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 Saturday, October 11th, 2008.

Today’s Issue:
Brand New Day week continues. Well… maybe it’s a bit longer than a week. I want to get to New Ways To Die. I’ve heard great things about it on the grape vine. (Really if I was doing this right, I would BE the grape vine.) But I digress – here’s the next Brand New Day story, Amazing Spider-Man #559 - #561. This arc was written by Dan Slott (She-Hulk, Avengers Initiative) with pencils by Marcos Martin (Batgirl: Year One, Dr. Strange: The Oath). It was published by Marvel in May, 2008.

Premise:
Peter Parker is hired by Dexter Bennett - the new head of the Daily Bugle (now simply called The DB) – to get photos of star actor Bobby Carr. That’s right – Peter has joined the paparazzi. Meanwhile, he has to deal with two new villains: Screwball – a master of parkour who streams her crimes on the web, and Paper Doll – a girl who is 2 dimensional and has the ability to kill people by turning them 2-D. Paper Doll is obsessed with Bobby Carr, and kills anyone who she sees as a nuisance to his life. Meanwhile, Mary Jane is finally back for her first appearance since One More Day.

The Awesome Parts:
I liked Screwball – I thought she made a good villain for Spidey. She matched him quip for quip and leap for leap. Her “parkour” luck also made for some puns that she didn’t even know she was making. [In case you’re unfamiliar, Spidey suffers from something he calls “The Parker Luck.”] And the fact that she streams her adventures puts a hitch in Peter’s normal giddy-up of taking pictures of his exploits as Spider-Man. I also liked getting to see MJ again. We don’t learn anything about what the heck happened at the end of One More Day – but at least we learn a bit about what she’s been up to since. MJ is one of the characters that makes Spider-Man great – and I’m glad she hasn’t fallen completely off the map. There were some greatly vague scenes so that we still don’t know whether or not MJ knows Peter’s secret identity. And there were a few new hints given about Jackpot’s (the new hero who bears an uncanny resemblance to Mary Jane.) Of course… you won’t know that it was a clue unless you happened to read (and remember) issue #551.

The Less-Than-Awesome Parts:
I did not like Paper Doll. I did not like Peter being a paparazzi. I didn’t care what happened to Bobby Carr. Normally I’m a big fan of Dan Slott, but this has been my least favorite Brand New Day arc thus far. They didn’t spend nearly enough time with Screwball (only a few pages). Paper Doll’s motivation was too far fetched for me to buy into (are there really people so obsessed with movie stars that they honestly believe they will wind up in a romantic relationship with them?) Paper Doll’s obsession was so crazy that she didn’t feel human to me. Also, Dexter Bennett went from being an enigma (he was better than JJJ in some ways, but worse in others) to being a downright villain. I don’t like him as a villain because that makes the story more one-sided. Even though JJJ was opposed to Spider-Man, we were always able to sympathize with him as a character, understanding both his perspective and Peter’s perspective. There was a great balance there which is completely lost now that we see that Bennett is basically a selfish man bordering on downright evil.

My Recommendation:
It’s tough – because I loved the MJ part of the story. And I adored the first few pages of the first issue (Screwball’s scene.) But as an arc, I didn’t enjoy it. I think I’m going to have to give this the same recommendation I gave to the previous issue – pick it up if you have a compulsive need to read the entire Brand New Day story, but skip it otherwise. Or, just go into your store and read the scenes with Screwball and MJ, but don’t actually buy the issue. (Don’t tell them I gave you that idea though - I want them to like me!)

That’s it for today. As always – thanks for reading – see you next time.
-Searnold

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