Spectacular Spider-Man #22 - A Review

Written by: Paul Jenkins
Penciled by: Talent Caldwell
Inked by: Norman Lee
Colored by: Studio F
Lettered by: Virtual Calligraphy’s Chris Eliopoulos
Editor: Tom Brevoort
Publisher: Marvel Comics

Two issues ago I was ready to drop this title because of the nonsensical “Changes” storyline. At the end of said storyline, Peter had developed the ability to shoot organic webs from his wrists (like in the movies), became a lot more muscular, had his Spider-Sense increased and for some reason developed the ability to talk to ants. Spiders, I can get… but ants?

But I’m a Jenkins fan so I decided to give him another issue. Last issue didn’t reference Peter’s new powers at all, being a silly story involving a superhero poker game that just proved that it is possible to do comics with comedy still. So now we come to this issue. The one that would decide if I stick with this title until the end…

*sighs* Paul, you magnificent bastard, you’ve done it again.

I was worried when I read the first five pages, where Peter discusses how his new powers have changed his perceptions and how it has caused him to notice emotional wrongness in addition to the usual danger-based wrongness his Spider-Sense warns him of. From there, we launch into the Jenkins special; a one-shot story that is much deeper than its surface suggests and is a perfect summation of everything that makes Spider-Man who he is.

This is all beautifully illustrated by guest artist Talent Caldwell, whose name isn’t just a gimmick. He really IS a talent. His style resembles that of regular penciler Humberto Ramos, but is not nearly as angular or as jagged. His curves are smoother and I personally feel it to be a great improvement over the regular artwork.

I won’t say anything about the story of this book. Far better that you read it for yourself. Trust me. You won’t regret it. I haven’t, nor will I when the final issue comes around. In fact, this issue made me realize how much emptier the racks will seem without Paul Jenkins having a book on it every month.

Get well soon, Paul. We need more men like you writing material like this.

Spectacular Spider-Man #16 - A Review

Written by: Paul Jenkins
Penciled by: Michael Ryan
Inked by: Studio F
Colored by: Studio F
Lettered by: Cory Petit
Editor: Tom Brevoort
Publisher: Marvel Comics

So “Avengers Disassembled” is quickly coming upon us (Indeed, you can sneak a quick look at the first few pages of it Mile High Comics ) and with it have come a number of Disassembled Prologue storylines spread across several books, such as the last issue of Spectacular Spider-Man and this new volume.

The word is that in the wake of the Avengers destruction and inevitable reformation, Spider-Man will play a key role in the events to come. Lord knows what it will be based upon reading this story. Don’t misread me; this is a good comic which concludes a great story. I just don’t see how the events of it connect to The Avengers or the upcoming Avengers Disassembled storyline, aside from the guest-spot by Captain America.

Last issue, a woman calling herself only “The Queen” seized controls of the minds of a number of New Yorker’s and took an entire skyscraper hostage. For some reason, she set off Peter Parker’s Spider-Sense in a bigger way than usual, prompting him to go out and see what great evil nearly made him black out. At the same time, Captain America is put on the warpath after being informed of The Queen being on the loose again. The two heroes meet with Cap telling Spidey to bug off (da-dum-CHING) and Spidey insisting he can help.

Things don’t go well, and this issue opens with Spidey all trussed up, a voice in the back of his head trying to get him to “go with the hive” and The Queen all up in his face about doing the mating dance. Worse still, the good agents of SHIELD are told to stand down by a nameless general who is certain that “Captain America will take care of the situation”… even as we see that Cap is upside down, trussed up and surrounded by armed drones.

It is little moments of humor like this that have made Jenkins work on Spider-Man shine. He finds humor outside of the usual wise-cracks as well as the usual wise-cracks.

Captain America: She’s ready to mate? We’ve been worried about something like this…

Spider-Man: Not half as worried as I am, chief.

But Jenkins presses the drama as well, with The Queen killing minions in an effort to coerce Spider-Man to obeying her. And things come full circle in the closing scene, in which Captain America tries to tell off Spider-Man for risking his life against a villainess he had no chance of beating…

Captain America: You couldn’t win and you knew it. She had ever tactical advantage and you still kept pressing. Looks like you still have a lot to learn, son.

Spider-Man: Yeah, well I heard you used to be a lot like me back in the day. I guess you just forgot.

The artwork matches the story note for note, forming quite the beautiful symphony. I can’t remember seeing any of Michael Ryan’s work before, but I hope he’ll get a monthly book to work on sometime soon. It’s a shame that he’ll be off this title after the return of the vastly inferior (though somehow more popular) Humberto Ramos.

