FF#1 and #2 - with a splash of Spidey for color

Wow! Three posts in one day! It was a good week for Marvel!

Fantastic Four is another series that, like Thor, is frighteningly outside my X-bubble. Having Spidey on the team makes me a little less agoraphobic about venturing into unfamiliar territory, since I have been an off and on reader of Amazing Spidey. Currently on.

I can say that I honestly have started to understand the purpose of renumbering. It's kind of intimidating for someone like myself who has spent copious amounts of time and money trying to fill in gaps in my X-Men collections. I've finally managed to complete the second volume of X-Men, and dread moving to the Uncanny gaps.

It's difficult to imagine picking up another title that has over 500 issues of back-treading to really understand the current whereabouts. I know enough about the Fantastic Four to understand the grand scheme, but the wonderful part about reading a long-term book like this, is getting those fanfare throwbacks that writers work so hard to connect to the rest of the canon. I don't like missing out on those nods to the past.

That's why it's nice to have a "jumping on" point like this. The covers of the books are striking and I love the new costumes. I also love that Dr. Doom appears in the first story arc.

One gripe is in regards to the new recruit. Hickman writes in Spider-Man well enough, and he doesn't steal the show. This is a Reed/Sue/Ben book as much as it is a Peter book. Actually, when I started this post, I think my gripe was actually with the Amazing Spider-Man issue I read yesterday. (Sorry, I read them one after another)

Okay, so let's switch gears.

Amazing Spider-Man #659 annoyed me for two reasons:

One is that Spidey comes across sounding more like Deadpool talking to himself than himself. I really am not pleased with the dialogue. I get it. He's the jokester character that has to throw sand balls at the Thing if they're on a beach and goofy crap like that. Seriously, though stop acting like a douche. Ben just needs to punch him in the face and say "Button yer lip, webs. Yer not Johnny and ya neva will be."

Quoting The Beastie Boys seems like a Deadpool thing, too.

The second thing that irks me is the zombie pirates. I'm sick of them and they're sick of me. That really sums up how I feel about them.

I will say that Caselli's art is really enjoyable and fun. I also like that Slott writes in flashbacks. It goes back to that not-knowing-most-of-the-FF-canon problem I was talking about. I'm sure that 90% of the reader's of Amazing Spider-Man don't know what happened in Fantastic Four #5 back in the 60's, so it's nice to feel like we're in the know.

I give FF #1 and #2 one and a half orange rock-thumbs up, and I give Amazing #659 one Ad-Rock, one MCA, and one Mike D up and one Decaying Johnny Depp down.

Amazing Spider-Man #657

I love books that are comprised of three or four different self-contained stories with samplings of different artists. It keeps my A.D.D. in check. Each of the three stories in this issue represent a different member of the Fantastic Now-Less-Than-Four reminiscing about a memory of both Spider-man and their dearly departed Johnny.

Whether it be Thing clobbering a flaming mud dummy, Torch thinking outside the box and outsmarting both Reed and Peter, or Johnny inspiring Sue to make a villain's pants invisible, they're all stories of Human Torch/Spider-man pranking each other in predictably homo-erotic fashion.

I'm not here to talk about the interior, though.

I just loved this cover.

There's just something simple and enchanting about this cover.

I love the negative space.

Maybe it's some kind of metaphor for Johnny sacrificing himself in The Negative Zone.

Maybe the fallen tail of the "4" is a string on the fourth spot on the team and it is reaching down to Spidey telling him that he has to carry the proverbial and literal torch. Pun intended.

Maybe it's a simile for Peter Parker's likeness to his friend and predecessor on the team. That he is like the spark that will light the fire in the hearts of his bereaved teammates and the tail on the "4" is in actuality the remnant of an "A" for his Avengers affiliation, and that's what is actually falling away as he comes to realize that he may belong with FF and not bear the burdens of both teams.

Maybe it means all of these things.

Maybe I'm reading too much into this.

Maybe.

Maybe Parker figured out Wolverine's multiplicity tricks and wanted to try it out for himself by appearing in every title that Marvel publishes.


Wolverine appearances I know of for this month:
Uncanny X-Men
X-Men
New Avengers
Wolverine
X-Force

Spidey appearances I know of this month:
Amazing Spider-man
FF
New Avengers
X-Men
X-Factor

These two lead very busy lives! No wonder Torch jumped ship!

Amazing Spider-Man #652

I thought the transition from Ramos to someone who isn't Ramos would be tough for me. I have a problem moving on to new artist's. I was pleased to see, however, that Stefano Caselli is a fantastic artist. Not only that, but his style really does compliment Spider-Man for where he's at as far as atmosphere goes. I feel he has a more practiced hand with figure drawing and portraiture then Ramos,, yet he mixes in cartoony elements as well. Not that Ramos isn't a good artist. It just seems as though he is studied more with caricature and cartoon. Both techniques have their place, and Spidey has always been enjoyable to see in a less-serious tone.

As for Dan Slott's writing, it is as practical and uncomplicated as I've come to expect since reading my first Spidey in ten years a few issues ago. Wait a sec...I'm not sure if practical is a compliment to a writer or not. What I meant by that is that it doesn't bother with formalities that many other writers tend to take in the way of over-elaborating on things that readers can clearly understand without explanation.  It is balanced and makes every nod that we want it to make to the audience. Everything from the narration to the banter feels necessary.

Amazing is, at the moment, making me happy to be reading Spidey again. It just feels linear as opposed to being an X-book reader, which more often than not leaves me annoyed at continuity and angry at characters that seem omnipotent. It feels good to slowly be creeping out from the mutant world. I'm trying to broaden my horizons a little. You know, check into X-Men rehab. It's a long road ahead. One day at a time, and such.

I should mention that I bought a Thor comic today.

I have read one (1) Thor book ever. ONE. I think it was from, like, 88'. Had no idea what was going on. The big reason I bought this book is because I love Matt Fraction and wanted to see how he writes comics other than Uncanny. Also, my best friend and hetero life-mate loves Thor. So I figured I'd give him a try. Single-hero titles will be a nice break from the X-hole that I've fallen into.

Maybe I'll do two reviews tonight.

Amazing Spider-Man #650

GA GA OH LA LA
I have officially seen everything. Spider-Man has been rescued from certain flaming-sword death by the vocal talents of Lady Gaga.

I haven't read Amazing Spider-Man in, oh...two decades. Seriously. Just before my hiatus from comics that I took from X-Men #44 to X-Men: Legacy #220, I had a Spider-Man phase. I collected all of the ASM books that Eric Larsen penciled because I got sucked into the Image vortex and became obsessed with Larsen because of the Savage Dragon. If that's all gibberish to you...then I ponder why you are reading my blog.

Long story short, I think Amazing might be the next book I seek to painstakingly fill in the back issues for.

Fast foward to 2010. Amazing Spider-Man #650. I don't know what the book has been like since #350, but reading this book takes me back to the good old days. Dialogue is entertaining. Pacing keeps me turning the page. Spidey is as good a read as it always has been for me.
I was on the fence with Ramos' art when he was penciling for X-Men, but in ASM, it seems more refined. He has a cartoony, almost graffiti style of artwork that compliments a web-head book well. He is on my list of artists that I sometimes call my favorites.

I'll be really annoyed when Ramos moves on from this book and I hope to see no guest artists until that day.

I haven't been in the Spidey universe for a long time, so I don't want to embarrass myself by asking questions about plot points that I've missed over the last 18 years. So if you haven't read Amazing in a long time, it's easy to pick it up and start again. Just do it. C'mon. I'll wait.