By Nick Spencer, Federico Vicentini and Alex Sinclair
With all the books that Marvel puts out, none are held to a higher standard than Amazing Spider-Man. It’s rare that a bad writer is put on the flagship title, especially when there are several other off shoot titles that can be written by others. Think of Amazing as Marvel’s Batman in terms of criticism. All that being said, Nick Spencer has been on this book for a decent amount of time, and has really built up a series long story arc that involves old friends becoming vengeful enemies, and old enemies becoming close to allies.
Comic books for the most part allow us to escape reality and watch our favorite heroes going into battles and usually come out victorious. While this issue has action, for me, the more interesting storyline involved Randy Robertson and Janice Lincoln. Robertson, son of Robbie Robertson, and Lincoln, daughter of Tombstone, are in a relationship that both of their fathers are against. Spencer writes both characters well, as we see them talk to their friends about their dating life. Spencer shows us both points of view and why they believe the relationship will last. Their friends provide the opposing views and reasons why the relationship will fail. While this is going on, Spider-Man and Boomerang are caught in a bit of a gang war. Spencer continues to write this bromance as fun and freewheeling. Through Spencer’s strong writing we can see that Peter really does care for Fred and truly doesn’t want him to get hurt. Spencer has done a great job of building this friendship up since the first issue of his run, and it continues to pay off.
The pencils this issue are handled by Federico Vicentini with colors by Alex Sinclair. Vicentini has a style that works for this issue. It’s not too cartoony or childish, and it’s not too dark. Vicentini has a really good page where Robbie Robertson is thinking about his past with Tombstone. Robbie is front and center, and the background is filled with bad memories. There is one in particular that sticks out, and it’s simply Tombstone’s lower part of his face with his razor sharp teeth showing. The battle pages work well here, and Vicentini makes everything easy on the eyes. The owl getting tackled by another gangster looks about as good as possible. The colors by Alex Sinclair really shine this issue. In the page where Robbie is going over all his bad memories, Robbie and Tombstone are colored naturally, and the background, for flashback effect, is a light shade of red. This page really stands out this issue and is probably the most memorable one in the book.
Amazing Spider-Man has been one of the most consistent books from Marvel. Nick Spencer has written Peter Parker like he’s one of his good friends. As a reader we know that Peter is in good hands because Spencer treats him like family. The pencils and colors this issue match the tone of the book and pay off. Amazing Spider-Man is fun and full of life.
Review
Amazing Spider-Man has been one of the most consistent books from Marvel.
comments (0)
You must be logged in to post a comment.