Alford Notes: ASM #801 – There for You

The end is here, dear readers!  So what farewell issue is Slott going to leave us with?  Will it be a quiet goodbye to the character and the fans or will it be a one last twist of the knife on his way out?  Read on, and we’ll figure this out together!

 

The Devil in the Details

Story Title: There for You

Writer: Dan Slott

Artist: Marcos Martin

Colorist: Munsta Vincete

Letterer: VC’s Joe Caramanga

Cover Artist: Marcos Martin

Editor: Nick Lowe

Published: June 20, 2018

 

The Story – Pay Attention, This Will Be on the Test

Going back to Spider-Man’s early days after a quick recap of his origin, Spidey stops a burglary at a small grocery store.  In the process, he saves two guys.  We follow the life of one of those men until in present day, the man is able to see Spider-Man once more and tell him thanks, upon which we realize that even though Spider-Man couldn’t save his own uncle, he could save someone else’s.

OOTI (Onomatopoeia of the Issue)

On a scale of 1 (POW) to 10 (BLRKBQRKPQRBLNB), THWAM rates a 4.  There were four onomatopoeias to choose from this issue.  They were all rather bland.  This was the best.  Sorry Evan!

 

What Passed

Recapping the origin story from the view of Spider-Man was a nice twist on the old story.

Seeing a neighborhood Spider-Man is always nice.

 

POP QUIZ

We don’t get the onomatopoeia in the first person flashback, but if we did (and they were keeping it in line with Amazing Fantasy #15), what sound should the web shooter have made?

a. THWIP!

b. THWIPP!

c. WHIZZZZT!

d. SKWIP!

e. BLRKBQRKPQRBLNB!

Click the above image for the answer

What Failed

If anything, I would say the focal character being Kenneth Kincaid, Jr rather than Peter Parker made it feel more like an issue of Tangled Webs (the comic, not the top-notch Crawlspace editorial by our own Mister Mets) than Amazing.

 

Analysis

This will certainly be an issue that is collected in the upcoming anthologies as a part of Spider-Man’s greatest stories along with the 9/11 issue and others like it.  While I liked the bits we see of a neighborhood Spider-Man, the story as a whole was just OK for me.  Nick Lowe suggests that people will be crying over the ending, and I see where Dan was trying to hit on some of the same emotional beats of “The Boy Who Collected Spider-Man”, but for me it was just a story.  I do like that while Spider-Man couldn’t save his own uncle, he could save this guy, who is someone else’s uncle.  However, there is just no emotional impact for me on this.  Maybe I really am a heartless individual like my seniors who fail my class tell me (well, they use other vocabulary to express their opinions of me).

Normally, when we get a full name like Kenneth Kincaid, Jr., that means the writer is referencing someone or some character.  There is a Dr. Kenneth Kincaid in Marvel (he a supporting Avengers character), but I don’t see how those would be connected.  I am curious to know who Slott is putting a call out to with this character.  It guess it could be something as simple as giving us an Uncle Ken.

For me, this issue highlights the problem many people had with Slott’s run.  This shows that Slott gets the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man vibe.  However, during the last ten years, we rarely got any of that.  I believe that his run would be quite a bit more favorable among long-time fans if he routinely went back to this type of storytelling in between his big arcs.  Nothing is wrong with Big Time, Spider-Island, Spider-Verse, Parker Industries, Superior Spider-Man, etc. in their concepts (now you may have different feelings about their execution), and read in isolation, not a major problem.  The biggest issue I believe most people had, whether it was in the forefront or back of their mind, was that we didn’t get to reset between them.  There was so little street-level Spidey that the big stories began to make many readers weary.

Nick Lowe, in the letters page (which this time was just him and Dan Slott) wanted to direct people’s attention to Martin and Vincete’s online comics.  They have two that they do with Brian K Vaughan (author of The Pride of Baghdad), so in case you missed it or did not buy this issue, I wanted to get those links out there to you.  Both are found on http://panelsyndicate.com/.  One is called Barrier and a five issue limited series described as “An unconventional drama about violence, language and illegal immigration.”  The other is The Private Eye which is a ten-issue series about a detective in the year 2076 where everyone has a secret identity.

Extra Credit

We got to see the security guard that asks Spidey why he didn’t trip the burglar.  Who can put his name in the comments section first?

 

Final Grade

Over all, I’ve been more complimentary of Slott’s run than the podcast.  On average, my grades have been a C.  There have been a few Fs along the way as well as a few Cs, but largely I’ve stayed in that C range.    So it is fitting that I stay there for the ending issue.

C

Your Turn

What grade do YOU give it?

 

Also post any thoughts you have in the comments section.  After that, if you still have things on your chest, well Nick Lowe has asked people to let the Spider office know how they are doing by sending an email to spideyoffice@marvel.com and to make sure you mark it “OK to print”.  If you get published, make sure to draw our attention to it!

 

What’s Next?

 

Yes!  I am so excited about Spencer coming on!  The FCBD issue really cemented that we are getting Superior Foes Spencer and not Hydra Cap Spencer.

 

 

‘Nuff Said!