A one-and-done in modern comics? Say it isn’t so!
Amazing Spider-Man #791
“Fall of Parker, Pt 3: Back to Ground”
Writers: Dan Slott
Pencils: Stuart Immonen
Inks: Wade von Grawbadger
Colors: Marte Gracia
Editors: Nick Lowe and Devin Lewis
Plot:
Things are finally looking up for our man Peter Parker. He’s got a loving (not really) girlfriend in Bobbi Morse, aka Mockingbird, he’s got an editorial job at the Daily Bugle, and he’s kicking some serious butt as the Amazing Spider-Man! What could possibly go wrong?
Surprisingly, not much on his end. He manages to get to work on time and has his first meeting with Robbie as the new science editor. To that end, the only really embarrassing thing that happens is that he is company-mandated to use an Alchemax Droid. (Oh, the irony.) Our new Sajani stand-in, Rubylyn Bato, makes her presence known quickly by arguing that Robbie playing favorites with Peter. (Valid point, but I wouldn’t say it to his face.) Meanwhile, at Humanitech Industries, Bobbi (Who made all of their new security) makes some statements that would make /pol/ flip a table regarding the voice settings of their new android units. Peter, through Bobbi, scores the Daily Bugle an exclusive interview, but everything goes awry when Colin (That schrewd nark we keep seeing that Peter replaced) decides to break one open to see how it works. (That journalistic integrity there.) Peter intervenes and saves everybody, but the Bugle team is thrown out with the threat of lawsuits if they leak out to the public. (Breaking news: one of our writers broke his NDA and nearly killed everybody in the room!)
After seeing Bobbi’s boss (With the weirdest name ever; Xandar Zynn? Dafaq?) overreact, Peter and Bobbi decide to go snooping around. Trying to access one of the computers causes the cute little androids to attack the two, with Peter realizing that their silicon matrices are actually sand. Peter releases the matrices to reveal that it isn’t classic Spidey villain Sandman; rather, it’s Thor’s baddy, Quicksand! Convincing her takes time, but Peter gets Quicksand to leave rather than kill Xander, who flees the country. Our issue wraps up with Peter rolling out a good first paper, telling Robbie he’s home.
Oh, and there’s also some random subplot about Harry OsLyman’s nanny stealing their blood. But knowing Slott, it’ll never go anywhere, am I right?
Thoughts:
A bit of a crossover with real life. In my Intro to Communication class, I’m doing a persuasive speech (complete with slides and sources and everything; Mark
will be so proud!) submitting a thesis that is generally accepted by the comic community, but not people at large; that there are no bad characters, only bad writers. (If you’ve ever read my posts on Comicvine, it is one of my fundamental pillars when it comes to writing comics.)
One of my primary examples of this is Dan Slott, primarily using elements from (You guessed it!) Amazing Spider-Man.
Now, to be fair, I was pleasantly surprised by this issue, because it wasn’t either infuriating or dull beyond any belief. I just think it was rather middling; harmless, one-and-done, and well-told technically, but wasn’t really that great when looking back.
I feel like I should discuss the obvious elephant in the room because I know a lot of people aren’t happy with it. And, to be frank, I’m not exactly happy with it, but I feel like I’ve just become so desensitized to how utterly trash this book can be. That elephant in the room being Peter and Bobbi’s relationship, and personally, I’ve mostly gotten over it. While I vastly prefer Peter and MJ (Or Felicia if I’m that desperate) I’m willing to live with it until the relationship inevitably meets a fate similar to that of Parker Industries; that being six feet under and completely forgotten about by the next creative team. I dunno, I get a certain amount of glee from Slott completely contradicting his own words with this relationship.
