"The Amazing Spider-Man: Big Time"

 

                The following is a review of the graphic novel “The Amazing Spider-Man: Big Time” as presented in Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection format.

                Peter Parker/Spider-Man led the rest of the Avengers on a mission to stop a dying Otto Octavius/Doctor Octopus’ Octobots from destroying New York City. Peter’s ex-girlfriend Felicia Hardy/Black Cat wanted a better standing in the superhero world and asked Peter for some of his Avengers level credit. New York City Mayor J. Jonah Jameson gave Joseph “Robbie” Robertson to restore the struggling media outlet Front Line back to the Daily Bugle, a right which had been stolen from them by Dexter Bennett that Jameson bought back for his former employee. Peter’s landlord decided to move and kicked Peter out of his apartment. Peter asked his girlfriend NYPD CSI Officer Carlie Cooper if he could move in with her, but she felt it could mess up their relationship if they moved too fast. Peter’s Aunt May Parker-Jameson had a visit with her daughter-in-law Doctor Marla Madison-Jameson. Peter came to his Aunt May to ask if he could temporarily stay with her, but Marla greeted Peter at the door and brought Peter to Horizon Labs, where Marla introduced Peter to Max Modell, one of Peter’s science idols. One Horizon scientist, Sajani Jaffrey, had been working on a metal she called Reverbium that could absorb any impact. A testing of Sajani’s project went wrong, and Peter was able to shut it down. Following this, Modell offered Peter a high-paying job at Horizon Labs, which Peter gladly accepted. Wilson Fisk/Kingpin learned about the Reverbium from his agent inside Horizon Labs and hired Roderick Kingsley/Hobgoblin to steal it. Kingsley went to a base belonging to Norman Osborn/Green Goblin to steal some of Osborn’s Goblin gear and discovered Phil Urich (a former Green Goblin) hiding in the base. Phil disposed of Kingsley. Daily Bugle reporter Norah Winters was trying to get a story on Goblin Culture from a biker bar and had to be rescued by Spider-Man and Black Cat. Commander Steve Rogers/Captain America asked Mayor Jameson to present Spider-Man with the key to the city. Macdonald “Mac” Gargan/Venom, formerly Scorpion, was separated from his symbiote, and without the Scorpion armor and the Venom symbiote, Gargan was dying. Peter began his first day at Horizon Las, which was attacked by the Hobgoblin. Peter swung into action as Spider-Man but was unable to stop Hobgoblin from stealing the Reverbium. Kingpin agreed to hire Phil Urich as his Hobgoblin. Peter built a stealth Spider-Man suit and teamed up with Black Cat to infiltrate the Fisk Building to destroy the Reverbium.

Alistair Smythe/Spider-Slayer wanted revenge on Mayor Jameson for the wrongs Jameson did to him and his family, so he broke Gargan out of the Raft prison and bonded him with a new Scorpion armor. Mayor Jameson’s son John was flying the Vertex Shuttle to Horizon’s Space Station using experimental engines. The mayor’s father Jay Jameson, Sr. was at the launch, while Marla and May were having a spa day. Spider-Slayer, along with his army of insect soldiers and Scorpion, attacked the launch, planning on destroying the shuttle and killing all of the mayor’s family and friends. Spider-Man was able to save the shuttle. Spider-Slayer’s army also attacked the spa and the Daily Bugle. Along with the help of the Avengers, Spider-Man was able to stop Smythe and his army and the Scorpion, but he used a device that cost him his Spider-Sense, and he wasn’t able to save everyone.

Eugene “Flash” Thompson was selected by Project Rebirth 2.0 to host the Venom symbiote as a government agent.

Following a tragic loss, Peter swore that as long as Spider-Man was around, no one dies. Marcus Lyman/Massacre held a bank hostage, taking several victims. Spider-Man convinced the NYPD to give in to Massacre’s demands in order to save lives, then find him later. Massacre then tested Spider-Man’s new vow by staging another hostage crisis.

The Fantastic Four mourned the loss of Johnny Storm/Human Torch, one of Spider-Man’s closest friends. Ben Grimm/Thing, Sue Storm/Invisible Woman, and Reed Richards/Mister Fantastic all remembered their fondest moments with Spider-Man and Human Torch together. Spider-Man was invited to be a member of the newly minted Future Foundation. Spider-Man was called in on a Future Foundation adventure and told Carlie he was going on a business trip for Horizon. Mister Fantastic detected three rifts in the space-time continuum that the Future Foundation had to close, one on Earth, one in the Microverse, and one in the distant future. Carlie went to Horizon Labs to ship Peter a care package on his business trip, only to be told Horizon had not sent Peter anywhere. Upon returning to Earth in the present, the Future Foundation arrived on an island in the Caribbean, where the locals had been under siege. The Future Foundation investigated a mysterious island and discovered the source of the disturbances were being caused by the Sinister Six, Otto Octavius/Doctor Octopus, Dmitri Smerdyakov/Chameleon, Max Dillon/Electro, Quentin Beck/Mysterio, Alexi Systevich/Rhino, and Flint Marko/Sandman trying to open a portal. The children entrusted to the Future Foundation arrived on the island to help after discovering the rifts had been caused by the Sinister Six. The Future Foundation were able to stop the Sinister Six’s plot but were unable to prevent the villains’ escapes. Peter returned home and Carlie confronted Peter about his lie, and the two were able to reconcile.

