Parks, Pants, Shadows and Vibes.
Spider-Man. J. Michael Straczynski. John Romita Jr.
Believe it or not, issue 500 was NOT the end of the Spider-Man legend, there's still a bunch of loose ends to tie up and LOTS of stories to make, so here's The Amazing Spider-Man #501, which is pretty much a new beginning for our web-head, this was Brand New Day before Brand New Day.
LAST TIME: Spidey celebrated his birthday by looking at his beginning and his demise happen at the same time in
The drive to Issue 1000 started here... Wait, they were already planning issue 1000?
.jpg)
The title of this one is "A Saturday In The Park With May", GEE, I WONDER WHAT THIS IS ABOUT. We get to see how May deals with knowing Peter's secret, how she is now even more worried because now instead of worrying about him catching a cold after forgetting his coat, she has to worry about him endangering his life to save New York from superpowered madmen. She also talks about Peter's life with MJ and how well they're currently doing, all while Peter fights a crazy fucking idiot with a mechanical costume causing havoc around NYC.
At the end of the issue, May leaves and we finally see that she had been talking to the graves of Ben, Richard and Mary Parker.
JMS has turned Aunt May into an actual character instead of just some old lady that Spider-Man has to save sometimes... I mean, that's not to say that it hadn't been tried before, but these JMS issues really stand out a lot in making Aunt May an actual serious character, can't say I've seen anything like this since. I could comment about the art, but it's the same shit we've seen since issue 30. 9/10.
NEXT!
.jpg)
The story begins with what seems to be a heated debate between Peter Parker and a random waiter on whether coffee is a drink or a beverage. Luckily, I do not drink coffee, so I don't give a shit. Peter and MJ are on a date and stuff, but Peter HAS to go because of one small little detail that not every reader knows about... Peter Parker is Spider-Man.
So, as Spider-Man swings by, an old man watches and just smirks like the smug bastard he is. He meets up with a guy named Killshot so he can make a cool costume for him. The old man's name? Leo Zelinsky.
Back home, Leo talks to his grandson, Michael about how he probably shouldn't be making suits for psychos... Which is kinda dumb in my eyes, I have to agree with Zelinsky when he says that what his clients do after getting the costume is between them and the authorities, I mean, are we gonna tell food workers "Do not serve that guy, he'll rob a bank tomorrow!", No, the services that anyone buys before committing a misdemeanor are unrelated to the misdemeanor itself... But I digress.
Later that night, Zelinsky thinks that maybe he should try to intervene with Killshot's upcoming crime, but since he's just an old dude, he asks Spider-Man for help. They go to a diner because... I guess it was cold that night. They discuss the topic of superhero costumes, Zelinsky tells Spidey a bunch of criticisms regarding his current outfit, and then he tells stories of how he's been the tailor for various heroes and villains like Thor, Blob, The Thing, and even Dr. Doom.
Leo gives more criticisms and opinions on Spidey's costume like how he should get velcro, perk up the mask a little... Eh, I disagree but maybe that has to do with the fact that I've seen this costume for most of my life.
Much later that night, Spidey reflects on the words of the old man, and the next day, he stops Killshot from assassinating a politician... Maybe Killshot was up to something. Well, Killshot has failed, so now he's gonna take out his anger on the nearest living thing, aka Leo Zelinsky, but luckily, Spider-Man is there to defend him.
Well, the day is saved, and no politicians were harmed, no tailors were harmed, but windows and doors were definitely harmed. Leo thanks Spider-Man by giving him a new costume concept... That just so happens to be the suit where Spider-Man will probably die, as seen in issue 500. The end.
Wasn't that something special? Well, of course, every JMS issue has something special. I thought the story was pretty original and creative, I mean, you don't see those hacks at DC make Batman go to a tailor. The artwork was... Okay, we all know that John Romita Jr's work can be either very cool or very wonky, so I'm going to stop mentioning the artwork unless there's significant changes... That being said, I really enjoyed this story. As mentioned before in the same paragraph, you don't see any other superheroes having stories like this one, which is why Spider-Man really stands out from the rest of long underwear characters. 8/10.
The next issue is 2 parts storyline featuring an aspect of Spidey that had never been seen in the comics... I'm just kidding, it has. This is the Loki storyline or whatever.
.jpg)
Believe it or not, our pal Fiona Avery is back in this issue, and she was the one in charge of the plot while JMS wrote the script itself.
Our story begins with some lady named... Well, we don't see her name until a few pages later, but she was caught in the battle that took place during issue 57, and she now has weird dreams that alert the minds of many Asgardian characters, and also seems to affect the mind of Peter Parker, who is just trying to get some sleep.
So, during the battle from that issue that I reviewed once, a goddess named Morwen was released into the earth and is now trying to attack Spidey because it was his fault... Y'know, lady, tons of other heroes were there, this could've been a Reed Richards story. Morwen actually wasn't trying to attack Spider-Man, that was just a little trick I wrote to deceive you, but Loki (disguised as a child) is now watching Morwen and Spidey's conversation unfold.
Morwen has to thank Spidey and do something in return, but Petey has NO TIME for this, what if his favorite cartoon comes on? HE CAN'T AFFORD TO MISS IT! Oh, and she either HAS to give the world to Spidey or kill him with his power.
