Disappointingly Brilliant
Until two days ago, I had no intention of reading this comic. Like so many others, I hate what Dan Slott has done to Peter Parker - one of my favourite super heroes. As such, I struggled to come into this with an open mind. However, as the score I gave it suggests, I believe I was successful. This truly was a superior Spider-Man comic.
This is the kind of comic I consider to be a perfect read. The mix of fight scenes and plot development was very well done. We got to see Spider-Ock expertly fighting the Sinister Six in addition to an intriguing plot line to go with it.
My main worry about the new direction of Spider-Man comics was that the humour that first made me love Spider-Man would be gone. Thankfully, I found Superior Spider-Man to be just as funny as Amazing Spider-Man, if not funnier. Hopefully, the same will be the case for Avenging Spider-Man next week and the future of Spider-Ock.
The art too was brilliant. I can be incredibly picky about art in comics and have put artists into five tiers of approval. Only two artists have made it into tier 5, the top tier. Ryan Stegman's work is some of the best I have seen and, if his work continues at this high standard, I plan on adding him to tier 5. I'm sure he'll be honoured.
That said, it wasn't flawless. The new Spider-Ock costume looks really good but there is one panel with Peter-Ock in which he looks pretty ridiculous. I'm not sure whether it was deliberately so in order to be humorous but being the art perfectionist that I am, I had to complain.
Regardless of my distaste for Spider-Ock, this was a brilliant issue. I would still rather have the real Peter Parker back in his body (the last few panels gave me hope) but as this is an inevitably temporary thing, I am happy with it for now. I recommend it to Spider-Ock fans and haters alike and I give it 5/5.
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