My Wife: Totally Got Suckered Into Enjoying A Spider-Man Comic, Then Makes 90's Music Reference

Well, this was a fun little sci-fi adventure, huh?

That was not what I expected.

The Amazing Spider-Man #658
Written by Dan Slott
Art by Javier Pulido, Muntsa Vicente & Javier Rodriguez
Published by Marvel Comics 

Part of my confusion came from thinking this was Ultimate Spider-Man, which is the one where he's in high school. I know the title clearly says that it's the AMAZING Spider-Man, not the Ultimate one, but my brain was ready for high school nonetheless. (I also like to forget that these characters have so many different iterations. Arbitrarily setting them apart by the usage of different adjectives...that's just dumb, and I don't like remembering dumb things.)

I digress! I was a little confused as I read the first few pages, with the whole, are-you-sure-about-this?-oh-I'm-sure- are-you-sure-you're-sure relationship conversation seemed a little high school-ish. But when I read Peter saying "Yeah. Good job, my own place...." I was like, huh? So no. This is not high school Spidey. This is Super SciFi Spidey! I can get behind that! Let's move on!

You know, often when I open a comic and see so many word balloons on a page, I get disinterested immediately. But the art in this comic is so inviting that I was drawn in to read said balloons, rather than repelled by the wordiness. Points! Points for you and your invitation to pay attention, Amazing Spider-Man.

Beyond that - I can't really get into specifically critiquing this comic. It's one of those situations where the story is so imbedded in science fiction stuff that I can barely keep up with, and when you know as little about quantum mechanics as I do, you certainly can't point and call bullshit anywhere. I just went along for the ride. And look at this ride! Specifically, I mean look at the hot pink ride this mime gets taken on:

That does not look like fun, does it? And yet! It is funny, because he is crying. My husband said it was a great Ditko homage to Kirby's OMAC people. I told him he read it wrong. The Crying!

I'm here to say - well done! I mean, seriously, it should be really hard to artistically pull off telling a story about needing to fix the space time continuum and other dimensional instabilities because - well, I mean, can YOU draw that? I mean, really? And okay, lets say you can, can you draw it in an interesting, entertaining way that "regular people" will understand? Don't lie! I'm a regular person, and I'll know if you're lying!

Ah! What a good job! Between the page with all the time portals and the picturesque SuperEgo (the giant living atom) I was thoroughly entertained. 

Oddly, the pictures of the vessel they travelled in me first looked like a hot dog, to me, and later, like a giant tooth brush. I'm just saying. That's how those pictures first resonated in my brain. I mean, it didn't take away from the story or anything. They just made me do a double take is all. This next one did too:

I remember this picture well, because I have been to a shopping mall and stopped at the store where they sell the posters. You know what I'm talking about. The posters you look at when you're high on drugs!

All in all, I found this to be a very engaging and very entertaining comic all the way around. So, I mean, even if perhaps some of the science stuff might not really "work" - hey, I certainly wouldn't know any better. I do know one thing, though!

Peter Parker just got busted, and his cop girlfriend is probably going to shoot him in the knees. That's what I would do, if I were in her shoes, which I wouldn't be, because OMG THOSE LISA LOEB GLASSES ARE SO 1995 HA HA

-Nina Stone, 2011

Comments

[Pj]

Apparently, I should be reading this comic ...

[seth hurley]

nothing tops "I told him he read it wrong."

[Chris Jones]

This whole comic read like a Hawkwind song. I wish every Spider-Man comic was like this.