“But that’s never happened to me before! Ever!
Previously in “Learning to Crawl,” we not only got the story behind why Aunt May doesn’t like that “awful, icky Spider-Man person,” we saw Peter Parker choose to be “Spider-Man: No More” long before the classic Amazing Spider-Man (1963) #50, or even Amazing Spider-Man (1963) #18. Well, get ready Spidey-afficinados, because once again, this issue shows that everything you think you know about the history of Spider-Man turns out to be wrong.
“Learning to Crawl: Part Four”
WRITER: Dan Slott
ARTIST: Ramón Pérez
COLORS: Ian Herring
LETTERS: VC’s Joe Caramanga
ALEX ROSS: Cover
ASSOCIATE EDITOR: Ellie Pyle
EDITOR: Nick Lowe
THE STORY: Having decided to give up crime-fighting in part 3, Peter now only changes into Spider-Man as a means of taking photographs of other superheroes for the Daily Bugle. As a result, his life has greatly improved: he’s making enough to help Aunt May pay the bills, his grades are up, has real friends in the A.V. Club, has an internship with Professor Cobbwell, and he’s finished the last of his counseling sessions with Mr. Flannegan. In the meantime, Clayton Cole is still trying to get recognition as Clash, as he crashes a live rock concert, taking out the band and security guards. Afterward, he goes home to check social media to see the public’s reaction, only to see they’re calling him a Spider-Man wannabe and copycat. He also sees a streaming video of J. Jonah Jameson laying the blame for Clash’s actions on Spider-Man. Needless to say, Clayton doesn’t take the criticism well.
Peter reads about Clash in the Daily Bugle the next day and Aunt May, seeing the headline, agrees that Jonah is right: that if not for Spider-Man, people like Clash “wouldn’t follow suit.” Thus Peter, realizing he’s partly responsible since he goaded him, decides it’s his responsibility to stop him. Doing some research, he finds schematics for making an “anti-sound inverter,” only since the parts are too expensive, Peter decides to “borrow” the parts from Professor Cobbwell’s workshop and the A.V. Club’s lab. After building the inverter, Peter goes to the Daily Bugle to see if Jonah can give him an advance to buy and replace the stolen parts. However, while he’s in Jonah’s office, Clash crashes through and attacks Jonah. Peter is able sneak away to change into Spider-Man and charge up the inverter. Just as Clash plans on killing Jonah, Spidey jumps in, fighting Clash long enough until the inverter can reach full charge. Unfortunately, when Spidey uses the inverter, Clash readjusts the settings on his suit to create a feedback loop, and destroys the inverter. Clash escapes, with Spidey shocked that he’s been “out-scienced” and Clash feeling triumphant. Jonah says that he was wrong about Spidey being a menace, that’s he’s actually a loser and a has-been, and Spidey can’t help but think he’s right as he swings away.
Things get even worse for Peter. Flash—who unbeknownst to Peter, saw him leaving the A.V. Club—has informed the school principal about the theft. This in turn makes Peter a pariah among his new friends, Mr. Flannegan refusing a return to counseling sessions with Peter, Aunt May having to pay for the stolen equipment, and Dr. Cobbwell dismissing Peter from his internship. What’s more, because Peter didn’t take any photos of the fight between Spidey and Clash, Jonah fires him. Thus Peter, feeling he’s not only failed to stop Clash but let everyone down, goes to Uncle Ben’s grave, and apologizes to him, unsure of what he’s supposed to do.
THOUGHTS: From the beginning, “Learning to Crawl” has been an attempt by Dan Slott and Ramón Pérez at re-imagining, homage, and expansion of The Amazing Spider-Man comic as first depicted by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko. In particular, they not only set out to capture the narrative and artistic style of that classic run, they also set out to explore its themes of the turbulence and uncertainty of adolescence, the struggle between one’s duty and desires, and that, when comes to good intentions, sometimes we will fail more often than we succeed. With Amazing Spider-Man #1.4, Slott and Perez have come closer in reaching these goals than in the previous chapters.
