“It’s been altered beyond recognition.”
Well, let’s see, Batman v. Superman came out, but nobody else is talking about Amazing Spider-Man 1.4… And reviewing Spider-Man comics is my job on this site…. Hello, darkness, my old friend…..
Amazing Spider-Man (2015) #1.4
“Amazing Grace, Pt. 4: Within the Veil”
Writer: Jose Molina
Pencils: Simone Blanchi and Andrea Broccardo
Inks: Simone Blanchi and Andrea Broccardo
Colors: David Curiel
Editor: Nick Lowe and Devon Lewis
Plot:
Hey, y’all remember that one issue last month, where Julio Rodriguez killed an old man? Turns out that was his dad. (Because Comic) Spidey and the Santerians meet up, confirm that Julio isn’t human (Wouldn’t have realized that) and they fight. (Because we’re now in the 80s, you see) Spidey ducks out and runs away and he
and Anna Maria go off and follow Julio around a shopping mall. He then cures a little girl of her blindness (That’s a sentence I just said!) and they see the guy who killed Julio. Spidey hangs him over a building (You know, for kids! Then again, Spectacular did it, so…) and finds out that Julio committed suicide and set everything up. (Pretty damn elaborate plan) And so our comic ends with the Santerians deciding to ask Spider-Man for more help.
Thoughts:
…..
….. I’ve got nothing.
After viewing such notable cult classic Christploitation films such as War Room, Kirk Cameron’s Saving Christmas, and God’s Not Dead 1 and 2 in the past few weeks, I think I have found something far worse. Is that even possible?!
We’re reviewing Amazing Spider-Man. Of course it’s possible.
I think we should start off with the art. It’s atrocious. I praised it last three issues as the saving grace of the point one divergence, but here it fails on all levels. When they change perspectives, you can’t tell who the characters are. It’s also worth noting that they added another artist to this issue for a flashback scene, and it’s really jarringly noticeable. They also didn’t get this second artist an inker, so they let her do her own inks. And it’s even worse than Blanchi’s inks.
I think the worst problem of this comic is that it’s so bad in the sense that you can’t make fun of this. I like to compare this to the “Temple of Doom vs. Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” argument. I like to think that Temple of Doom is better in that it’s at least memorably bad, in a manner similar to other so-weird-it’s great films like Birdemic, The Room and Cool Cat Saves the Kids. At the same time, it surpasses Kingdom of the Crystal Skull because KotCS is so forgettable that it’s not worth anything even if it is okay. This comic is so bad that it isn’t even funny, and for a comic, pure bad is never a good thing.
But the absolute worst moment of this whole arc comes up when Peter blames God for not saving his Uncle in a flashback. What I find perplexing about this is that it ultimately undermines Peter’s mantra of “With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility”. Peter’s guilt complex is fueled by his inability to save his uncle, and to continue fighting evil in the world with his powers instead of abusing them. With these five panels, Peter, for some reason, decides to shift his blame to somebody else, which makes about fifty years of comics apparently meaningless; without blame to inflict on himself, he therefore would have no reason to fight crime. So, in about one page, Peter is ultimately ripped of his core character trait and stripped of any redeeming qualities.
By the time I finished reading this comic, I had already considering going outside, lighting it on fire, and running it over with my car in the rain for extra measure. It was so bad and took so much away from the character that I’m left with the cynical impression that we will never get a Spider-Man that is true to character for next few decades.
Because it so bad even an F can’t describe it….
Apple Podcasts
Google Podcasts
Spotify
Pandora
Amazon Music
iHeartRadio
Podbean
Amazon Alexa
Player.fm
Listen Notes
Stitcher
Do potato-grade comics get better when mashed and have butter and gravy generously applied?
THIS Web-Head is daring enough to find out! Are you?
The thing that sucks the most, and makes me scratch my head (until it practically bleeds), is that what they have decided to do to Spider-Man in the past few years is completely unnecessary!!! It’s like they set out to purposely destroy the character. There is no other explanation I can come up with. Because they sure weren’t trying to fix him. Because you don’t need to fix what ain’t broken. And the core idea of Spider-Man (a down on his luck everyman who just so happens to be the worlds coolest superhero in his spare time) is not a concept that needed fixing.
And my God! (pun intended) I wish comic writers would keep their religious beliefs to themselves. Giving extremely popular characters an assigned religion risks alienating a large portion of your audience. (Like myself). I read Spider-Man for about 40 years and I never really knew what his religious affiliations were (and I didn’t want to know) because it didn’t have anything to do with his punching the Green Goblin and saving the city from a giant pumpkin bomb (or whatever).
I only got to spend about 22 pages (or roughly 20 minutes) a month with my pal Spider-Man / Peter Parker, and I didn’t want to waste any of that valuable time delving into his religious affiliations, any more than I wanted to spend a few pages watching him eat lunch or take a leak. Because that is an unnecessary waste of space.
Peter blaming “God” for his uncle’s death is so far out of character for him that (like our esteemed reviewer pointed out) it basically isn’t even the same character anymore.
Wisely most writers through the years (starting with Stan Lee) avoided that kind of topic. There’s a really really good reason they say you shouldn’t discuss politics and religion with your friends. Because those are extremely divisive subjects that are best kept to yourself. (If you want to keep all of your diverse friendships intact that is).
@5 – Too bad that Black Cat’s hitman didn’t succeed.
Why is this so surprising that he blames God now. Over in Miles Morales book, the Black Cat put a hitman on Miles because he is going by: “Spider-Man” and must die as a result because his name is: “Spider-Man”. There is no logic these days in the Spider Offices unless the book is Spider-Man 2099, Spider-Gwen, Silk or Spider-Woman. If there is “man” in the title, you are thrown extremely stupid plots and motivations.
Well, this *is* the Peter Parker who sold his marriage to Satan even after God came down and said ‘have faith, this’ll all work out’.
It’s funny because I thought this was the best issue of the story. I was lost and didn’t care in the other installments, but this one actually grabbed me. The art wasn’t that bad. Not great, but certainly not terrible.
I wont buy Slott, so this is all the spider-man I got, so I am sure that taints my view
@1- Oh yes! The potato grade has come to haunt us for all eternity!
Just kidding, the grade’s an F-. This comic hurt to read.
Gasp! Not the dreaded “potato” grade!