The Future Foundation battled a giant monster that had escaped from the Microverse. They were aided by Hank Pym/Giant Man, who was in charge of the Avengers Academy, a school training young superhumans who were at risk of turning into supervillains: Jennifer Takeda/Hazmat, Ken Mack/Mettle, Jeanne Foucault/Finesse, Humberto Lopez/Reptil, Medeline Berry/Veil and Brandon Sharpe/Striker. The faculty had other commitments, and Giant Man needed a substitute teacher for a day. Giant Man asked Thing, but since Peter had a teacher’s license, Giant Man decided given Spider-Man’s history, Spider-Man would be the perfect substitute teacher. After failing at teaching ethics, Spider-Man took the students out on patrol. While on patrol, Spider-Man and the students encountered Psycho-Man, who had escaped from the Microverse during the Future Foundation’s mission. Psycho-Man corrupted the students and turned them on Psycho-Man, and Spider-Man had to find a way to break Psycho-Man’s control over the students and to defeat the villain.

While Spider-Man was accepting the key to the city from Mayor Jameson, the ceremony was interrupted by Victor Alvarez/Power Man, Hero-For-Hire, who had unwittingly been hired by Norton G. Fester/Looter to steal the key so Looter could unlock a vault, thinking he would obtain a meteor that would strengthen his powers, but Looter instead unleashed a space monster. Spider-Man and Power Man had to team up to stop the monster and apprehend the villain.

The criminal Magnetic Man was released from prison on good behavior, but felt forced to return to his villainous ways, feeling he had no other way to make a living, until Peter Parker offered him a choice.

Spider-Man was drawn to a bar by Johnny Blaze/Ghost Rider. The demon the Servicer felt Ghost Rider was not using his bike for the reason it was given to him, to collect souls, and attempted to repossess it and steal the souls of everyone living in Manhattan. Spider-Man and Ghost Rider had to team up to stop Ghost Rider’s bike from being used for a sinister purpose and defeat the demon.

Okay, so we’ve got the plot summary out of the way, now let’s move on to my personal segments to this review. We’re going to start off with my own reflections on the book. My first reflection is a rather odd one: this is not the book I wanted at the moment. What I mean by this is that this particular volume is marketed as Vol. 14. The last volume of “The Amazing Spider-Man” in Modern Era Epic Collection format was Vol. 1, and the next volume being released is Vol. 2, to be followed by Vol. 3, so I don’t know why Marvel decided to release this particular volume at this exact moment in time, it honestly makes no sense to me. I feel like right now I should be reviewing “The Life and Death of Spiders” and not “Big Time” if the editors released these books properly. I know Marvel has made jumps in releases of Epic Collections, but this release just seems completely illogical. “Coming Home” ended inconclusively, and I would much rather be reading a sequential progression than skipping eight years of comics, then going back those eight years four months later when they do release Vol. 2, especially considering that there were a lot of changes that occurred due to certain storylines such as “Civil War,” “One More Day,” and “Brand New Day” and missing those key storylines makes little sense. That said, for what it was, I found the stories contained in this book to be highly enjoyable. Peter getting a job as a scientist and finally making money, having a new girlfriend, being a member of the Avengers and the Future Foundation were all developments that I liked. Gargan becoming Scorpion again, Phil Urich becoming the new Hobgoblin, and Flash Thomson being drafted as Venom were entertaining developments as well. The Horizon Labs scientists were all entertaining new side characters and the little impacts they had on the stories were all enjoyable. “Revenge of the Spider-Slayer” had a conclusion that really tugged at my heart, the tragic loss at the end, and I thought that was brilliantly written. “Torch Song” while a depressing issue mourning the loss of Johnny Storm was also quite humorous, especially the story told by Invisible Woman. “The Substitute” storyline was actually my favorite storyline in the book due to the range of emotions delivered throughout those two issues. I felt like throughout the entire graphic novel there was a wide range of emotions in general, and I really liked that. There were parts that made me laugh, smile, feel sad, feel excitement, and other reactions out of me that I always want to feel when I’m reading a graphic novel, so I feel like the writers did an excellent job on that front. Moving on to the work of the artists, however, there were hits and there were misses. I felt like Humberto Ramos did a fantastic job, he is actually one of my favorite comic book artists, I love his unique style. I also highly enjoyed Stefano Caselli’s work, and I thought Reilly Brown was particularly good, too, but the other artists just failed to appeal to my visual palate. However, I do feel like the artwork was mostly pleasing to look at, and the stories made up for those issues that were visual turn offs. As for the choice of the title of this graphic novel, I feel like “Big Time” is completely adequate.