Once again, Slott’s depiction of Peter Parker continues to be one of the strongest aspects of this mini-series I’ve mentioned in previous reviews of “Learning to Crawl” that the reason I believe Peter is a stronger (and better) character here than in Slott’s current run on The Amazing Spider-Man is that Peter’s actions in “Learning to Crawl” are far more understandable and sympathetic because he’s a teenager, one who is still figuring out what it really means to be a responsible person. We wouldn’t tolerate an adult Peter stealing science equipment, even under the rationale that’s he’s doing so for “the greater good” of stopping a villain, because we expect an adult to know better. But because Peter is a young man of fifteen to sixteen years-old, still conflicted over just how he should use his powers, his theft, while still wrong, is far more forgivable, especially since he also has every intention of paying for the stolen equipment regardless. It may not be his intention, but Slott through this story is showing why a Peter Parker in his late-twenties having the same emotional maturity of a high school student doesn’t work, and in turn makes a compelling case that, in hindsight, it was a mistake for Peter to graduate college, much less high school. Either that, or Slott is far more comfortable writing about Lee and Ditko’s version of Spider-Man than his own.
Pérez’s art also remains a big selling point, going even further in not only mimicking Ditko’s style but also the look and feel of Marvel Comics from the early 1960s. Granted, it’s definitely weird—and jarring—having a two-page spread of the Thing stacking ’61 Pontiac Bonnevilles, Jane Foster wearing a matronly nurses uniform while flying with Thor, or Iron Man in his cumbersome gold-plated armor, only to then have in the same comic images of a punk-rock group at a “battle for the bands” concert and reporters at their desks typing stories on their desktop computers. If you can look past this, however, you can see just how skilled Pérez is in capturing the look and tone of the early comics without it coming across as a pale imitation, helped along by Ian Herring’s wonderful colors. Just the scenes with Spidey fighting Clash alone are so vibrant and energetic the old expression of saying it pops right off the page would be an understatement; furthermore, the last panel of Peter at Uncle Ben’s grave is an excellent composition in its own right, a fine example of using light, shadow, color, and body language in an illustration to convey the desired emotional effect.
Another advantage this comic has is that save for one brief panel showing Spidey’s battle with The Tinkerer and his “alien army” from Amazing Spider-Man (1963) #2, it doesn’t recycle scenes from Lee and Ditko’s comics in order to tell the story. Much like Amazing Spider-Man #1.1, part 4 has all-new content intended to take place between issues of Lee and Ditko’s run, and unlike part 3, it’s more effective in trying up loose ends in terms of the original continuity. Here we have the first “official” meeting between Peter Parker and Betty Brant, something which, as far as I know, never happened in the original or even in Kurt Busiek’s Untold Tales of Spider-Man. We also get a retroactive explanation how Peter was first seen as Professor Cobbwell’s assistant in Amazing Spider-Man (1963) #2, yet somehow lost this job without any explanation in Amazing Spider-Man (1963) #3. And it explains how Peter could have once belonged to a group of like-minded peers early on despite the original comics depicting him as a loner trying his best to fit in with other kids.
Unfortunately, in filling in the “narrative gaps” within Spidey’s history, Slott also winds up committing this issue’s most glaring misstep, at least in the eyes of continuity purists. No longer is Doctor Octopus the first super-villain to completely outclass Spidey and give him a crushing, humiliating defeat—that honor now retroactively belongs to Clash. Moreover, Clash’s win is depicted as an even bigger blow to Peter’s ego and reputation than Doc Ock’s first encounter with Spidey ever was. Because while Doc Ock in Amazing Spider-Man (1963) #3 outmatched Spidey in terms of brute strength and physical prowess, Clash outwits Spidey by using his own knowledge of science and technology against him, and in full view of J. Jonah Jameson, no less. And, it’s also part of the downward spiral of Peter’s social and personal life as his stealing of equipment to make the device in his failed attempt to stop Clash is publicly exposed. Granted, what happens to Peter in this comic is par for the course when it comes to Spider-Man, in that he’s a hero capable of making mistakes and errors in judgment which he later pays for with a heavy price, only to later rise back up to overcome his failure in the end. It can also be said that Spidey’s defeat at the hands of Clash in a press-room expands upon the notion that Clayton Cole is another dark reflection of Peter, in that he’s even more consumed by the desire for fame, celebrity, and self-promotion than Peter ever was during his time as an entertainer. Yet it also comes across as a blatant, heavy-handed attempt by Slott to elevate Clash into the top-tier of Spidey’s classic gallery of rogues in a way which neither feels legitimate or earned.
