“This is perfect. Everything is the way it should be.”
Can Slott keep up the forward momentum he gained from part one of Go Down Swinging? Find out here, Crawlspacers!
Amazing Spider-Man #798
“Go Down Swinging, Pt 2: The Rope-a-Dope”
Writer: Dan Slott
Pencils: Stuart Immonen
Inks: Wade von Grawbadger
Colors: Marte Gracia
Editors: Nick Lowe and Devin Lewis
Editor-in-Chief: C.B. Cebulski
Plot:
It’s a beautiful day in New York City, and the science department of the Daily Bugle is hard at work. Rather than actually doing their job and writing papers on scientific advancements, editor Peter Parker has instead decided to allocate valuable resources from his own department and others to find one man’s supervillain nephew! Everything is perfect.
And then the Green Goblin shows up and ruins everything.
As Peter runs off to suit up as Spider-Man, the Green Goblin harasses the rest of the staff and drops off a bomb made of precious tritium. Spider-Man seals it in a web cocoon, but the explosion still destroys the top floor of the Bugle and puts many sharp objects in Stormin’ Norman’s body. Such inconveniences don’t faze Norman, and he transforms into the Red Goblin and proceeds to curbstomp Peter into burning his costume in an ultimatum, vowing that no matter what, he’ll never give up.
Subplot 1: Flash Thompson, as Anti-Venom, rescues J Jonah Jameson from Osborn’s hideout.
Subplot 2: At Liz Allan’s apartment, Harry, Liz and Mark Raxton (You remember him, right? Lava-Boy? With his counterpart, Shark Girl? Wait.) Emma, the nanny who nobody really cares about, tranquilizes them and makes off with Normie and Stanley.
Thoughts:
By golly, folks, Slott may have finally hit the home run we’ve all been waiting for.
It only took ten years to get said home run, but this is the issue I’ve been waiting for since I started reviewing the series for Crawlspace.
For one, the art team comes roaring to the forefront and making sure that the book remains pretty. Stuart Immonen is up to his usual snuff, and his linework is detailed enough that it doesn’t become over-detailed, but also doesn’t become too simplified for the sake of simplicity. This is mostly in part due to Wade von Grawbadger’s steady, clean and curved inks, which also uses feather-patching in a minimalist fashion. Even Marte Gracia reins in his excessively shiny and glowing colors to make the whole thing come together in an uncharacteristic show of restraint of palette. If anything, the problems with the art lie mostly in Immonen’s previous design of Peter (Which still looks a little too boyish for me) but on a technical level, everything comes together to make a cohesive picture.
And, in another uncharacteristic display of good fortune for yours truly, Dan Slott has the decency to give a good story. Despite a lot of cautious optimism regarding the Red Goblin as a concept (I was seriously disappointed when I learned it was just the Green Goblin wearing a Symbiote) some of it actually pulled off much better than I expected, including the feeling of danger that was supposed to occur when the Red Goblin showed up.
That said, I’m not sure how I feel about the sudden influx of guest characters that, I’m guessing, Peter assembles to take down the Red Goblin. Given that Peter (At least going off the Peter we got in this issue) could take down Osborn with preptime, it feels as though he’s being unnecessarily overpowered so that it requires bringing in reinforcements (Anti-Venom, Silk, Clash, etc) and having Peter inevitably bring him down in the grand finale by himself. And that aside, the sudden spike in quality for the last two issues do make me question why he couldn’t write issues of this caliber to begin with.
Regardless, for what we have in this issue, Slott hits what may very well be the single best issue he’s written since he began writing during Big Time. If this is the level of quality we can expect for the final stretch of his run, I’m in.
Final Grade: A 
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That’s why they call you Nice Neil! I don’t know why Evan is so shocked – you ALWAYS give it a higher rating than me (at least I remember it that way). I’m skeptical of the cover for next issue, but I’m willing to give it a shot!
Good review, Neil! I liked the local Shark Boy and Lava Girl reference! Plus, you featured the variant cover I bought! I didn’t enjoy this issue as much as the last one, finding some of the dialogue and actions out of character, but after some people have explained why it may be like it, I’ve softened on the issue. I’m with everyone else-it’ll be a miracle if Slott closes strong!
Just read this yesterday after not having read an issue of ASM personally since will before the fall of Parker Industries. Though I still don’t fully buy the premise (what exactly does the carnage symbiote do thematically? The Green Goblin was already crazy and murderous), the execution so far is excellent. I’m legitimately looking forward for the next issue of Spider-Man for the first time since Superior,and for the first time in ASM since…….Back in Black?
Go pick up the book guys. If Slott bucks his trend and sticks the landing, it’ll be a story you want to hold on to. If he botches it like he did Superior, it’s still one of the best little stories of Slott’s 10 year run and I’ll take what I can get.
I REFUSE to acknowledge this as being any good until Slott sticks the landing. And he STILL has to explain his abysmal writing for the past few years.
Oh my! You gave this comic a higher grade than Mark did! My brain just went BLRKBQRKPQRBLNB!