A review in which familiar readers will not be surprised.
“The Devil and the Details”
Written by Mark Waid
Illustrated by Emma Rios
Colored by Javier Rodriguiz
Lettered by VC’s Joe Caramagna
THE PLOT: After avoiding an attempted rebound hookup from Spider-Man, Felicia Hardy a.k.a. the Black Cat is arrested for, would you believe it, burglary. Spidey has his doubts about her guilt, and consults Daredevil for assistance.
LONG STORY SHORT: Felicia breaks out of the Paddy Wagon and flees custody. DD and Spidey follow what Spidey thinks is a kidnapping, but turns out to be hologram projections. The enter the sewer and come out to meet the Black Cat. To be continued in Daredevil #8.
MY THOUGHTS: This was precisely everything I abhor in a modern day Spider-Man comic.
I’ve gone on about my feelings on Dan Slott’s run on a regular basis since getting the review job, but the guy isn’t the worst Spider-Man writer ever. He has his quirks and I have my preferences, but from what all I’ve read of his run by and large, he does get the character of Peter Parker at least marginally. Little touches like having Spider-Man wanting to help out the Shocker or feeling guilty about Marla Jameson’s death, and even denying the cure for his spider powers when offered by Madame Web are examples of Slott understanding Peter Parker’s mindset on a fundamental level. There are still things I don’t care for, but I can understand Slott’s mindset in writing Amazing Spider-Man the way he does. It’s taken me this issue to realize the true benefits of the past year of ASM, and after reading #677 I found myself missing Slott desperately. While he may see Spider-Man in a different light than I might, he does at least understand him.
Mark Waid doesn’t get Spider-Man at all.
I knew this issue was going to hurt the moment I read the preview, and the worries proved to be justified. If there is one thing that is consistently and virulently wrong with the title of Amazing Spider-Man in the past four years, it’s the concept of Peter Parker the loser. I understand the mindset he’s supposed to be the everyman that loses as much as he wins. He can’t enjoy continuous life victories at the end of every story because that’s not the conceit the series employed when it began in 1963. Where the writers have missed the mark is that Spider-Man’s downsides in his life weren’t due to him as a person, they were due to life itself. The randomness of reality accounts for the same burglar that Peter let go having shot his Uncle Ben, or the misjudging of the web-line having snapped Gwen Stacy’s neck, or the happenstance of Captain Stacy being at the wrong place at the wrong time. It’s like Two Face said in The Dark Knight “The world is cruel. And the only morality in a cruel world is chance.” When the book focuses on Peter’s misery and acts as though he’s the sole catalyst for it, the book misses the entire point of the character and becomes an unsavory, irritating read that invalidates all reason for investment in Spider-Man in the first place.
The opening thought caption is wrong on so many levels. First, “At last, my romantic life was great” is incorrect when you consider how many women he’s been with. Second, Peter was never in love with Carlie Cooper. As recalled on so many occasions in the past, the guy barely spends any thoughts on her. This whole scene is forced melodrama because Peter hasn’t spent any moment until now caring about the fact that he and Carlie broke up. All he cared about was her knowing his secret identity. Now Steve Wacker had this to say about the criticism of Peter’s thought process on CBR.
“It’s pretty human for someone to have ups and downs. Feeling better one day than they do the next. I’ve read 50 years of Spider-Man comics like that actually.
Again this criticism is a reach. “
If we are to accept that thought process going in, it still doesn’t account for the fact that this is the first we’re hearing of Peter’s sadness. He’s interacted with Carlie since they broke up immediately after and didn’t think twice about it. There was no “You know, I really miss her” thought that sprang in his mind and extrapolated, nothing. It’s inconsistent, and even if it’s been done before doesn’t excuse it being done again. False pathos written in for the sake of being pathos, and frankly Peter seems more sad about being single than he does about being separated from Carlie. How are we supposed to take this? Does he want Carlie? Does he just want a girlfriend? Is he sad about how he and Carlie broke up? What’s the deal here? I know Waid’s coming onto this book fresh after Slott had established the relationship between the two in the previous issues, but it is way too jarring of a characterization change to just roll with.