Nevertheless, Amazing Spider-Man #1.4 remains a very good comic, and, after the downturn in parts 2 and 3, is the strongest issue since Amazing Spider-Man #1.1. While we won’t know the outcome of “Learning to Crawl” until next month, this comic more than the previous issues sets the stage for Peter to transition into the superhero we know him as. And I imagine that the conclusion will be used to illustrate Peter Parker’s real strength doesn’t lie in his arachnid-based superpowers or his keen scientific mind. Instead, it will lie in his perseverance, that no matter how much the world turns against him or how much he suffers, Peter finds a way to endure and to carry on. After all, it wasn’t just “with great power comes greater responsibility” that was the mantra of Spider-Man during the days of Lee and Ditko—it was also “action is his reward.”
A-
NERDY NITPICKS:
- Okay, so in part 2 of Learning to Crawl, Peter learned how wrong it was to ruin another person’s reputation, what with his letting Flash be accused of giving him a black eye, only to then be framed by the Chameleon for espionage and treason. And yet, couldn’t one say that Spidey ironically taking photographs of other superheroes and presenting them out-of-context to Jonah also be an attempt at ruining a person’s reputation? Moreover, if one of the goals of “Learning to Crawl” is explain why Peter only resorted to taking photos of himself as Spidey for the Daily Bugle because he ultimately through his conflict with Clash how that media can tear someone down as much as build them up, and that he he’d rather inflict this upon himself instead of other people, then it would appear Peter forgot this lesson in later years, in particular Slott’s own “Peter Parker, Papparazzi.”
- Any bets on who the rock band Clash upstaged and took down might have been? After all, if this story is supposed to be taking place 13 years in the past, my top candidates would be Incubus, Staind, Puddle of Mudd, System of a Down, Drowning Pool, Limp Bizkit, or Nickleback. Sure, they could be just some anonymous generic band, but it wouldn’t be as fun.
- “Maybe even ditch the Spidey threads. Dark clothes. Ski mask and goggles or something.” What a sec? Am I mistaken, or was that a reference to Spider-Man: Noir? After all, that is the costume Peter Parker does wear that particular universe.
- Also, I find it fascinating how Peter was able to find complete, detailed technical drawings for building of a hand-held device used to counteract and neutralize high-pitched sound frequencies in the library of a public high school. How exactly did those plans even end up there? I mean, based on the artwork, they look wrinkled and torn on the edges, which means they’ve been on the shelf collecting dust for a while? Did Reed Richards before becoming Mr. Fantastic donate them? Are sonic inverters common knowledge among sound engineers? Did the patent for them expire? “Because comics, right?”
- Seems as though Jonah used to have the healing factor of Wolverine back in the day, because one minute he’s bleeding from his forehead in one panel, but in the next, there isn’t even so much as a scar. He also used to have super-strength at one point, as he’s able to somehow able to tear Spidey’s webbing from off his mouth in spite the fact that, depending upon the amount used, even superhumans have difficulty ripping the webbing once it’s solidified, not to mention that it takes an hour to dissolve. Hmm…maybe Jonah has secretly been a self-loathing mutant all along!
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@27 – I have no idea. WordPress’s spam filter is beyond all mortal ken.
Spambots are stupid.
How are these spammers getting through, but I still can’t post comments through my phone?
@26
Get a life, spammer.
I find it interesting Jonah chastised Peter for not taking photos of the Spidey/Clash battle, yet one panel shows two reporters with cameras in their hands.
I found this issue enjoyable because it was written in a style of the 1960s. I wish the present day issues still followed that style. There are more transition boxes and dialogue bubbles which help move the story along and explain what exactly is happening. Sometimes I think something is lost in the telling of a story due to a lack of dialogue and clear transition.
I think that Slott was so successful in Superior because he was writing Otto, not Peter. Rather well too. Slott’s Ock showed signs of character development indicative of his 50-year history. The book had its problems, but Otto himself was very well handled. Slott’s YA Peter is a giant man-boy in comparison. So yeah, it’s not “Old stuff good/new stuff bad” so much as “Flashback Pete good/contemporary Pete bad.”
It seems like RDMacQ And Nick MB are the yin and yang of one another.
SSM was very entertaining, and fraught with plot holes and absurd contrivances at the same time. But SSM was also a multi-issue What If stunt, the zest of which makes Slott’s Peter Parker look tepid in comparison. Slotts teen-age Peter is sympathetic and appealing, while his YA Peter is callow and emotionally stunted. You never know which Slott you’re going to get.
