The Amazing Spider-Man #1

By Dan Slott, Humberto Ramos,Christos Gage, Javier Rodriguez, Giuseppe Camuncoli, Joe Caramagna, Chris Eliopoulos, Peter David, Will Sliney, Chris Yost, David Baldeon & Ramon Perez

Well, Superior Spider-Man was inconsistent, but at least it broke up the monotony of Slott’s previous Amazing run. Now we’re back to Amazing and Peter Parker is once again in control of his destiny. There’s some promising stuff in these pages, but most feels pretty bland and a sign that it’s going to be more of the same.

To his credit, the main story has plenty of charming moments. Spidey being forced to fight crime in underwear made from web fluid comes to mind. Parker even has a few quips that hit the nail on the head.

There’s plenty of drama and excitement too. Parker’s relationship with Anna Maria is getting awkward and you can’t help but feel bad for the poor girl. She was in love with Spidey-Ock, but now there’s a different person running that brain. Picking up the pieces of both Peter and Ottos’s shattered lives is an intriguing angle and will help keep the first arc or so full of excitement.

Unfortunately, there are a few bad qualities to the new Amazing Spider-Man #1. The first two pages of the issue act as foreshadowing and will have many fans groaning and rolling their eyeballs. It feels like Alpha and Gwen Goblin babies all over again. Slott also loves to juggle 137 billion plot threads at once. That typically doesn’t work out and causes stories to be rushed and/or forced.

In terms of quality, Humberto Ramos has always been an unreliable Spidey artist. This issue is one of his better ones, though. By working on the details and embracing his own style, characters look better and the overall tone of the story is all the better for it.

If the main story wasn’t enough for you, there are plenty of backup stories. Actually, there are six of them. The first introduces Electro to a possibly new audience, while also trying to reestablish him as a legitimate threat. Slott and Gage accomplish the task and just in time for Electro to make his big screen debut in North America. Rodriguez draws the story and gives it a very poor man’s Samnee feel. The next story is also written by Slott/Gage and drawn by Camuncoli. If you missed out on Superior, you may be a little lost, but longtime readers will have plenty to ponder. The star of this story is actually Camuncoli, who turns in some of his best work.

The next story is a cute little introduction to Spidey and his powers, written by Joe Caramagna and drawn by Chris Eliopoulos. Eliopoulos’ art is childish and adorable, but one has to wonder the point of this story. Seriously, does anybody really need to know about Spidey’s abilities? Even noobs know this stuff.

Peter David writes a cool Spider-Man 2099 story that acts as a prelude to the upcoming series. David makes us excited for July and Will Sliney’s art is fantastic. Additionally, Chris Yost pens a tale of Peter searching for Kaine/Scarlet Spider and worrying about what fate may have befallen him in his absence. If you didn’t read the Scarlet Spider series, this may lack the emotional impact that it will undoubtedly have on the fans that actually read it. However, anybody can enjoy some sweet pencils by David Baldeon.

The last story is a prelude to The Amazing Spider-Man Year One: Learning To Crawl. Like the very beginning of the main story, this just feels icky and wrong. Again, thoughts of Goblin babies will surface. The story is written well enough, but is also a tad bland and totally unneeded. Luckily, Ramon Perez saves the whole piece with some great panels.

Even though the issue is a tad pricey, there’s actually a lot of material. As far as a Slott Spidey run goes, this is a solid enough start and definitely something to go on. There’s plenty of pieces moving in the Spideyverse and you know that All-Comic will be guiding you through the whole thing. Stay tuned!