Speaking of characterization, Spidey’s awkwardness and nervousness around the Black Cat, someone who he’s been with on several occasions and last they saw each other he was fine was more limp writing for the sake of showing how bad Spider-Man is at apparently everything social. This is actually one of the few instances post-BND that I like how the Black Cat was being written, but it was at the cost of Spider-Man coming off like a complete and utter doofus. Why? If he wants what Felicia’s got, why doesn’t he just flirt and she turn him down? What does the stuttering and bad dialogue serve towards the story other than making Spider-Man look bad? I really don’t understand. When you’re in a store and you see Spider-Man merchandise, you imagine the mindset of the marketing seeing kids want to play with the Spidey toys and own the Spidey shoes and enjoy Spider-Man’s character because he’s funny and smart and always has something fun to say. At what point does that translate to being a complete joke in the source material? When Captain America and Thor and Iron Man and Hulk are all marketed, they’re all boiled down to their bare essentials in terms of general concept personality wise. Hulk Smashes, Cap commands, Thor rhymes and Iron Man…does…something. Conversely, when you read their comics you don’t see every lousy aspect of their personality amped up to the hilt. They’re pretty much how they’ve always been-nuanced, developed characters. For whatever reason, Spider-Man as seen by Marvel cannot stand up to that state of dignity and must be viewed as a crappy super hero so that we can stick the “everyman” label on him. Because somewhere along the line, relatability turned into flaunting our flaws rather than accepting them and not letting them keep us from what we wanted to obtain in life.
Am I wrong? Are my statements incredibly misinformed? I genuinely don’t think so, but it’s certainly possible. I back up my reasoning by pointing out how Spidey blew what little secret identity Daredevil had to go on by screaming for his help in his Matt Murdock guise in front of a co-worker. Again, what purpose did that serve? It’s self explanatory. Plus, Spider-Man already knows the deal with Matt trying to keep his identity a secret.
I love Daredevil, and I love whenever he and Spidey team up. They’re two of my favorite Marvel characters, and they almost always work great together. Here, it was masturbatory how much Daredevil was made to look cool compared to the bumbling Spider-Man, and that was awful. The art (which on a stylistic side I appreciated but ultimately didn’t care for. I thought Spider-Man’s mask was completely wrong.) made DD always stand tall, look cool and confident, and generally come of as hard and erect to Spider-Man’s consistently soft, scrunchy and overall ineffectual body language. Waid has been doing great work for Daredevil on his own title, but when he comes over for one issue on ASM, I don’t think he should get away with that. The writer of one superhero coming onto another title and making the first hero look so much better than the one who own the title…that’s just wrong.
Were there any positives in this issue? Well, I did like how Felicia was written, as well as DD. But all of it was undone by the utter pillaging of Spider-Man’s character. As such, there are no redeeming qualities to this issue in my opinion. Absolutely none.
0/5 webs
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Wow… This is very VERY close to my thoughts. I was actually glad he ddn’t reduce Black Cat to the rebound girl and seems to have a good understanding of her character and her abilities… But I don’t think he knows why she’s like that or even why she got her powers. I actually didn’t come down to hard on this book. My thoughts were… okay, Wade’s a little out of touch with spidey’s character… everything else was good… Then I read part two, the daredevil follow up and put them together. The problems you highlighted here suddenly became very apparent. And I can’t tell you how thrilled I was when blackcats reaction to Spidey trying to help him was to electrocute him… wait wait. It gets better. Because that was based on a misunderstanding. An odd one though given Cat knows how morally overbearing he can be. But anyway, when that’s cleared up she has very little to say to him in regard to an apology or anything meaningful… she does succeed in stripping DD though and if not for a phone call would totally of had sex with him. I don’t think Waid even knows Black Cat’s history with spidey… Not that I expect him him to know everything… but it’s like he never even seen a cartoon with cat and Spiderman, or read any comics involving the two… or the origins of cats powers. It’s awful. I think if Wade wanted Daredevil to get some so bad he should’ve dropped his own pants instead of bending spidey over. he does write an awesome daredevil though. I’ll raise a glass to him almost getting me interested enough to grab another DD book.