Spectacular Spider-Man #11 - A Review

Written by: Paul Jenkins
Penciled by: Daimon Scott
Inked by: Rob Campanella
Colored by: Frank D’Armata
Lettered by: Cory Petit
Editor: John Miesegaes, Axel Alonso & Tom Brevoort
Publisher: Marvel Comics


This is, perhaps, the weakest issue of the new Spectacular Spider-Man published so far. This is not to say that it is bad, per say… but it doesn’t look like this new storyline is going to match up to “The Hunger” or “Countdown”. This is odd because for the most part, the individual components of this issue are excellent.


The Story

Jenkins has the thankless task of trying to build upon the atrocious “Spider-Man: Quality of Life” by Greg Rucka. All you need to know about that particular story is that Martha Connors, the one stabilizing force in the life of Dr. Curt Connors dies of cancer and that, for reasons that elude such established Spider-Man experts as the good people at spiderfan.org as well as myself, Dr. Connors now knows Spider-Man’s secret identity.

Anyway, Dr. Connors is stressed because of work, his wife’s death, his son’s growing preteen disrespect for him and the knowledge of what too much stress will do to him. His therapist is doing very little to help him and he just lost a major grant to continue his new pet project (a cure for cancer) to a hated rival who is working on the much more commercially acceptable cure for athletes foot. There is smashing a plenty and a big explosion. All of this is very cool, but has a feel of ho-humness. “Dr. Connors goes MAD” stories are a dime a dozen and Jenkins has yet to twist this one into something different as he did with the earlier Venom and Dr. Octopus stories.


The Art

Ramos has left the book and I couldn’t be happier. Goodbye distorted cartoonish figures with their jutting, angular bodies! Hello distorted cartoonish figures with jutting curved bodies!

Umm…. What?

In all seriousness, I do like the look of Daimon Scott’s work. I just question how appropriate it is to the darkly serious story that Jenkins has written here. While his scenes of normal life look fine (the scene with Billy playing video games and talking to his dad stands out), his transformation scenes are more silly than scary. And why does ever adult male in this book with the exception of Big John the Kiwi Kid (whose dreadlocked afro looks HORRIBLE) have a prominent widow’s peak?

The biggest problem with the art is the coloring. Everything is done in muted pastels that give the art a “washed out” feeling. Consider the Spider-Man costume, which looks more pink then red on the cover and is similarly colored throughout. Not to mention the unnatural tan/pink used for pigmentation here.

Spectacular Spider-Man #6 - A Review

Written by: Paul Jenkins
Penciled by: Humberto Ramos
Inked by: Wayne Faucher
Colored by: Studio F
Lettered by: Randy Gentle
Editor: John Miesegaes
Publisher: Marvel Comics


So much greatness and so little space to discuss it all. Still, we shall take it by the numbers and try.


1. Doctor Octopus is back!

Okay, so he never left and he did just get his own miniseries starting last month. But let’s not quibble. This is when we were meant to see the new “look” for Doctor Octupus and it is good. It’s funny, however, that despite the fact that Humberto Ramos is the one who created the look, I think I like it better as drawn by Staz Johnson in “Negative Exposure”. The look here, with the coat collar totally covering the good Doctor’s mouth, seems a bit odd and just “wrong”. Doc Ock has always been one for good maniacal expressions and it just seems so wrong to have his evil grin covered. Also, between the black coat, the mangaesque tentacles, the sunglasses glued to the eyes and the “I’ve missed you” introduction line, I can’t help but have Matrix flashbacks. Still, the writing of the character is dead on and Jenkins finds the perfect balance of subdued menace and detached, intellectual madness.


2. Mary Jane is back!

Not very important to the plot, but Mary Jane does make her first appearance in the Title and her first in Jenkins writing in years. I rejoice in this however, not only because Mary Jane being in the story and acting as a foil for Peter always improves the quality ten-fold, but because I will no longer have to explain why Peter is living on his own in one book and has MJ sleeping over every other night in another.

NOTE TO CONTINITY FANS: This story takes place after Amazing Spider-Man #50 of the current volume but before the most recent stories where it appears that Peter and Mary Jane are living together again. There. You have your precious timeline. Neener. Neener. Neener.