You know, those ones from 2015 where he said that MJ is too conventionally attractive and that their relationship is shallow because of her conventional attractiveness? (Despite several decades worth of stories proving that MJ’s personality and their relationship is anything but shallow.) I just find it hilarious that Slott is having to jump through hoops to try and justify Peter and Bobbi’s relationship when she is an athletic, supermodel-tier blonde. They have some semblance of a dynamic that comes through at times, (Save those really cringy panels when Peter is trying to come up with shipping names for them) but it doesn’t really work when Peter is turning down an offer to sleep with his supposedly great girlfriend because of “MY BRAND NEW JOB!” The only time they express any amount of affection for each other is when they’re not even within proximity to each other. And it’s made even harder to like that Peter has to share his spotlight with Bobbi in his own book. (Rich coming from a guy who has Peter take on a sidekick 7 issues into his own story, I know.)
The Bugle is a solid plus. While I do think to retread, in general, is a typically poor move (Again, rich coming from a guy who put Peter back at Horizon) it’s a new position that we’ve never see Peter in before. He’s not a photographer, but rather an editor, something that’s new, and thus refreshing. I sincerely hope Slott doesn’t try to make us grow attached to the people under him because I have yet to see more Betty since ASM 789. Colin is more annoying than he has any right to be and, as I mentioned, Rubylyn is basically another Sajani clone. (Who, might I mention, has the role of “person-who-cuts-Peter-down-a-peg” already placed in Mockingbird.)
Something I found equally refreshing is that Peter is the one who is the “leading man.” One of my complaints in Vol 4, that is a consistent complaint throughout many of my reviews, (And, in retrospect, is a fatal flaw of Vol 3, where he just sits in the corner of Spider-Verse for about half the event) is that Peter is more a follower than a leader in his own book. Rather than lead, he instead follows the lead of other characters (i.e. Iron Man, Kaine, Spider-Gwen and SHIELD among others) and picks up what’s left to play with rather than be the “Save the day” guy. Here, he actively leads Mockingbird on the adventure, and it’s he who figures out the puzzle of Quicksand being in the robots rather than Bobbi being propped up in his place.
But in a weird way, it comes off as foreign. It took us so long to get to a reasonable point where Peter is the main character in his own book that the most I could muster was an “Eh…. good job, I guess.”
Aunt May continues to be useless; her only motivation seems to be having grand-kids now that Jay is gone, and rather than play matchmaker, she doesn’t care who gives her those grand-kids. She’s just there to reinforce how great the love interest is (She did it with Carlie during BND and Big Time, Anna-Maria (Where is she, anyway?) in Superior and Vol. 3, and now we have a rinse-and-repeat with Mockingbird) and she adds nothing.
As for the nanny subplot, I could care less at this point. We have a couple dozen plotlines going on right now (Hyperbole, I know, but that’s what this feels like) and this just one of many cogs in the machine that will be left on a turned-off stove until Slott needs it, only to reheat it and find out nobody cares. I made a comment in Mark’s review that this Norman actually is the nanny, as she comes out of nowhere and suddenly has this all-important role in stealing the blood of Norman Osborn’s grand-children. I stand by this theory, and if I’m wrong… I dunno, place your suggestions in the comments, I guess.
Immonen’s art is… okay. I think I’ve said all I can about it since Legacy launched; once again, everything looks good except for the tumors in Robbie’s head and Peter’s frosted-tipped hair. Though I think it also comes down to the shiny-as-hell coloring that Marte Gracia is obsessed with.
ASM 791 is nowhere near perfect. But, at the very least, it’s a step in the right direction, being a comic that isn’t dragged out into seven issues to sell trade paperbacks. Like I said, nowhere near where I want it to be, but I think that Venom Inc will go right back to what made Slott’s ASM bad in the first place, so I’m going to live with this one and take what I can get.
Final Grade: B-
Place your bets, Crawlspacers! How long do you think Peter and Bobbi will last before they sever ties? Because in Slott’s land of No Status Quo, nothing lasts.
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@ Neil
Thanks for the researched info.
@Paul
@Jason
I think the actual beginning of Peter and Bobbi’s “relationship” was in vol 4. They didn’t really have that much interaction together during New Avengers (not that they have much now) and the only mention of them having any interest in each other was in Vol 4 #11 where Anna Maria pointed it out. Keep in mind that this is the first time either displayed any interest in each other outside of professionalism.
