You know, Marvel has only themselves to blame for me comparing this book to the first Spider-Man story. They're the ones who chose the name Amazing Fantasy, who decided that we needed yet another version of Spider-Girl instead of a wholly new character. As you may have guessed, Amazing Fantasy #1 does not stack up well against the classic Spidey origin story, but neither does it stand up as a good example of a first issue either. As is typical these days, we're not even really told the concept of the book in the first issue, and are left instead with numerous questions about the mysterious powers and organizations that are going to drive the book. All of this would be forgivable, however, were the writing not so mediocre, the attempt at teen dialogue so laughable and the lead character so unbelievable. Unlike Powerless, another Marvel misfire for me this week, Amazing Fantasy starts off with potential and squanders it, which is actually more disappointing.
It's funny, because on the first couple of pages of Amazing Fantasy, I was intrigued. Brooks & Mendoza serve up a pretty nifty little action sequence, and Avery's mystery man talking about looking for a new initiate and anticipating an ambush comes off as a pretty cool character.
Then the book gets to the lead character, and my eyes started rolling at the ridiculousness of it all. Avery's take on school bullies feels more like the kind of thing that belongs in the '60s than the modern era, and the teen dialogue is just painful to read. When the first line out of the first teenager's mouth is "She is so late. This is way not cool" you know you're not getting the way kids really talk, but the way adults think kids really talk. And I'm in my early thirties and can spot it this easy, I guarantee you the teenagers this book is ostensibly aimed at are going to see it coming.
Sadly, the rest of the book doesn't have any more grounding to it. Our lead character Anya's dad is an investigative reporter who acts more like a cop. The introduction of a backstory element that Anya's mother ran away is dropped as clumsily as the bullying from earlier. And the introduction of further elements of the secret society tying back into the opening sequence just confuses the issue unnecessarily instead of clarifying what is going on. Avery is trying really hard to make us care about Anya and make her a likable, heroic character, and she does, but at the same time she loses any kind of realism the character might have had, and I just don't buy into the story. I have no trouble buying the notion of secret societies and superpowers and all of that stuff, but the human element, which is where most of the work is spent in this issue, just doesn't feel believable to me.
Plus, of course, the book falls victim to the slow pacing that everyone has been aping since Bendis proved that it could work in the pages of Ultimate Spider-Man #1. Trouble is, while Bendis can make it work, few others can, and there's not enough sharp dialogue, laugh-out-loud humor or grounded human interest to keep me here while I wait for the slow reveal of Anya's powers, motivation (I'm guessing her dad is gonna die, and thinking Avery telegraphed that a bit) and everything else about the book that makes it a superhero story.
It's a shame, because the artwork on the book is excellent, stylized but exceptionally detailed and with interesting character designs and solid storytelling. There's no colorist listed, leading me to believe that Udon vet Mark Brooks is coloring his own work here, and it's just the sort of bright, clear artwork that a book aimed at a younger audience should really have. It's unfortunate that this exceptional artwork is paired with such a lackluster story.