3. Jolly J. Jonah Jameson is back!

In what seems to be a throw-away scene (particularly considering Peter hasn’t worked for the Bugle in a while) we get a nice story about the man who could honestly be said to be Spider-Man’s worst enemy; J. Jonah Jameson. Still, considering the plans Doc Ock hints at in this issue, I don’t believe the quick cameo is a coincidence… though I could scarcely complain even if it were thrown in for a quick joke. The gag about “Alien Hitler Clone sighted in Manhattan sewer” is a classic and I will eat this comic if this joke gets developed into a scene involving Jolly Jonah painting himself green and calling Parker to come take his picture for the front page.


4. General greatness.

The on-going plot involving Flash Thompson’s injuries is expanded as we get another look at Peter’s neighbors. The usual amount of Spider-wisecracks is there along with some web-slinging, wall-crawling action. And Dock Ock is still there. With the tentacles and the menace and the evil and all that makes him the greatest villain in Spider-Man’s rogue’s gallery.

Spectacular Spider-Man #2 - A Review

Written by: Paul Jenkins
Penciled by: Humberto Ramos
Inked by: Wayne Faucher
Colored by: Studio F
Lettered by: Randy Gentle
Editor: John Miesegaes
Publisher: Marvel Comics

When I first heard that Jenkins and Ramos were getting a whole Spider-Man title to themselves, I was thrilled, having loved their “Return of the Goblin” storyline back in “Peter Parker”. Jenkins, to my mind, has always been the most underrated of all the people to write Spider-Man in recent years. True, he may not have done many revolutionary change stories like Straczynski. He may not be redefining the character while retelling classic stories like Bendis. No, Jenkins’ writing is more subdued most of the time, focusing more on character and relationships than big explosive fights or major shocking revelations. Not that he can’t handle a big fight scene or a shocking revelation, as this issue proves.

Last issue ended with the revelation that the symbiote known as Venom has freed itself from Eddie Brock (or perhaps the other way around) and is now functioning independently. Peter escapes from it. Meanwhile, a police detective named Neil Garrett continues his investigation into a string of assaults where the victims are drained not of blood, but of adrenaline. He also finds a common linkage between the victims which, coupled with the knowledge of what was being taken from the victims bodies, points to Venom. There’s also a continuation of the plot brought over from Jenkin’s run on Peter Parker, involving Flash Thompson’s injuries and Aunt May and Liz Osborn dealing with his release from the hospital.

The amazing thing is that for a book called Spectacular Spider-Man, Peter really doesn’t do much in this issue aside from the fight at the beginning. Okay, he does fight some muggers in the middle of the book and we get a really nice explanation of how his spider-sense operates, but most of the plot action is done by newcomer Detective Garrett and the emotional plot centers around May and Liz and Flash. All of that though, takes a back seat to the real treat of this book.

I’ve made it no secret that I’ve never liked Venom as a character. A promising concept in the first few issues, it was milked to death and then the corpse was paraded around for 15 years in a series of mini-series devoted to the idea that “With Great Power, Comes A Whole Lot of Bloody, Funny Fight Scenes!” Little explanation, also, has ever been given to the symbiote’s function other than that it eventually consumes its host.

The theory that I think Jenkins is putting forth here, and it is new as far as I know, is that the symbiote feeds on adrenaline and that by inspiring the anger of Peter (remember how he started to lose it in the black costume) and then Eddie, it was able to feed and grow stronger. Aside from adding a whole new horrific attitude to what has become a tired bad guy (and explaining the long standing “I want to eat your brain, spleen etc” lines), this view also gives us a whole new sympathetic view of Eddie Brock. As Jenkins reminded us last issue, Eddie was a religious, if flawed man, who was praying for guidance when the symbiote found him. His reaction to the monster here keeps with that portrayal and ignored the bloated muscle-head obsessed with revenge for vaguely defined reasons that was Eddie Brock through most of his life in the comics.
And both characters are all the richer for this portrayal.

Ramos artwork is hit and miss. I don’t think he’s “love it or hate it”, but I do hate certain aspects of his work while I love others. For example, I noticed that all of the hardened fighter characters who know something bad is going on have small black eyes (Peter, Detective Garrett) whereas all the innocents have big anime eyes (Liz, Aunt May, Flash, etc.) It’s a nice bit of distinction, even if it does have the effect of rendering half the cast REALLY wired or in Aunt May’s case, like her body is shrinking around her eyeballs. Still, Ramos has a great “slimy” take on Venom and I’d argue that between his Venom redesign and his Green Goblin from “Return of the Goblin”, he does the best villains of any artist working on Spidey today.