Next, we’re going to move on to accessibility. I know that there are some of you who have read my reviews before and know what I mean by this, and I must have explained this at least six dozen times by now, but I know there are always those new readers who have never read a Tim Cubbin review before and don’t quite off the bat get what I mean when I use the word “accessibility,” so I’m obligated to once again explain myself. My meaning in the usage of the word is simply if a person who somehow (and I know in this day and age it seems nearly impossible) has never heard of Spider-Man can walk into their local book store or library and see this book on the shelf and say to themself “gee, this looks interesting, I want to read it," and then take this book with them and read it and comprehend everything they’ve just read. In this case, I feel like this book is both accessible and inaccessible at the same time. It is the start of a new storyline, it only features issues from one series, it’s pretty much self-contained, and there are no direct crossovers or events contained in this book. However, it ties into other series with the inclusion of characters such as the Avengers, the Future Foundation, and the Avengers Academy. That said, I feel like if you have knowledge of Marvel already from other sources such as the MCU, shows, video games, cartoons, movies, or even other comics, you will probably be able to pick up on this a lot easier. I will tell you that after “Civil War” I stopped reading Marvel Comics for five years, and even now found some details in this book to be a little confusing, so I’m not completely sure if a Marvel newbie would be totally able to grasp this book, but maybe the fresh perspective might actually be a help, having not known all the history before “Brand New Day” could be beneficial, having no preconceived notions may work in your favor. However, I honestly would not recommend this book as a first book in someone’s Marvel Comics collection.

Next up on the docket is one of the most crucial moments in a Tim Cubbin review: my numeric score. I can’t say as it’s the single most important thing I do in my reviews, I think everything in these reviews aside from my introductory and conclusion paragraphs hold values of import to the overall impact of the review, but it is still extremely critical and one of the main reasons people actually read my reviews. Anyway, I score on an extremely simple system. I go on a scale of exact integers from one through ten. One means that this is one of the worst things I have ever read in my entire life and that every copy of this book should be collectively gathered and burned and then never be printed again. Giving a book a ten means that this is one of the best things I have ever read in my entire life and I will talk nonstop about it for the next month to anyone who gives me an opening and I will remember every single detail in this book fondly until the day I die. In my line of scoring, tens are reserved for sheer perfection, and I do not hand those out very often. The story has to be constantly engaging, interesting, unpredictable, satisfying, and entertaining. The art has to be consistently appealing, intriguing, pleasing, stunning, and enjoyable. And the title has to match the content it promises on the cover. So, let’s tick off the boxes here. The story for the most part was brilliantly written, but there were some parts that I didn’t completely find to be absolutely spot on. The artwork only fits the bill through about 80% of the book. The title was completely adequate. So, I’d say we’re looking at a relatively good score here. Now, my regular readers already know about my metaphorical blender, but I’ll tell you newbies about it. I have a metaphorical blender reserved for mixing scores for book reviews. So, I take all the contents of the graphic novel I’ve just read as liquids, and I pour them into my metaphorical blender. I turn it on to mix and I blend them until they’re completely consistent. Then I have my metaphorical cup I drink scores out of. I take my score liquid and I pour it into my cup. I’m looking at it and it’s… a seven! I’d love to have given higher for the story, but there were moments that I didn’t completely love, and I did take off for the art, but still, a seven is a particularly good score by my standards.

Next up on our magical mystery tour is the recommendation. This segment answers two questions. The first question is, do I, Tim Cubbin, personally recommend this graphic novel to anyone who is reading this review right now or who may hear the sound of my voice as I talk to them about this graphic novel? The second question has no correlation to the first question, and it is who do I think should be reading this graphic novel? The answer to question number one is yes, I do give my personal recommendation for this graphic novel. As for question number two, I think the best audience for this book are fans of Spider-Man (obviously), for readers who enjoy the work of Dan Slott as I feel he excelled in writing the stories he wrote in this graphic novel, and for readers who enjoy comic books that evoke a wide range of emotions, as this graphic novel definitely plays with the readers’ emotions.

Okay, we’re at the point where I’m just about ready to wrap everything up. There are some things I do have to say before I go. I’ll start off by talking about the content of this blog a little bit. I’ve been working on this blog for five years now and I have done over 170 posts. I have done over seven dozen reviews on this blog, many of them on Epic Collections. If you enjoyed this post, feel free to check out my other review in the series “The Amazing Spider-Man: Coming Home.” I collect every Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection and Ultimate Epic Collection as soon as I can after they are released and try to put up a review as soon as I can after I read them. I’ve done reviews of other books, comic events, and even a few Mangas. I’ve also written short stories, poetry, essays, editorials, and articles, but my current main focus is on reviews. I post on a very frequent basis. My next post is going to be a review of “Carnage: Carnage U.S.A.” you can expect to see that post within the next week of this post going up. And with that, I believe I’ve said all I need to say for today, so I’ll just end with Tim Cubbin… out!