@21 Then again, his work on Superior was among his best received, and that was playing much further outside the Lee/Ditko wheelhouse than most Spider-Man stories, so it doesn’t seem quite as simple as “Old stuff good/new stuff bad”.
@#20- Unlike Slott, Busiek actually showed he could be successful outside of the confines of earlier tales. Marvels wasn’t simply just doing the same stories that came before, just with a few minor tweaks. It was a brand new story about a brand new protagonist, looking at those earlier tales from a different perspective. Plus, his work on Astro City showed that Busiek could stand on his own.
With Slott, I don’t think it’s a coincidence that his work on the current Amazing series is so reviled (Talking about the recent story that started with the relaunch) while Learning to Crawl is better received. I think it’s mainly due to the trappings of the story, and what is being done. One is trying to forge new ground, while the other is simply covering the same ground others covered and could easily provide a template.
And given the fact that there are those that treat Slott as if he could do no wrong, and that there is nothing wrong with his stories, I think it’s just a natural reaction to point out how he’s not that perfect of a writer.
Slott is maddeningly inconsistent, and his on line behavior makes it harder to judge his work charitably.
UToS isn’t exactly what I’d remember Busiek for.
@15 – So Slott produces a good comic, but it still means he sucks? Wow, that’s weird. It’s almost as if he just can’t win with some people no matter what he does, but that would be crazy talk. Based on the same equation, I assume the quality of Busiek’s Untold Tales of Spider-Man also tells us nothing about his talent?
#15
Even if they spoke in favor of Breevort’s opinion, I wouldn’t believe them. People aren’t all that trustworthy to begin with. When your’e on a payroll, there’s even a reason for distrust.
@15 You might be right about that last point but honestly I don’t care too much. I’m just glad to be reading a story with the character I love in it again as opposed to some jackass in peter’s skin. It’s like finding an old friend. And I look forward to seeing him again next issue.
@#13 Stillanerd- I don’t really think there are “a lot” of writers at Marvel who don’t like an adult Peter or want to return him to High School. It’s one thing for Tom Breevort to say that Spider-Man is about youth in a manifesto designed to justify a controversial change of status quo. But it’s another for the bulk of the creators working at Marvel to agree with that notion. Silence does not mean consent, and just because the Marvel creators don’t speak up to contradict it doesn’t mean that they agree wholeheartedly. Tom Defalco, for example, strongly disagreed with Breevort’s argument and insisted that Peter was about responsibility more than youth.
And I don’t think it’s just that Dan Slott has been working on established characters. Lot’s of creators do that. It’s that his “best” work seems to be more about following established tropes and cliches, and having them there whether they make sense or not. It’s just that in certain scenarios, it makes more sense than others. Peter making foolish mistakes makes sense when he is a teenager just starting out, in the earliest days of his career. It makes less sense than when he is an adult. It’s just that Slott doesn’t understand the difference- he just puts the cliche or trope there to have it there, because it’s always been there under his justification. To me, that’s not the sign of a good writer when the quality of his work is largely conditional on how appropriate the cliches they employ are to the story they are writing.
I don’t think “Learning to Crawl” is good because Slott is a good writer. I think Learning to Crawl is good because he’s simply following an established template that was laid out by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko decades ago, and doing nothing to improve upon it.
The way I see it, Peter and Betty officially met in ASM #4. Granted, Lee and Ditko did it in a rather summary way.
@#1 Kleaners — Yeah, I thought it odd that was odd as well, as based on how the scheduling for Amazing Spider-Man and “Learning to Crawl” have been, this issue should have come out sometime during the beginning of August, not at the end.
@#2 herbiepopnecker — That’s okay if “Learning to Crawl” is not up your alley, Herbie. One thing I will say that’s a downside for me is that it really does interrupt the flow of twice-a-month release that Amazing Spider-Man has had.
@#3 Scarlet Spider — Yeah, I’m curious as to how Clash is going to connect to the present day Amazing Spider-Man as well. Although, I said on the live call in podcat, I have feeling we won’t see Clayton Cole in the present day Amazing Spider-Man until after Spider-Verse gets wrapped up.