As for #18
He doesn’t see himself as a loser. It’s been stated before in previous issues that even thing don’t always go his way he’s actually a pretty lucky guy sometimes. He has good friends, a loving aunt, *Should still have MJ but that’s another debate entirely* Basically peter is not the creepy loser who spends most of his waking time feeling sorry for himself. He confident, positive, optimistic usually. it shows in his humor and how he tries to help people like throwing flash thompson a surprise party to get his mind off the fact that he ain’t got no legs. I don’t agree with all this guys reviews *I actually like Slott* But he’s right about this. And he at least gets spidey more than you.
http://forums.comicbookresources.com/showthread.php?t=398456
Pages 1, 2 and 3 in this talkback thread.
What’s the link to Wacker’s rationalization of this story?
@Zach – Gotcha.
@#31
What do you think of his positive reviews?
Oh, what am I thinking… you don’t even care about those, do you?
Wow very unprofessional
Bear= Berryman.
@Enigma – Still not following.
@#26
It got a chuckle out of me, I admit it.
@#25
He’s post #24
Did I think the book was Incredible? No.
Did I think it was a zero? No.
I think the “Schmear Itself” in the background had to be worth at least something!
@Enigma – Who da heck is “Bear”?
@20
You’re ignoring the past times he’s positively reviewed the book with a 3 or better. I suspect you’re ignoring it by design.
Stop trolling now.
I seriously doubt he “hates” the title. True, he doesn’t care for this issue, but he has his reasons. As he stated in the review. You shouldn’t assume this reflects his overall opinion of the books. Remember, even Bear and Kevin have enjoyed some of these books. They can’t all be winners, despite some insisting that you’re just hating to be hating if they aren’t.
No, I mean why would he want to? It doesn’t seem like he derives any particular enjoyment, why read a title you hate?
@#20
Because he can.
0 out of 5. Why are you even reviewing this title?
I agree with @11 Tyler Crone… that race down the side of the building was pretty cool and probably the best scene in the book. Shows that this is something they’ve done in the past and establishes a history between the characters. Spidey calling Matt out on being Daredevil was pretty awful, but I sort of agree with Wacker in that people do go through highs and lows like this. I’m sure all of us have had a time like that. Peter probably didn’t care as much in the previous arc because he was actually around carlie again and didn’t think anything of it. Now that she’s gone again he’s probably dwelling on it. Not because he actually does love her deeply, but because she was someone that he got used to having around.
Not a fan of this art, it was a step up from Ramos in my opinion, nice style but Spidey just didn’t look right in most scenes.
I think you’re wrong about the “random acts” in Peter’s life being merely put into the position of “life is cruel”… perhaps they occured, and were going to occur, but Peter blames himself… Peter has always been an insecure teenager, and I have never seen him ever get therapy, so deep down, in spite of his great powers, Peter has deep rooted insecure feelings that will stick to him regardless of the good he does as Spider-Man, which is why he sees himself as a loser…
Methinks the reviewer doesn’t “get” Spider-Man moreso than he thinks that Mark Waid doesn’t…lol
Let the hate begin… but it’s just my opinion.
I know the cover doesn’t represent what happens in the book(do they ever?), but I don’t like it anyway.
Nothing against Ramos, I just hate Black Cat. And I think anyone who knows me on the board is aware of this.
YEAH, I SAID IT, BD!!! WHATCHA GONNA DO ABOUT IT, BROTHERRRR?
