SuperSearnold - Comic Book Reviews

Greetings from your friendly neighborhood Searnold [Shár- Nŭhld]. Welcome to my comic book review blog - thanks for tuning in. Today is Tuesday, October 7th, 2008.

Today’s Issue:
Brand New Day week continues with Amazing Spider-Man #552-#554. This arc was published by Marvel back in March, 2008, and was written by Bob Gale (Back to the Future - yes, the movie, Batman - yes, the comic book) with art by Phil Jimenez (Wonder Woman, Infiinte Crisis).

Premise:
A drug addict accidentally injects himself with animal stem cells from Dr. Curt Conner’s lab. He thus gains all sorts of animalistic abilities - including the caterpiller’s ability to go into a cacoon and evolve a defense mechanism any time he’s defeated. All this - and Spider-Man is wanted as the main suspect in a series of murders!

The Awesome Parts:
I like that the Spidey Braintrust continues to come up with brand new villains for each arc. I also like that we continue to see old characters. (For those who don’t know - Dr. Curt Conners is sometimes better known as the Spider-Man villain The Lizard.) They also do a great job of making the entire story flow like one giant narrative - we were introduced to Freak - the junkie who became the main villain of this arc - way back in issue #546. But the best part of this arc is definitely Peter Parker’s life. I like following his personal struggles - seeing how he has to commute via subway because he’s wanted by the NYPD, how he deals with his guilt over causing JJJ’s heart attack, and how he deals with not having enough money for more web-fluid. Spidey’s Braintrust has also done a good job of consistently using the same police officers, thus allowing them to become characters instead of nameless faces.

The Less-Than-Awesome Parts:
I felt that the anti-drug sentiment of this comic was a little too strong. I suppose it’s great that comic books can provide healthy messages for kids - but they portrayed the issue as very black and white. Freak is a bad person because of his drug addiction. Freak is turned into a monster because of his drug addiction. Freak is ultimately defeated because of his drug addiction [that doesn’t count as a spoiler - we all knew that Freak would ultimately be defeated - that’s what we sign up for when we buy a comic book like this.] I also felt that the end of this particular arc was a bit anti-climactic. It really ended in the middle of issue #554, with the rest of the issue being set up for the next arc. While that type of storytelling works fine for the continuing narrative of Peter Parker’s life, it feels like Spider-Man got off too easy. Finally, I continue to note that nothing that happened in this story could not have happened to a married Peter Parker. In fact, it might even make the story more compelling because Peter wouldn’t need to come up with money so that he can pay back his friends - but so that he can provide for his family. What man can’t relate to that?

My Recommendation:
I’ll be honest - I didn’t like this arc as much as I did the two previous arcs. So if you aren’t a Spider-Man fan but looking to jump on the bandwagon - check out those arcs before you get into this. Also, by this point, I think it’s much more difficult for a newcomer to jump on the bandwagon - as so much has been set up in issue #546-#551. So definitely check out those first two Brand New Day arcs first. Then you’ll probably be hooked and want to read this story, too. This arc definitely wasn’t BAD - it just wasn’t as good or as accessible to new readers as the two preceeding arcs.

That’s it for today. As always - thanks for reading - see you tomorrow.
-Searnold

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