@#4 RDMacQ — Oh, don’t get me wrong, Mac. There are indeed some great stories which have been told with an adult Peter Parker, some of which could only have been told if Peter was an adult. For example, Kraven’s Last Hunt could only have happened when Peter was an adult and married to Mary Jane, and J.M. DeMatteis wrote the story with that in mind. And that’s the key point– if the writer is going to have a story showing Peter as an adult, then he needs to write him as an adult. This was something not just DeMatteis did, but so did others like Roger Stern, Peter David, J. Michael Strazynski, Tom DeFalco, Christopher Priest (Jim Owsley), Paul Jenkins, Todd McFarlane, David Micheline, and even Howard Mackie did. Thing is, an adult Peter Parker should logically be a different character than a teenage Peter Parker, since one’s emotional outlook on life as an adult is much different than when they were in their adolescence.
Unfortunately, even before Brand New Day, Marvel has tried to depict Peter, in spite of being an adult, as the same guy he was back during the classic period of Stan Lee, Steve Ditko, and John Romita Sr., either because that’s the character the folks at Marvel are the most familiar with, or because that’s the version of the character even the most causal fan is familiar with–especially when it comes to the movies and cartoons which, barring some exceptions, have always depicted a Peter Parker as a high school or college student. After all, the original concept behind Spider-Man was that he’s supposed to be a teenage superhero who was not a sidekick, and I think there quite a few folks at Marvel who would love nothing more than if Peter were that character again. After all, it was Tom Breevort who made that telling remark in his Brand New Day manifesto that “Spider-Man is about youth.” This belief, I think, became crystallized with the success of Brian Michael Bendis’ Ultimate Spider-Man comic, which at the beginning of it’s run, was actually outselling Amazing Spider-Man, and I imagine the folks at Marvel saw this and thought part of that success had to do with Peter being a teenager again (never mind, of course, it was also better written and illustrated than Mackie and Bryne’s Amazing Spider-Man). And this is why I believe the various writers at Marvel, not just Dan Slott, have been writing Peter as if he were still a teenager–because they believe that the “younger” Peter acts, the more appealing he’ll be. Problem is, that only works if Peter is physically young, if he “acts his age,” so to speak, not just behaves as if he were still between the ages of 16 and 21.
As for Slott being more comfortable building upon the foundation of previous creators than building upon his own ideas, I’m not sure if it’s quite as simple as that, but you do make a very interesting and salient point. With the exception Big Max #1, every work Slott has ever done is based around previously established characters created by others: we have his more notable works on Spider-Man (Stan Lee & Steve Ditko), The Thing (Stan Lee & Jack Kirby), She-Hulk (Stan Lee & John Buscema), Silver Surfer (Stan Lee & Jack Kirby), and Ren & Stimpy (John Kricfalusi). Even Arkham Asylum: Living Hell is, of course, based around Batman (Bob Kane) and Arkham Asylum itself was the brainchild of Denny O’Neil and Irv Novick. Course, you can say most comic book writers nowadays have built upon the foundations of previous creators, too.
@#5 Big John — Thanks very much, Big John! 🙂
As to the point about my saying “Learning to Crawl” being a case that Peter should have stayed in high school, you can read my response to RDMacQ above for a more in-depth response, since I think both yourself and Mac also have a point about Peter, ideally, should have grown and developed as a character over the past 50 years as he’s gotten older. And yes, excellent point about Slott’s Spider-Man/Human Torch mini-series and how it was in a similar vein to “Learning to Crawl” in that it, too, was an “untold story” about Spidey. It definitely is telling that Slott seems to write Peter better whenever he shows him in the past as opposed to when he’s writing him “in the present.”
@#6 DEKE RIVERS — I don’t think Peter being responsible is “boring.” Now, if you mean Peter always doing the right thing and never making any mistakes, that’s something else, I agree. The theme of responsibility works best whenever Peter has to struggle between deciding which is more responsible, such as trying to figure out whether he should stop a bad guy or taking care of his loved ones, for example.
@#7 Patrick Robitsch — Yeah, this is something I and the other folks on Brad’s podcast have touched upon whenever we review an issue of “Learning to Crawl.” George Berryman has made excellent points about how it seems like every creator whoever works on Spider-Man feels compelled, at some point, to tackle and tweak Spidey’s origin in order to give their run on the comic more “relevancy” and “importance.” And in the case of Slott, it’s not just introducing Clash as a “Lee and Ditko” villain; he’s also re-working the origin in Amazing Spider-Man, too, what with the origin of Silk and how she was also bitten by the very same radioactive spider that gave Peter his powers.
