The Amazing Spider-Man #672 Review

 The Spider-Island saga reaches it’s climactic finish when the Queen bugs out into a gigantic spider! As the Marvel Super Heroes do battle to try and save New York, Peter and MJ seek to put an end to the virus infection…with SCIENCE!!!

“Spider-Island part 6: BOSS BATTLE”

Written by Dan Slott

Illustrated by Humberto Ramos

Inked by Victor Olazaba and Karl Kesel

Colored by Edgar Delgado

Lettered by VC’s Joe Caramagna

THE PLOT: The Queen’s turned into a giant spider for whatever reason, and proceeds to do battle with Venom, Captain Steve America, the X-Men and Shang Chi and his amazing friends. Meanwhile Kaine joins Spidey in an attempt to bring the queen down with the sonic-proof costume last seen in the inital “Big Time storyline”. Unbeknownst to all, Mary Jane, still with her Spider-Powers tags along behind.

LONG STORY SHORT: Peter realizes that he can use Doctor Octopus’ miniature octobots to carry out the cure for the rest of the infected, thereby cutting off the source of the Queen’s power. He does so with gay abandon, giving Kaine the chance to deliver the Hyper Combo Finish necessary to bypass Queen’s Sonic Scream, effectively KOing her once and for all. With Mary Jane at his side, Spider-Man looks on the recovering city with the knowledge that he has single handedly saved all of New York.

MY THOUGHTS: With Spider-Island just about over, the benefit of hindsight puts this penultimate chapter into certain perspective. It’s been said before and the title of this issue pretty much confirms that this is our current generation’s Maximum Carnage. This crossover storyline was essentially made to be nothing more than a potential video game tie-in, especially with the slew of Spider-Man games that keep coming out every year. Now I’m not going to say that for this reason Spider-Island sucked, but it’s just so obvious that it was meant to be a popcorn-style bit of three month filler that it does influence my feelings on the story as a whole. This issue in particular definitely felt like the third act of a movie, or last act of a multi-level platformer. There is a lot to like here, as well as some things I really didn’t like. Let’s not start to drag and jump into it.

First and foremost on the discussion list is Kaine. I have to say that I was not really expecting him to go from a monster at the beginning of Spider-Island to a savior by the end, and being a fan of the Clone Saga I was really happy to see him included. His portrayal in this however is a bit of an issue because he’s written to be almost a completely different character. Essentially, he’s Ben Reilly. The quipping, the back and forth with Peter, it’s Ben. No question about it. It’s not so much a horrible thing but it really begs the question why not just bring back Ben Reilly? Kaine and Ben are both distinguishable from Peter enough that if there’s any concern for having multiple Peter Parkers around, just read the issues to learn how they act. Again, I did like Kaine’s role and I actually find myself liking the growing number of Spider-Man spin-off characters. First we had Flash as Venom, now Kaine who is assuredly going to be the new Scarlet Spider. In the same sense of the Bat-Family titles, I like a growing list of people Spider-Man knows he can count on. The whole solitary superhero gimmick is wearing a little thin with him, because it’s not really dynamic. Peter can still work on his own, but him having a support group that he’s intimately familiar with like Kaine is a very interesting idea. Lastly, people have commented and question how Kaine had those stingers at the end. I agree that it makes no sense, but then again it makes even less sense as to how he was brought back to life. It’s an oddity, but it didn’t bother me.

Moving on to a character that did bother me, the Queen in this issue and really for the entirety of the story is by far one of the most horribly bland, uninteresting, cliche’d, stock characters in comic books. Granted, I haven’t read the Paul Jenkins story she premiered in since it first hit the stands so I don’t remember her personality too well in that. I am a fan of Paul Jenkins as a writer, more so than Slott, so my bias leads me to believe that she was a better character than portrayed here. Crazy Chris commented on the sexualization of the character in Venom#8, (which again I didn’t read) but that just furthers the point that the Queen has nothing to her. At the risk of making too much of a talking point concerning a different title, sexually dominant bad girls in comics was passee by the mid-90s. It just goes to show the length of effort in making a compelling story Slott and the other writers had for this. Rephrasing, I don’t want to slander the writers of the various miniseries because I really have just stuck with ASM. At the same time when it comes down to it, it’s a story about a bunch of super heroes fighting giant spiders. As a plot it’s par for the course of the comic book medium, but in essence that’s all there is to it. Some people won’t ask for much more than that, a lot of people frankly. But I just cannot raise my arms and claim that this was anything more than a distraction, amusing or otherwise, in my regularly scheduled comic book reading. So when there’s an opportunity to make an at-all interesting villain like the Queen, it’s a shame when she’s written to be so damn boring and bland. She turns into a giant spider and wants to rule the world by populating it with giant spiders. That’s not too far of a cry from ruling the world with clones or moles or whatever else Marvel has had happen in the past. As a villain, she’s nothing. She’s just a final boss to beat up on.

