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AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #35
"Coming Out"
Highly Recommended (9/10)
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Marvel Comics
Writer: J. Michael Straczynski
Pencils: John Romita Jr.
Inks: Scott Hanna
Colors: Dan Kemp & Avalon
Letters: Comicraft
Editor: Axel Alonso
Price: $2.25 US/$3.50 CAN |
Straczynski's first arc on Amazing Spider-Man is complete, and
it's an impressive finish with a jaw-dropping cliffhanger into the next story.
The fight against Morlun, given how he's been built up, could easily have seemed
contrived, but a clever last-minute out gives us a reasonable evening of the
odds, and Romita Jr. continues to deliver some of the best artwork of his career
on the last chapter of the slugfest. While I might quibble with Straczynski
letting Spider-Man off easy on one of the more interesting and difficult
decisions that Morlun presented, he's given the character enough hell over the
past few issues that I suppose letting him off the hook on one little thing can
be forgiven. Competing with Brian Michael Bendis, Paul Jenkins and his own
reputation, Straczynski has come in and given us an excellent and maybe even
instant classic story.
Despite it making perfect
sense, it hadn't dawned on me what Peter Parker was trying to do in the nuclear
reactor until it was revealed this issue. One of the worrying elements of
Straczynski's plans for the title was that he was going to muck around with his
origins, but instead he shows a perfect understanding of what gave Spider-Man
his powers, and uses all of the elements to provide a balancing tool for the
fight. Seeing Spidey finally able to fight back effectively, after the pummeling
he's taken in the past few issues, was definitely satisfying as well.
Because I've been so
distracted by the desperation fighting going on, it hadn't occurred to me that
Morlun had several big problems for Peter. He knew his identity and he was
powerful enough that sending him off to a super-prison wasn't going to work. The
fight was brief, once Peter figured out how to beat him, leaving us with the
interesting quandary of whether or not he was justified in killing his foe. It's
a shame that Spidey got an easy out in that regard, but I can't fault
Straczynski his foreshadowing of that event or the thoughts that Spidey has to
deal with as a result.
I'm also a little
disappointed that Ezekiel, such an interesting supporting character, has been
taken off the playing field, but I can understand why it was done, and I thought
that his exit from the book showed that Spider-Man had an effect on him. Which
is really all you can ask for, that even the supporting characters and villains
are affected by the actions of the main character.
Romita Jr. has been doing truly impressive work on this book, and this issue is no exception. The fight in the nuclear reactor, though brief, is as filled with power and fury as the last few issues have been. He also does an excellent job with the other types of moments, with Spidey's jubilation in Ezekiel's office, his run-in with a cop in New York and a final page that may become one of those defining moment pictures to be re-imagined by artists for years to come. I don't want to give too much away about the ending, but it's a status-quo changing story idea worthy of the stuff Bendis is doing in Ultimate, and has me as
anxious to see what comes next.
Email Randy Lander comments about this review. |
