Amazing Spider-Man #653 Review
- Details
- Published on Monday, 07 February 2011 00:00
- Written by Kevin
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So far, Dan Slott has lived up to the new Big Time direction he is taking Amazing Spider-Man. While Brand New Day had its ups and downs, it seems as though Slott has taken all the good of the Spider-Man Brain Trust, which he was a part of, built under BND and is running with it. After bringing back the Hobgoblin in his first arc of Big Time, for his second arc Slott has brought back the Scorpion. Along for the ride this time around is Stefano Caselli, who did phenomenal work on Secret Warriors. The first issue of this new arc was a solid start with a cool reveal of Scorpions new look. With Scorpion having a new look and the Spider Slayers return it’ll be interesting to see how Spider-Man gets out of this in Amazing Spider-Man #653. Let’s find out.
Creative Team
Writers: Dan Slott and Fred Van Lente
Artist: Stefano Caselli
Colorist: Edgar Delgado
Story Rating: 9 Night Girls out of 10
Art Rating: 8 Night Girls out of 10
Overall Rating: 8.5 Night Girls out of 10
Synopsis: Everyone in the Andru Air Force Base is being attacked by Smythe and his new Spider Slayers.
While that is going on, Spider-Man is fighting The Scorpion on top of the recently launched shuttle. Spider-Man has a tough time holding on which is made even more difficult with Scorpion attacking him.
Back on the base, Max, Peter’s boss, decides to take action and try to save the shuttle from the hacker, all the while wondering where Peter is. As he tries to talk, John Jameson III through the landing process but before he can do that Doc Ock interferes. Doc Ock, wanting the mission to be a success for his own plans, helps save the shuttle while making it look like John did it.
The shuttle's engines firing up cause Spider-Man to fall. As Spider-Man tries to make a web parachute he is attacked by Scorpion. As Scorpion is trying to drive Spider-Man towards the ground he is saved by his fellow New Avengers teammate, Ms. Marvel.
The rest of the New Avengers arrive on the scene to help fight off all of the Spider Slayers. During the fight, JJJ tells the team that all of his family and friends are being attacked by the Spider Slayers. The New Avengers decide to split up and are able to save Robbie and everyone at the Daily Bugle and Peter’s Aunt May and JJJ wife at the spa.
As the fight with the Spider Slayers intensifies, Spider-Man realizes that all of the new Spider Slayers have a sixth sense that works like his spider-sense. He leaves the fight in order to go quickly make a spider-sense jammer at his work.
When Peter arrives at his work he quickly changes back to his civilian clothes. As he starts running down the hall he runs into Max who tells Peter that he needs to talk to him about Peter and Spider-Man. End of issue.
Commentary
The Good: Amazing Spider-Man #653 is the type of issue that will put a smile on your face from start to finish. There is plenty of energy throughout the issue. No matter how long you have been reading Spider-Man stories you cannot help but have fun with this story. Slott is doing a wonderful job revitalizing some of Spider-Man’s older villains.
What is interesting to note about this issue is that Slott handled only the plot of this issue while it was actually Fred Van Lente who wrote out the script. This is not the first time Slott has done this as he did the same thing back during his run in Mighty Avengers. Having this type of split in writing is generally questionable. But not with Amazing Spider-Man #653. Van Lente worked as part of the Spider-Man Brain Trust with Slott during Brand New Day and thanks to that previous collaboration the combination of Slott and Van Lente works well in this issue.
The big point why this issue is so much fun is that both Slott and Van Lente know how to give an appropriate large scale to the story. Over the past few years, Spider-Man has become a bigger player in the Marvel Universe thanks to his Avengers and New Avengers membership. Slott and Van Lente properly use this fact to the stories advantage as they called in the New Avengers to help Spider-Man out.
With both Smythe and the Spider-Slayers being off the tables for such a long time, Slott and Van Lente made a wise choice to bring in the New Avengers to help out. Not only does showing the Spider-Slayers being able to fight toe to toe with the New Avengers serve as a way to build them as a larger threat, but it also helps to show off their new sixth sense ability.
It is also a cool idea that Slott and Van Lente have decided to base the new Spider Slayers off of Scorpion's design. Scorpion is always being shown as being Spider-Man’s natural enemy because of the bug types. With Scorpion being the first Spider Slayer created it is nice to see the rest of the Spider Slayers take more of bug look since Smythe knows that his previous robot designs were not cutting it.
This also helps to build up the new and improved Scorpion as a bigger badass. Even though not everyone liked that Gargan was the new Venom, I actually liked his version of Venom. Gargan had more of an edge while he was Venom and that same killer edge has carried over to him becoming Scorpion again. The new look also adds to how much more deadly Scorpion is to go along with all the character development that he has received over the past few years.
I also continue to enjoy how Slott and Van Lente are showing Peter using his head during this new story. With his new job and resources, Peter has become much more confident in his abilities. It is good to see. After all, his intelligence he was able to develop web shooters using very little resources. Now that Peter has the proper resources he is able to create more technology which will help him in his new battles against his villains, who are also receiving power ups.
The appearance of Doc Ock in this issue was a nice twist. Ever since Amazing Spider-Man #600 the Spider-Man, Brain Trust seemed to have been building up this new look Doc Ock for some bigger story and Slott is continuing that story. Even though Doc Ock “saves the day” he did it because he has his own plans. It will be interesting to see where Slott takes this Doc Ock sub-plot in future issues.
Stefano Caselli delivered some fantastic artwork. Caselli showed that he has a great evolving art style. His art in this title is a mix of anime style artwork he had in Secret Warriors with Bachelo’s style. By mixing in some of Bachelo’s character design it gives Amazing Spider-Man a much more consistent look from story to story. At the same time, Caselli mixes in his own art style into this issue.
The Bad: I have no complaints.
Overall: As Big Time continues it has only gotten better and Amazing Spider-Man #653 is an example of that. Dan Slott, with help from Fred Van Lente, is establishing Amazing Spider-Man as one of Marvel’s premier titles. This is just one fun comic that no Spider-Man fan will want to miss out on. With the extra back-up story in this issue, you are getting your money’s worth in by buying this issue. I highly recommend picking up this issue because you will be sure to be smiling from beginning to end. I know I was.
Amazing Spider-Man