AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #603
Writer: Fred Van Lente
Penciler: Robert Atkins
Inker: Victor Olazaba
Story Title: “Red Headed Stranger: Deconstructing Peter”
The Plot
Stolen life. Kitchen encounter. Stalker stalked. Negotiations go well. Harry endangered.
The Commentary
Before I get into the review I have to…literally have to discuss this cover.
Is it me or does Mary Jane as presented on this cover look like a cosplayer that really tried to pull off the look and failed epically?
For those of you not hip to the lingo these kids use today cosplaying is the act of dressing like a fictional character and acting like them to one extreme or another. I attended DragonCon here in Atlanta last week and the place was full of cosplayers, most of which looked great. There is always one or two, though, that can’t get it right. Maybe they are the wrong body type. Maybe they just don’t have a good costume. Maybe they aren’t…attractive enough. In any case there are usually one or two costumes that don’t work and this cover looks like a comic book version of that.
Seriously. Is that a dude in a Mary Jane outfit or what?
In any case I really dug this comic. While the title of this issue, “Deconstructing Peter” was a bit on the nose but it was also entirely accurate. Not only did we get more of the Brand New Chameleon but we also got to see how an outsider that is unaware that Peter is Spider-Man would view his life. This was a well written character study and is the best issue of this series to come out since I have been reviewing the title.
What surprised me was how well Fred Van Lente paced the issue and how every encounter the Chameleon have came back at the end to serve the overall theme. In his own twisted way the Chameleon helped those around him. He definitely improved relations between Peter and Michelle, though that did make me feel a tad uncomfortable. At least it wasn’t a one night stand. The scene with MJ’s stalker was amazingly brutal and ended up getting a potentially dangerous man away from her. Sure all he had was a script this time but he seemed a bit obsessed and that sort of thing rarely goes well. Even the scene with Flash was served as some get back for the way Flash treated Peter in high school.
It was weird. The Chameleon was almost noble though I can’t imagine he does this for every person he impersonates. He said he does towards the end but I didn’t really get that feeling that the guy he killed in the previous issue got as much special treatment as Peter did. Still, no matter the motivation the Chameleon did take the time to learn about the life Peter leads and tried to make it somewhat better and while killing Harry may not be the best thing for Peter it will definitely make an impact.
The Parting Thoughts
It was nice to see two solid issues in a row. From the first scene with Michelle to the last scene where Peter somehow survives an acid bath I was lost in this issue, even more so than the first chapter of American Son, which I also liked quite a bit. The only thing I didn’t like about this story is the knowledge that it is a one-time deal. You can’t play this card again and that makes me worry about the rest of the story. Will it end up being as good as this and the previous issue or will it follow the route that issue 601 took?
Only time and the next issue will tell. In any case I was very happy with this installment and hope against hope that this level of quality will continue.
4 out of 5 webheads.
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what the hell is this…..the 80’s? i mean damn mary jane, where’d u get dat dress….
correction: i gotta admit i kinda enjoyed this one. however, i still think i am reading the adventures of a different Peter Parker than the one i always loved and grew up with
i gotta admit i kinda enjoyed this one. however, i still think i am not reading the adventures of a different Peter Parker than the one i always loved and grew up with
The MJ on the cover looked like how she would appear if done by Mad Magazine artists.
Guys, they don’t “kill Harry” (this issue at least). Chameleon goes on an inner monologue rant about how he will “make Peter significant in the lives of others” (or something like that, which is super ironic and very well done) so he decides to do this by carrying a gun into the coffee bean where Harry thought he had locked the door. It doesn’t say anything about him killing Harry =P.
I agree with Bailey. Angst is very much down Spider-man’s alley. So long as he isn’t making stupid out of character choices for the benefit of a story.
Problems should come to Peter, and we should see him face them. He shouldn’t be creating his own problems.
As Harry, Mike are you serious??? They killed him ALREADY??!!! =O
Throw any other hero my way and I’d agree there angsty, but I never read Spider-Man for that, and Spidey never seemed all too occupied with it as he grew older and wiser, except when circumstance threw a boner his way. I think “angst” in Spider-Man was overrated by fans who didnt understand Spidey at all, and just made it the defining package over the last ten years to the point the title became unrelatable and inaccessible. I truley think they need to rexamine what got them into the character in the first place.
Ultimate Spider-Man., Spider-Girl, and Marvel Adventures Spider-Man ARE the quitessentional anthesis of what ASM USED to be about. Miniumum angst, but used in the right places where the story dictates it at a crucial moment in the character’s maturities. Everything else is fun and games, and that’s all the markings of a TRUE Marvel title.
Wow wait whao. Who killed Harry?
Indeed it is, but it doesnt apply to Spider-Man. “Angst” was NEVER the draw. It was part of the package (and the catalyst for the whole series), sure, angst is a part of life…but Spidey was all about every layer of the normal life as told through the eyes of an everyman hero. For every “bummer ending”, he had a wise-crack from beggining to middle, and sometimes even an end. Spidey rose ABOVE angst and steered himself towards a positive set of life goals, and MJ shared that viewpoint, hence why they married and by all accounts, logically would stay happily married. No angst. Period. Fact.
I would argue that angst is what made Spider-Man popular in the first place. Without angst we would have never had Peter feeling victimized and not stopping the robber that would eventually kill Uncle Ben, an act which is full of angst. That is what made Spider-Man and other Marvel characters special in the first place; they had problems. They argued. They pined for loves they thought they could never have. Angst is one of the cornerstones of the Marvel Universe when you think about it.
Throughout this garbage, I’m wondering why it’s called “Red-Headed Stranger” when it’s clear-as-day about The Chamelion and nobody else. MJ just happens to be in the vecenity.
I’m still sure MJ knew Chamelion was imitating Peter, otherwise she’d never have dropped the narccasist line…it’s to wind him up so he makes a mistake as Peter later on
Still, I appreciated the ending in the following issue. Some thought it was “too quick”, but it fits MJ’s character to a tea, and I’d rather have something less generic and cliched than the same boring angst. Angst isnt what Spider-Man, the REAL Spider-Man, is about. Maybe Marvel will get the message one day.