As an addendum, Madame Web was just a boring and typical. Saying she mustn’t interfere, calling the Queen a god (which is irritating solely on the fact that for a god she’s beaten fairly immediately. She’s barely the rank of Galactus, the Shir Empire or Thanos.) and basically taking up space. “Ohh, can’t they see it’s hopeless?” Gimmie a break.Was this suppose to add any tension? She shouldn’t have been in the story and I hope she won’t show up for at least another “season”, just like her animated counterpart from the 90s show.

Commenting about the artwork, I’ve mentioned throughout the arc that Ramos has been looking inconsistent compared to his past work. In the last issue I figured it may’ve been the presence of two inkers. In this issue, the second inker to Victor Olazaba is Karl Kesel. He must be the positive factor because Ramos is back to form in this. There are some great looking double-page splashes in this comic, and some of the larger panels have great looking images as well. All the action was kinetic and exciting, and the different perspective shots like Spidey and MJ at the Police Headquarters looked nice as well. There was a cinematic touch to the art that I hadn’t seen for a few issues in the past that Ramos excels at. He gives it his all in this issue and does a really good job.

There was more of the Slott-style dialogue that I didn’t like, mainly said from the supporting characters and heroes. Why during a crisis would someone make a joke about dying? It’s just silly humor that isn’t very funny.

But for all the pros and cons, the best aspect of this issue was almost the worst. Again…AGAIN we have Peter needlessly doubting himself, thinking he’s useless and impotent in a fight to save the world. Why? He gets hit ONCE and all of a sudden gives up.

“I finally get it. I’ve got Spider Powers. You’ve got ’em. Everyone’s got ’em. I know when I’m out of my league. Right here, right now there’s nothing special about me. I can’t…”

This was completely idiotic, and frankly out of character for Peter. Plently of times throughout his career, he’s knowingly gone up against odds stacked up against him and fought anyway. Other times he’s been rather haughty about his intelligence and physical abilities. The scene was for MJ to give another “Got get’em Tiger” type of speech, and it is entirely unwelcome. Spider-Man would not give up like that, he should not give up like that, and it makes me seriously question just how much of the character has Slott actually read.

But luckily, the scene then shifts into Peter saving the day. I wasn’t crazy about him yelling “I’m saving everyone!” as I think it would’ve been more poignant to either think to himself or say it softly to himself, (and it’s not like he hasn’t ever before) but it’s exactly what the current run of ASM needs. Spidey using science to save the day is always a recurring theme of the character, and it was cool to see it after all the issues of nonstop violence. Mary Jane fighting at his side was my favorite aspect of it, and her silently saying “I love you” was great for all of us Peter/MJ shippers. I doubt seriously anything will come of this, but it still tugged at the heartstrings. It’s also interesting to note that in the issue with Peter and MJ fighting side-by-side, with the cover of them together and her saying “I love you”, we get zero mention of Carlie Cooper. I’m not jumping for joy because of it, although I’m not crying either. That still hammers home the fact that her relationship with Peter is a complete joke as he’s not thought of her at all since he lost her in the giant spider rampage. I know they’re not all that close in their relationship, but the fact remains that for a protagonist with a girlfriend, Peter never thinks of Carlie ever. Unless he’s with her. It’s just a reiteration of the mishandling of that relationship. If it’s going to get any weight, add more tension with Mary Jane. That’s the only reason I can think of that would have fans interested in Carlie’s character.

So Spider-Island is on it’s way out and has been a video game playthrough of a ride. While it’s not been all that impressive of a story, there’ve been worse arcs and issues. Eager to see what comes next.

3/5 webs