Aunt May pretty validated the subtext in #15 (“And she’s not wearing a ring,” at least in paraphrasing.) and Peter made the first move in #25. (Only to be third-party cockblocked by Aunt May.) They kept hinting at the relationship, but nothing really came out of it until #30.
Thanks for the info, Paul. It’s a shame an important part of Peter Parker’s life wasn’t even introduced in his own book. An identity reveal should have been in the pages of Amazing Spider-Man, especially for those who don’t read other titles. Now I feel like I need to add it to my collection.
My understanding is less that it came out of nowhere, and more that it came out of a non-Spidey book. In that, Spider-Man told his Avenger teammates his identity and Mockingbird was one of those teammates.
Which places her in a position of trust, and things kinda grew from there.
Not having read those particular Avengers comics, I can’t comment more, although I guess it isn’t too much of a leap that if Spidey and Mockingbird became friendly in Avengers, that they could genuinely have become friends, which has led to this… what I almost hesitate to call, a relationship.
Because it doesn’t feel like a relationship. Sure, Peter and Bobbi are friendly and clearly care about each other, but it feels more like a relationship of convenience. Which, sometimes happens in real life, so I guess there is nothing wrong with having it here.
I think Slott probably isn’t planning on this to last, Mockingbird will almost certainly dump Spidey, probably once she’s sure he’s back on his feet and no longer needs her.
That feels like the most natural direction for this to go in.
@Enigma
It did pop up out of nowhere (and I’m not exactly sure where or when it started – can anyone pinpoint an issue?) but it’s definitely been brewing for more than an issue or two.
@Jason
For a while? That d*mn relationship… just like all the rest… came out of nowhere!
Slott’s thing is to flatten out all the characters to just one or two exaggerated characteristics. Imagine they are all comedy-cartoon characters, but made to do “serious” things in an adventure story.
@ Neil – I’ll be impressed when I see your MLA skills.
Why is it every issue I enjoy they get bad reviews, while ones I hate get pretty good reviews?
My first knock is Mockingbird calling Spider-Man, “Spider.” Is Slott trying to replace Black Cat with her?
The whole Spidey figuring out the robots had grains of sand in them, all in the span of a couple of panels was not believable at all. This story was not well developed. There was hardly any build-up to the fight scene and there really wasn’t a good reason for Peter to be suspicious of the robots in the first place.
Can someone tell me when the relationship between Peter and Bobbi first started. I know it’s been going on for a while now, but to me it just came on suddenly.
Maybe Slott should actually try a slow build up to a new romantic interest instead of forcing it for the plot?
.. I know, what was I thinking?
Don’t want to sound nitpicky, but Marte Gracia sat this one out (and I kinda missed him, to be honest). The colors in ASM 791 are by Rain Beredo.
And I’ll say this about Mockingbird’s remarks: I’m as liberal/progressive as I can be (probably the overall content of my Twitter feed has the same tone as Dan Slott’s, with lots of anti-Trump posts, feminist ideals being thrown around and a fair share of left-leaning authors talking), and I still cringed really hard at that scene. It came out of nowhere, was unprovoked/uncalled for and completely removed me from the story.
Also, while I agree that this is a pretty standard done-in-one (which is good), it’s still supposed to be part 3 of an “arc” of sorts – in which, for my money, it takes a little tumble.
But I hope the title gets back to having some random guy doing something evil so Spidey can stop him and we can focus more on the soap-opera drama of his personal life as Peter, like it was supposed to be.
@Neil Bogenrieder — Well in complete seriousness, I don’t think Slott would really know how to write a complex character at this point. Strawmen might be all he has.
How is “part 3 of a storyline” a “one and done”?
It’s weird. Slott is making a sort of strawman out of Bobbi, using only the most controversial parts of Cain’s Mockingbird run to make Bobbi a character. As somebody who doesn’t really like bringing partisan politics, I’ll make it concise and as objective as possible; Bobbi in ASM is Slott’s strawman, and no matter how complex, a strawman will never be a complete character; simply a talking point.
I rolled my eyes at Mockingbird’s very unsubtle feminist remarks. You just couldn’t help yourself, could you, Dan Slott?