Stumbling At the Finish...
I had been really liking Dan Slott's new direction on Amazing Spider-Man. I enjoyed the fun, and more importantly, DIFFERENT approach he had been taking. It seemed like we were actually going to see old Pete's luck change for good here, after being surrounded by such death and depression throughout his fictional life, and indeed that had dragged down much of his story arcs in recent history.
Well excuse my French, but Slott fucked that up.
The Good
We're at the tail end of Alistair Smythe's big revenge scheme in issue #654, as Spidey has to desperately come up with a way to shut down the Spider Slayer's artificial "spider-sense", and save his Avenger buddies and JJJ's family in the process. We get closure on the Max Modell "revelation" that occurred last issue, we get more Spider-Man vs. Scorpion action, and we get a character death. Heck we get something that could spell big problems for Spidey down the road.And to Slott's credit, most of this is pretty well done. The affectation of Spider-Man's core abilities that could result from this story-arc alone is pretty interesting, and it was genuinely cool to see Gargan tangle with Pete again now that he's Scorpion once more. That's what Slott had been really doing well with this series; he'd been a real crowd pleaser, and for the most part he continues that in this ish with some well-written action and the continuing involvement of the New Avengers. The intro to Venom in the second feature, as well, was pretty neat. It was short, but it got across what the major conflicts are going to be in the series, and it was cool to see another web-slinger in the Marvel U. Stefano Caselli continues to be incredibly solid, and although he's not my favorite Spidey artist, his run on this book was enjoyable. His portrayal of the returning Scorpion and the insect horde of Smythe was impressive.
The Bad
But for as enjoyable as this small arc has been, it was so because, although it added new elements to the Spidey story, it did so without SUBTRACTING callously from the Spidey mythos. One could argue the death of Kingsley as Hobgoblin was one such subtraction, but that's beside the point. Spider-Man was fun again, and yet it felt fresh and new. Then, out of left field, Slott felt the need to kill off a character to drive home... what? A plot point? I can't say I'm the biggest FAN of this character, but with no fore-shadowing, and really no ADDED elements necessitating this character's death, it really just feels... dumb. Just dumb and unneeded. Character death is something that is thrown around much too often in modern comics, and it's unfortunate how it got thrust in at the end of this story.The Ugly
Secondly, Slott introduces a few sub-plots in here that just kinda disappear. Robbie's son gets trapped in the rubble of the new Bugle! OH CRAP! WHAT'S GONNA HAPPEN TO HIM?! We never find out. I'm also REALLY GLAD *sarcasm* John Jameson got pulled into this story to just have him be utterly pointless in the grand scheme of things. Also, considering the grand scheme, was Smythe's entrance into this book as some major threat really warranted? I know at this point I'm getting nit-picky, but after this thing ending in such a weak manner, I'm a little less than satisfied.And that's my biggest problem with this issue. It just feels like it punches the perceptions of what this new Spidey direction was square in the face. To some readers, that might be what they want. Heck, if that be the case, this ending may indeed be spectacular to you. It isn't, however, to me.
Amazing Spider-Man #654 gets a 2.5 out of 5 from a slightly embittered reader.