Amazing Spider-Man #789
by Dan Slott and Stuart Immonen
Peter had to give up his company, Parker Industries, to keep it from getting in the hands of the sinister Doctor Octopus! For those keeping track, I read the fhhollow-up issues already, 790 and 791
last week. It's an interesting experience to read out of sequence For one, you already know what's going to happen, but for two, you see all the hints that were dropped for the future issues. Slott is great at dropping little seeds of a story that bloom in later issues, like how Peter acquires the science editor position in 791 because of how he randomly helped the then-science editor in 789.
The relationship with Mockingbird adds an interesting layer too. I'd heard good things about Mockingbird, so it helps me get to see her as a character.
It took me a while, but now I'm used to Peter Parker as a more immature person. He took on a CEO position that he was completely unqualified for (a position that Otto-as-Peter handled adequately), couldn't handle the responsibility of a global tech company and let his millions of employees down. Slott's background is as a humor writer, with some great runs on the GLA and She-Hulk, and
Amazing Spider-Man is a humor book first, above all, including character progression. It's OK that Peter isn't as mature, because I've still gotten great stories out of it like
Spider-Island and
Superior Spider-Man.
Amazing Spider-Man: Venom Inc. Alpha #1
by Mike Costa, Dan Slott, and Ryan Stegman
In Dan Slott's
Spider-Man, villains sometimes get their own event storyarcs. The Jackal had
Spider-Island (and
Clone Conspiracy also? Haven't read that one.) Doc Ock had
Ends of the Earth. Morlun (and his wacky family) had
Spider-Verse. Now, Venom gets,
Venom Inc.
Poor symbiote. It's been hustled out to so many hosts, that it's just a punishing comic for the thing. It gets sonic weapon'ed at, anti-venom'd at, and torn between the two people that have bonded with it the most (Flash and Eddie). Add the symbiote to someone you didn't see coming, take it away from someone else, make Flash the Anti-Venom, and you've pretty much got this issue. Very plot-heavy, really setup for next ish.
I'm not a huge fan of Stegman's take on the symbiote. It's weird how, when it separates from the host, just looks like another humanoid. That's always confused me, even when it was able to speak by itself like in Paul Jenkins/Humberto Ramos's
The Hunger. If it could speak by itself, why take a host? I don't know. Here's some weirdness for me:
Here's Eddie Brock, crying (?) tears of symbiote while telling off Flash that he's the One True Host for it. Oh, to be a young blushing symbiote, to have two capable, hunky men fighting for you.
Batman #36
by Tom King and Clay Mann
I told myself I wasn't going to collect this in singles, and, well, I failed. Clay Mann draws some really nice figures, akin to Olivier Coipel, and I couldn't say no to him!
Tom King has gotten good word of mouth, and I can see why. He has an understanding of the super heroes that allows us to be a part of their world and realize what it would look like. The Cat & the Bat, and Superman and Lois, have parallel conversations with their spouses about certain engagement etiquette -- that is, who should call whom. The men of the relationships keep avoiding it, while the women urge them to talk to each other.
It results in a 20-page gag which, when you read it, is pretty good. The decompression is strong, but it reads as a solid single issue that ties in to the next one.
Captain America #696
by Mark Waid and Chris Samnee
Well, they can't all be riveting page-turners. There's nothing really novel about this story here -- Steve Rogers travels around America, a la
Superman: Grounded, to understand the America that he left, and hijinks ensue. Hijinks being super-criminals who are ready to destroy a small town just to get at Captain America.
So it's in the little moments that make this serial worth picking up. There's so many little details in this comic that make it delightful. How the shopkeepers refuse to let Steve Rogers pay for a meal. The Swordsman's Vibranium-sword, and how Captain America gets around it. There's some very strong iconography here, how Cap and S-man have a hurtling fight in the guts of a dam that has the American flag here. The way Cap uses a katana to manually close the dam, in a feat of superhuman yet layman strength evoking that of the common worker.
I looked this up to see what it's evoking. But really, it's calling the last page of
All-Star Superman #12, which itself wasn't directly referencing a piece of art. Here's the closest I found for it on the internet: https://ask.metafilter.com/102370/image-of-man-pulling-lever
It's such a great comic book idea. In that 12th issue, Superman, by "dying," became a very part of the planet that adopted him and saved him, and in his death he returns that favor in the ultimate way. Now, he is a part of the clockwork that helps Planet Earth run. It's such a beautiful image and a great end to that miniseries. It tells us that through grit and perseverance, we can do something great. We tell ourselves that it's such a striking image that, surely, it must be based on some image or piece of art from real life. Socialism sounds right, due to its emphasis on the common worker, but like the above tells you, no, that image came from comic books.
Hawkeye #13
by Kelly Thompson and Leonardo Romero
I had the unfortunate circumstance of knowing enough about this comic to know that it's good, but not having read very much of it to know what's going on. Really, I just loved how the holographic variant cover turned from an homage to the original
Hawkeye #1 cover, to a new cover that featured both Hawkeyes shooting arrows from the same rooftop. Pretty neat!
The pencils make me feel like I'm already back on track with Matt Fraction and David Aja's Hawkeye but sadly, I am still lost. There's a pretty solid cliffhanger, but I think I'd prefer to understand the full backstory in trade before I can drop another $4 on a single.
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