Spidey goes to ask Dr. Strange about this, but he's not home at the moment (Pretty sure he had a miniseries at the time), and Loki leads Spidey to some warehouse to yell at him about what he did, which leads into a fight where some random fellow gets injured by Loki's magic laser blast, but Loki saves the man's life because Spidey agreed to stay and help Loki.
Later on, Loki explains to Peter what's going on with Morwen, and Peter agrees to help Loki get her back to where she used to be before Times Square became mystic portal town, but Spidey only agrees on one condition... No one else dies.
One thing this issue sets up is Spidey's street level stories crossing over with Asgardian style stories, and that is interesting, something that I had never seen before... Other than that one issue of Thor where Spider-Man shows up released in September 2002, but I digress. I think this issue did a good job at finally bringing up why Spider-Man was fighting all these mystic characters... Only to leave that question unanswered. 7/10.
Part 2!!!!
.jpg)
The story continues as Spider-Man talks to Loki while eating a hot dog, but then Morwen shows up, Loki tries arguing with her, to no avail until he requests that HE gets all the power instead of Spider-Man... Which also works to no avail, and they start fighting.
As they fight for a while, there's some back and forth conversation between Morwen and Spider-Man, but then Loki has an idea, he's gonna go rescue the woman from the first issue (Who was apparently actually his DAUGHTER, not like I would've known since I don't read Thor stuff), and the girl whose name I still don't know because I just skimmed through the comic is saved... Loki now owes Spider-Man a favor.
Next day, Peter Parker goes to the public library to learn more about Morwen, but that only leads him to pornography sites, kind of a win/win situation, you either learn about Morwen or you get to watch free porn!
Later that night, he tries contacting Loki's daughter but the house she lived on is for sale. Luckily, Loki is there to explain. Oh, and the girl's name is Tess. Tess is fine but she has no idea she's the daughter of the god of mischief. Spider-Man is now tasked to look over Tess every once in a while, and he swings away thinking about how nice it is to have a god on your side... A god that has done multiple evil things, but a god nonetheless.
Wasn't that an interesting team up? I thought it was. Though, I have negative things to say about this issue. First of all, the most noticeable problem in the entire story arc, and that is Spider-Man being annoying as shit, I mean, I know he quips all the time, but this time it's just excessive, I don't think he ever shuts the fuck up until like the very end. The entire story arc can be skipped. However, the premise was... Nice, I guess, and I was a big fan of the colors in the story, they really stand out from the other issues... Why do most of these fights take place during the night? Still, one of the low issues of this run. 6/10.
Time for the last issue of this review.
.jpg)
Fiona Avery is still writing the book, by the way.
The comic begins with Peter Parker and Mary Jane riding a taxicab to the airport because Mary Jane has to leave again for the third time this volume, with Peter discussing the latest scientific breakthrough, just to remind you all of the fact that Peter Parker is a flipping nerd. This breakthrough may actually prove the existence of bad and good vibes... C'mon, Peter, that's ridiculous and you know it.
So, MJ goes to LA to shoot another film scene and Peter stays in NYC to fight crime in a very uncomfortable costume because if he stayed home, he'd miss MJ and do something stupid like... Trying to do a handstand with 2 fingers.
BEVERLY HILLS, THAT'S WHERE I WANT TO BE. Mary Jane is auditioning for a role but the process takes too fucking long, so she just leaves. Oh, and her agent, John Parson has been fired, meaning that MJ came all the way to Beverly Hills for NOTHING.
Meanwhile, in New York, since it's a quiet night in the city (not very realistic), Spider-Man is just counting the time, waiting for the right time to call MJ. In the meantime, he is going to help some policemen with a stakeout... But then he calls MJ and gets sent to voice mail. Normally, if I got sent to voice mail, I'd try to hang up and try again, but our hero is NOT like me, so he decides to actually use the voicemail.
Spidey spots a kid, about 12, that for some reason sets off his Spider-Sense, so he decides to see what the kid's up to... So, it turns out that the stakeout was to arrest the kid, who has access to a firearm, and it is Spider-Man's job to actually talk the kid out of his current situation.
He has a little pep talk with the kid about how what he's doing is stupid, dangerous and just not a good thing for anybody, how he shouldn't do something that will get someone killed. The kid explains how he did this to fit in with the other kids, who were always ganging up on him and beating him up. Spidey asks if he wants to give them the satisfaction of seeing the kid getting hurt, or would he want to stand up on his own feet and be his own guy...
The comic then cuts to MJ at a restaurant before she remembers that she needs to call Peter to tell him what's going on. They talk about what happened during the day for a bit and the book ends with a splash page showing Spider-Man standing over a lamppost shining light on the kid and his dad reuniting.
Well, what a way to end this review on a high note, Spider-Man having a wholesome conversation about standing on your own to a kid. The Peter and MJ stuff is also pretty good, but I don't understand how the whole Vibes title fits into all of this, but it was still excellent. 8/10.
That's it. Next time... And I can't believe I'm saying this, but next time is the official release of my Gwenpool retrospective, to celebrate the 10-year anniversary of her first appearance.
Comments
Post a Comment