for that time in Spidey’s history.”
Do you agree? If not, what is your perpective?
Fred – Disagreeing does not equal attacking.
I don’t necessarily agree with Gerard’s views but he expresses WHY he doesn’t like the issue, so, to me, that’s a good review.
Eddie: Or maybe people don’t like the out-of-character way Spidey has been acting since 546. Peter was mature and responsible in the 80s, even before he got married. In BNDverse, he seems like little more than an overgrown child.
^No one’s saying Eddie didn’t respect his opinion Fred.
“I get the feeling that Gerard as other readers who continually bad mouth the current series grew up on the Clone Saga and are nostalgic for that time in Spidey’s history.”
Gerard is giving his opinion and throwing accusations because he does not agree with your views does not add anything. If you like the current direction, then fine, i respect your opinion, try to respect the opinion of others as well.
I get the feeling that Gerard as other readers who continually bad mouth the current series grew up on the Clone Saga and are nostalgic for that time in Spidey’s history. I grew up reading Spidey in the 1980s and love the way Big Time feels like a classic Spidey book while still staying current. I love Slott’s new direction and I hated everything about the Clone Saga. In fact, the whole clone mess is what made me drop Spidey back in the 1990s.
I liked this issue. Sure it did have a few things in the story that I thought didn’t fit right but it didn’t out beat what I liked about it. Marcos Martin’s art is great in this issue and I liked that Slott wrote more of a serious Peter Parker. I don’t know about the rest of you but I got a cool vibe when I saw Spidey swinging through the city wearing his armor, leaping off the roof top and smashing through the window. Good issue in my opinion.
As for the costume, I couldn’t help but notice similarities between it and Ronin’s costume. It may have just been the color scheme but either way I didn’t hate it, just couldn’t help but notice.
I agree wholeheartedly with the review, the book was pretty bad and i agree with the whole “Nobody Dies” thing. its over dramatic and its dumb.
A great review Gerard, don’t let the people attacking your review get you down.
I couldn’t disagree more with this review. I think that issues #655 and #656 are two of the best Spidey issues in a long time. As I read them, I felt that Slott ‘got’ the characters and their worlds. Marcos Martin’s art is so fluid and dynamic, plus his page layouts (especially on #655) are close to genius. If Slott and Martin were the sole creators on the title, I’d be a happy Spidey fan.
Am I the only one that sees similarities between this new suit and the Kick-Ass costume? Not like perfect, but the colors and the yellow line running down the side. I dunno.
I liked how this was a quick story arc and not drawn out like it could have been. Somewhat refreshing after the bigger stories they just had. I thought showing that spider-sense affected his webswinging was cool. Makes sense that he would need some sort of guide helping him land all those shots.
I agree with the above sentiments that you’re putting too literal of a translation on the ‘nobody dies,’ though. Kind of like Scorpion falling to the earth-science argument. And boo political messages in comic book reviews, sorry. We’ve all got our own pet peeves I guess.
Well, it could be worse… he could have run out of web fluid… again.
@Donovan: That’s actually the chief of police. He’s wearing the NYPD’s dress blue uniform (without the gloves): http://lameadventures.files.wordpress.com/2010/06/the-men-and-women-in-blue.jpg
And yeah, I pretty much assumed that this was setup for Jonah to be impeached. However, what shocked me is how compliant everyone is — the chief takes over the second scene and orders his men to shoot Massacre like Jonah asked, and the cops similarly don’t question the chief’s questionable orders.
Not having read the issue, sounds like Jonah’s gone completely off the rails. In the panel with Glory and the army dude, he reminds them that Smythe killed his wife. No shit, stop expositing Slott. But to demand death for every criminal…this is insanity. No one’s gonna buy this, no one would even endorse this if it were seriously suggested, and this has to be the way Jonah’s gonna stop being the mayor. Otherwise, ASM becomes a cartoon comic again. Believability’s thrown out the window.
I must agree with the above people the whole “no one dies on my watch criticism” is just rediculouse. Obviously he’s refering to when he’s in the middle of stopping the villains like when he was fighting smythe and scorpion in the previouse arc. He’s not gonna let them kill anyone like how smythe managed to kill marla in that battle. Reading it as no one will die anywhere in this city at anytime is just rediculouse and obviouskly not the intent of the writer. You could probably destroy every heroic piece of dialogue in every work of fiction known to man if your going to use that kind of criteria.
As for the whole lets order the cops to kill an unnarmed assalint whose surrendering ya I agree with you that is horrifically retarded. Police can kill in self defense, they can even kill if they guy refuses to drop their weapons since the guy is still a threat, but killing someone whose unnarmed and surrendering Im pretty sure isn’t allowed.
It almost sounds like Slott is turning Jonah into a Political Strawman to make the point that “Capital Punishment is wrong.” *rolls eyes.
Not sure what happened but I had more in my comment than what posted I thought….but basically I liked this issue but not as much as the last few. I agree that Peter trying to negotiate with Massacre was weird and seemed out of character. I also don’t really care for this villain at all, kinda hope we don’t get more of him any time soon. Even though I didn’t care for the new costume I did actually like the reasoning behind it, makes sense to me. I also had no issue with the stuff with him not having his Spider sense, it seems to make sense that he would have troubles adjusting to not having it, including forgetting he needs it for his Spider tracers (I forgot for second too!)
nb4 “Gerard hates all ASM issues.”
I really enjoyed this issue. It seems clear to me that Peter’s new resolve is to stop murder and death from happening around him, when he is in a position to stop it. At no point in the story did I feel like Peter meant to stop all murder in New York. Like you say, that would be stupid. Especially considering the issue opens with Massacre killing eight more people.
I loved the bits with Peter going off on Paladin and his lab mates. Felt very old school to me. The only part I had any kind of problem with was the spider-sense helping him to web-sling. It’s been gone before and he’s done just fine. Maybe it’s simply a case of it never having been as gone as it is now though. I don’t particularity like when villains call Spider-Man “Spider” either. It was Scorpion in the last arc and now this guy. Save that for the Black Cat.
“When I’m around, no one dies” does not equal “I am capable of preventing any and all murder in the entirety of New York City”. Peter is saying that he’s not going to let anyone else die when he has a chance to stop it. I hate when you put stuff like the New York murder stats in your reviews because it’s nothing but filler and has nothing to do with this issue.