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Look out!  It’s a Spider-Man!

Over a year ago, the Spider-Man comic changed so drastically that the very foundation of the last 20 years of the comic completely changed and left the audience stunned.  Mephisto removed Mary Jane from Peter’s life as his wife (and apparently even a friend anymore) to save Aunt May’s life.  This changed literally everything for the Spider-Man comic and caused a generally loud ‘WTF?!’ from the audience.  Enough time has passed, So I have accepted the fact that Joe Quesada apparently came into the office after a mugging and suffering extreme head trauma and at the planning meeting that day when someone jokingly said “let’s just remove MJ from the picture”, he thought it a great idea and ran with it.  (I still imagine the person who said that aloud looking around the room, terrified – “What? No! IT was a joke!  Stop writing that down!  Why are you all smiling!?”) 

The past year brought a mixture of good and bad, some interesting and some truly boring storylines in the Spider-Man comics.  While I often feel something missing when I read Spider-Man comics now (perhaps because as I grew, so did the character and much of that character growth washed away overnight), I find the book can still surprise you.  Last week’s issue, if you happen to not pay attention to the news (I swear Spider-Man makes more real news headlines than any other comic), J. Jonah Jameson became the new mayor of New York due to a set of obtuse circumstances that can only happen in a comic. 

That brings us to the current issue, now written by Mark Waid.  I like Waid’s writing style and it plays well to Spider-Man’s slice of the world.  This issue focuses mostly on Peter dealing with the fact that Jameson, his mortal enemy since he was 16, now runs the city.  As he goes to try to make truce with Jameson, he finds just how much more difficult his life can get; Jameson created an anti-spider-man task force.  Peter’s response?  Ramp up the super-heroism just to taunt Jonah.  The issue carries a very light-hearted tone overall that plays well into the last page ‘shocker’ that just made me laugh out loud. 

Mike McKone’s beautiful art gives Spider-man a lavish, realistic feel throughout the book and compliments Waid’s story beautifully.  He does wonderful facial expressions and I think he shows Jonah with a different one in nearly every panel.  Andy Lanning’s inks and Jeromy Cox’s colors only accentuate and brighten the artwork so that nothing seems out of place at all.

Yes, Spider-Man changed a great deal and even to this day not everyone feels completely at ease with the change.  Given that, the creative teams behind Spider-Man are putting out good, fun stories that are intriguing enough to keep you wanting more and still keep you laughing with Spider-Man as I have always felt you should.  If you have been avoiding it, try it now and see what you think. 

Amazing Spider-Man #529
“24/7”
Writer: Mark Waid
Pencils: Mike McKone
Inks: Andy Lanning
Colors: Jeromy cox
Letters: VC’s Joe Caramagna
Cover: Joe Quesada

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