@ Deke Rivers – A large amount of quality Spider-Man stories that involve an adult Peter prove that this isn’t the case.
@#10- Again, how? How is Peter becoming the breadwinner of his household at 15 not responsible? How is him using his powers to save others not responsible? How is him not taking the easy way out, and doing the right thing, not responsible?
What proof do you have to back up your point? Or your earlier point that an “adult” Peter Parker is “boring?”
” And if a “Responsible” Peter is boring, then he’s been boring since his inception, since Peter being responsible has been a major theme since ASM# 15.”
He WANTS TO BE Responsible. It´s not the same.
@#7: So basically Slott is Dio Brando from JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure.
@#6: Gonna side with RDMacQ in what’s your proof.
@ #6- And you can prove this how? Because I remember quite a few “adult” Peter stories (Hobgoblin arc, Venom, Morlun, to name a few) that were quite exciting. And if a “Responsible” Peter is boring, then he’s been boring since his inception, since Peter being responsible has been a major theme since ASM# 15.
Sounds like the point of Clash, if not this entire mini, is for Slott to say “You thought it was Stan Lee who did something first, but it was I, Dan Slott!” He’s writing this story so that HIS ideas are “first”, that what HE thought of predates what Lee and Ditko accomplished. Maybe it’s confirmation bias, but it does feel like this mini is doing exactly what I expected: Allowing Slott to cover the origin so that Slott can do whatever he wants to it just so he’d have a place to argue that Spider-Man has “always” been a certain way.
An “adult” Petet Parker is boring. A Responsible Peter Parker is boring.
Nice review Michael!
I liked your point about why Peter is always such a loner in the early issues, instead of hanging out with like-minded kids. That was a nice, surprisingly subtle touch by Slott and a good catch on your part.
I don’t agree with you, however, in saying that this makes a compelling case for Peter never graduating high school. I think that writers ought to be more adept at portraying a Peter Parker who’s matured past the high school emotional level but have made the mistake in thinking that such a mindset is part of his character. The reality is that, over the past 50 years, Spider-Man has become a story of the increased responsibility that comes with age as Peter has progressed through high school, college, and beyond (despite Marvel’s best efforts to convince us otherwise).
Slott, however, does seem to be more skilled with this iteration of the character, though, I think you’re absolutely correct. Maybe he ought to step down from the flagship title an get his own volume of Untold Tales. This would make all kinds of sense as, IMHO, his best Spidey work was on the Human Torch mini, which was totally in that vein.
Thank you! Keep up the good work!
I don’t think that this series “proves” that it was a “mistake” for Peter to graduate High School in College. I just think it shows that there are those writers who can only write the character in a certain capacity.
Dan Slott being unable to write a decent Peter Parker in his 20’s is not an indictment against the decision over 40 years ago to progress Peter and his story, as many other writers, some more talented, some less, have been able to deal with that situation and work with it, telling entertaining stories of their own. Instead, I think it just goes to show Slott’s limitations as a writer. He’s less comfortable building his own ideas, and more comfortable working within the foundation of others. While a good idea man, he has trouble forging those ideas of his own, and works better when there is a path laid out for him. Him working well within the confines of Stan Lee and Steve Ditko’s early tales is not a surprise, as they are some of the strongest foundations for a hero you could hope to ask for. One would have to screw up immensely- as John Byrne did with Chapter One- in order to have those ideas come out poorly.
In the end, I don’t think Slott’s work is “proof” that a “younger” Spider-Man is far superior to all other interpretations. I think it’s just a writer simply hitting the familiar trappings that other writers, better writers, have covered before. It’s not a radical new sound. It’s the “greatest hits” package of your favorite musicians, done by a competent cover band.
I loved this when I first came out but I feel like it’s kind of dragging on now. The battles with Clash always end up being anti-climactic, and the stuff that happens in Peter’s social life feels really repetitive. Maybe I’ve just seen Peter’s life get really good and then go down the toilet too many times for it to be exciting anymore.
This series is 100 times better than the current ASM arc though, and I’ll still finish it just because I’m interested as to why Clash vanishes from continuity after this mini.
I ony picked up the series because it was pre-OMD, but not
really impressed with yet *another” do-over of the origin, nor
was I much taken with the Clash character. I just find the whole
thing weak, sorry.
I want to know why this issue didn’t come out last month following Amazing #4.