Amazing Spider-Man #681 Review
- Details
- Published on Monday, 12 March 2012 01:00
- Written by Kevin
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So far Amazing Spider-Man has started the year just as it left of last year with big things happening at every moment. This has been specifically the case with this latest arc that finds Spider-Man teaming up with his returning to life best friend Human Torch. These two buddies have teamed up to stop Doctor Octopus plot to take over a space station. With End of Earth almost here there should be some moments that lead us into the next Spider-Man event. Let’s see how things turn out with Amazing Spider-Man #681.
Creative Team
Writer: Dan Slott and Chris Yost
Artist: Guiseppe Camuncoli
Inker: Klaus Janson
Colorist: Frank D’Armata
Story Rating: 7 Night Girls out of 10
Art Rating: 6 Night Girls out of 10
Overall Rating: 6.5 Night Girls out of 10
Synopsis: On Apogee 1 Space Station, Spider-Man, Human Torch and John Jameson try to find a way out without being killed by the Dr. Octopus special, zombified astronauts. They try to get to the shuttle Spider-Man and Human Torch came in but it is destroyed.
On Earth, Mayor Jameson tells Max Modell that he better hope that his son is okay on that station.
Back at the space station, Human Torch burns up all of the Octobots but also burns up most of the oxygen in the process. Thinking quick Human Torch hands Spider-Man his cell phone to contact Max. After getting in his typical jab at JJJ Spider-Man tells Max that they need them to tweak the air a bit for his plan to work.
In their underwater secret base, Dr. Octopus asks Mysterio what is happening in the space station. He then sees that the entire crew at the station is losing consciousness and curses Spider-Man wrecking his plan. Spider-Man tells Doc Ock that he isn’t looking to good. That only angers Ock more making him decide to crash the space station.
With only minutes before they crash Spider-Man quickly grabs all of stations crew, including John, and webs them up so they stay together. He then tells Torch that he will use his powers to use the heat of the plummeting space station to power up and maneuver them to safety. Human Torch executes the plan and they are able to land into the ocean near Florida. With the crew safe Spider-Man asks Human Torch if he landed them on Daytona Beach on purpose because it’s Spring Break.
Meanwhile, a pissed off Doc Ock tells the Sinister Six that it is time to implement his last master plan. End of issue.
Commentary
The Good: With the End of the Earth storyline looking to highlight Doctor Octopus as the big bad I found it odd that he turned out to be the villain of this quick two-part story. Even more so when it seemed like from reading Amazing Spider-Man #680 last week as though End of the Earth began earlier than we all expected.
But now that I have been able to read Amazing Spider-Man #681 I understand what Dan Slott and Chris Yost were trying to do. In preparation for such a big storyline, they wanted to give us a quick preview of what is to come while still delivering a fun, almost, one-in-done team-up story. In large part they are able to succeed with this.
As Slott showed back when he wrote the now classic Spider-Man/Human Torch mini-series, he gets these two characters better than anyone. Not only that but he knows how to write the characters so the reader can see how these two characters are best friends. Both characters bounce of one another great.
Yost also has to be given a lot of credit for writing a lot of quick dialog. There is no point in the issue that felt slow. Even with only a few action sequences the story moved at a quick pace thanks to how well Spider-Man and Human Torch played off one another. Having John Jameson as the middle man between the two jokesters helped to keep everything grounded.
And continuing the trend of Peter using his brain to save the day this issue again showed us an example of how he is able to think on his feet. It was fun to see Spider-Man take the lead in figuring out how to stop the space station from crashing on Earth. This also helps to show that the upcoming battle between Spider-Man and Doctor Octopus will be a battle of brains, instead of just being a physical fight.
Though Spider-Man did end up saving the day the whole plot did help to give us an idea of the scope of Doc Ock’s plans. The character has been doing a lot of things in the background to set up for his big take over the world plans but now the closer he is to his death the more he wants to move forward with what he is doing. With everything he has done up until this point and the Spider-Man heavy hitter villains he has been able to gather for his Sinister Six things should get interesting in the next few issues.
Guiseppe Camuncoli provides some solid artwork. There are some odd moments with characters faces being inconsistent but in general Camuncoli delivers what is needed for each scene. He especially steps up with the final few pages where we see Human Torch going all Nova to save the day.
The Bad: Though I enjoyed this issue I sort of scratched my head that we did not see a fallout from the problems Max now has with Spider-Man. With how it was brought up in the last issue we did not see any anger on Max’s part. There was not even any questioning from Max about why Spider-Man was involving himself in another Horizon problem without authorization. The anger Max had because of the Morbius situation could be something with legs but thanks to it being ignored here I fear it may be forgotten because of other stories involved.
Overall: Amazing Spider-Man #681 was another fun issue from one of Marvel’s best series. The story in this issue helps to further the upcoming End of the Earth event while delivering a fun team-up with Human Torch. The bantering back and forth between Spider-Man and the Human Torch is what carried this issue. With how the story ended I am more excited for the new Spider-Man event.
Amazing Spider-Man