I actually loved this issue, but mainly due to Daredevil/Spidey interaction. I definitely think 0 is overly harsh on the book.
For Mr Wacker’s comment you included in your review, I am baffled why when someone makes a critique of ASM, even if it’s not mean spirited in nature, he always says how each and every one is wrong and unfounded.
IGN are pro-Marvel sheep who will say anything to gain positive attention from them. Same with CBR. Their opinion means nothing really.
Carlie was far from the perfect woman, I’m 90% sure Marvel KNOW this and are only calling her that to provoke a reaction from fans who grew up on Peter calling MJ the love of his life, there is no reallistic way Peter can think of her as anything other than a rebound, he’s only known her for a cup of coffe Marvel time, where it’s also been established in the SAME BOOK that he lived with MJ for “years”
I can’t believe IGN gave this issue a 9.5 out of 10. Seriously, wtf. I love Dan Slott’s stuff, enjoyed Waid’s Spidey enough (Unscheduled Stop is one of my faves), loving Waid’s Daredevil but this issue was shite as far as Spidey himself was characterized.
@Donovan: By The dark Knight v1 you mean that trade collecting first four issues of Batman? Art there sucks as well as stories
I thought there was one redeeming point of this story, which was the race down the side of the building, it may not have been the best, but I thought it showed Matt and Peter’s relationship as Waid was trying to establish it very well.
The story was nothing special. Felicia is framed for stealing, which is how she makes a living. She just happens to be innocent, but there’s no real interest I had in seeing her vindicated, nor is the mystery all that engaging. I said what I thought about the art, and in my opinion if the writing is as bad as it was here, the art can’t save it. See Batman: The Dark Knight vol.1 or All Star Batman and Robin for further examples.
I don’t usually care to comment further on my reviews once they’re posted as I like my writing to speak for itself, but this was absolutely as bad as I said it was. Characterization outweighs everything when it’s crucified for te sake of putting other characters over and essentially taking for granted the reader’s interest in the character in the first place. Last issue didn’t have Spider-Man in it at all which bugged me, but this was worse as the Spider-Man we got was unrecognizable.
Wow. This is why you get paid the big bucks. Right on!
“Schmear Itself…”
Hah. Cute.
Donovan got the score right. With bad writing and awful art, this is one issue that you can and should skip. Take the money that you’ll save and spend it on something worthwhile like Batwoman or Severed.
Huh, a 0 out of 5. Never thought I would see one of those again. Well Mr. Grant… your not wrong. Some writers are great with some characters and not others. It seems Mr. Waid wasn’t the best choice to step in for Mr. Slott for the time being. And since Mr. Wacker had to step in to defend the Peter’s thought process it seems others somewhat agree with you.
Well I’ve dropped all comics for the moment so I can’t personally agree with your review but I respect you enough to take your word on it. Keep up the good work Mr. Grant.
~Lament~
Just to be clear, Donovan is entitled to his opinion, and I would never ask a reviewer to change his grade. However, not everyone makes their purchases decisions based exclusively upon characterization, so I feel like going a little deeper into the other aspects of the comic is warranted.
A 0 says to me that the pencils, inks, colors, writing, and everything sucked. Completely. I happen to like Waid’s and Rios’ work, so I find that a little hard to believe.
Haven’t read the issue yet, but the review does seem harsh. Just looking at the art, I think that alone would bring up the score one or two “webs”.
No book is perfect, and with Spider-Man the writers have to marry the story to 50 years of characterization and history. A lot of your arguments appear to be valid, but I’m not sure the score is warranted.
wow a 0? you are harsh on this one. Sure the fisrt half wasn’t great but the interactions with DD where great, and the art was awesome.
So what did you think of the art? Was the story any good? I felt like this was more of a rant than a review. How did you reach 0 out 5? Does characterization outweigh it all? I’m sorry if I’m being harsh, but I feel like this are all valid questions.
And Donovan hits this issue with a cannon shot