"The Amazing Spider-Man: The Life and Death of Spiders"

 

                The following is a review of the graphic novel “The Amazing Spider-Man: The Life and Death of Spiders” as collected in Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection format.

                Peter Parker/Spider-Man returned to New York from California after failing to reconcile with his estranged wife Mary Jane Watson-Parker. After being forced into a state of slumber, Doctor Stephen Strange, Sorcerer Supreme, informed Peter that due to his actions on the Astral Plane during his battle with the supervillain the Shade, Peter had attracted a totemic enemy from another plane of existence and told Peter to check a page in his book on etymology to prove their meeting wasn’t a dream. This page was about the spider wasp, the natural killer of spiders. Three nights later, while out of patrol, Spider-Man encountered a creature calling herself Shathra. The two fought, but Spider-Man was unable to defeat Shathra, and Shathra escaped following their spar, but Shathra revealed during their encounter she was aware of Spider-Man’s secret identity. Shathra went to the media in the guise of Sharon Keller to lure Spider-Man to her, claiming to be Spider-Man’s lover, that many of his battles were staged so he could make money, and that he made fun of other superheroes behind their back., and that if he came forward to refute her claims, she would reveal his secret identity to the media. At first, Peter was hesitant to come forward, but after calling Mary Jane and hearing the hurt in her voice, Peter couldn’t let it slide. Spider-Man swung to the television studio where he exposed Shathra as the creature she was and took the battle to the streets. Shathra stung Spider-Man with a paralyzing agent, and Spider-Man was barely able to escape to the Musuem of Natural History’s spider exhibit enclosure to hide. He was found by Ezekiel Sims and brought to a ruins site in Ghana watched over by the people of the Ashanti tribe, who first told the story of Kwaku Anansi, the original spider-man. Shathra followed Spider-Man to Ghana, where to two engaged in their final battle. Mary Jane decided she wanted to see Peter in person, so she booked a flight to New York. Ezekiel booked Peter a flight back to New York, but Peter decided he wanted to see Mary Jane and switched the reservation from a one-way first class ticket to New York for a coach ticket to Los Angeles with an open-date return flight to New York. Both Peter and Mary Jane got to the other’s apartment and waited for the other, but after both were left unable to meet, they decided to let each other go and move on with their lives. Mary Jane’s flight to Los Angeles had a stop-over in Denver. Peter’s flight to New York was grazed by lightning and had to land in Denver for inspection. While at the airport, Peter saw Mary Jane, and the two began to talk. While they were talking, Peter noticed Latverian dictator and supervillain Doctor Victor Von Doom being escorted by two Denver International Airport security guards. A bomb went off in the middle of the airport, and Peter sprang into action. He realized that one of the security guards was actually Steve Rogers/Captain America. Peter quickly changed to Spider-Man and fought to save Doctor Doom from being assassinated. Captain America joined the fight, and the two protected Doctor Doom and the people in the airport. Peter and Mary Jane talked, and Peter told Mary Jane he needed her, something Mary Jane didn’t know Peter felt anymore, and Mary Jane agreed to reconcile their marriage.

                In 1957, mob boss Morris Forelli had six mob bosses and seven mob lieutenants killed in a hit in Las Vegas and had the bodies dumped in a desert in Nevada. In 2003, the United States military decided to test weapons in the Nevada desert, beginning with a gamma bomb. The bomb created a creature called Digger, an amalgamation of the Vegas Thirteen. Digger traveled to New York to get revenge on Forelli. New York Police Department Lieutenant Lamont got Spider-Man’s attention about Digger, revealing that Digger had fingerprints from different people on the same hand and that he was green. Digger went to the Starlight Club and came into conflict with the clubgoers. Spider-Man arrived and fought Digger, but Digger was able to escape. Forelli sent one of underlings to fetch Spider-Man. Forelli offered to pay Spider-Man $10,000 to be his and his daughter Lynne’s bodyguard. Spider-Man agreed, and Forelli gave Spider-Man a pager. One of Forelli’s ships was sunk, and he sent Spider-Man to Nevada to confirm if the Vegas Thirteen were still where Forelli had left them forty-six years before. Spider-Man went to the Nevada desert, where he discovered a government test site where Forelli sent him. Peter returned to New York where he continued reviving his marriage to Mary Jane. Spider-Man fought Digger again, and Forelli’s men unloaded on Digger. This left Spider-Man with a blood sample from Digger and an anger with Forelli. Spider-Man then used this blood sample to learn the secret to defeat Digger, and after ending his association with Forelli, Peter put the money he made as Forelli’s bodyguard to a worthy cause.

                While running late for a faculty meeting, Peter found a student with a broken leg named Melissa Coolridge planning to play hooky, and convinced Melissa to come to school with Peter. Peter found that despite being smart, Melissa was in remedial reading and pulled strings to get Melissa into Peter’s honors biology class. After class, Peter walked Melissa home, where they found Melissa’s apartment being burglarized. Peter was able to stop the burglars from stealing from Melissa’s apartment, but the burglars were able to return to their corrupt landlord Hugh Muller, who was having his tenants steal to make him money. Peter discovered that as Spider-Man, he had gotten Melissa’s older brother Joshua arrested for carjacking. Spider-Man had an encounter with Ezekiel where Spider-Man discussed his guilt in ruining Melissa’s family. After Joshua got out of jail, he disappeared. Melissa began searching for him, and Spider-Man kept tabs on Melissa as she searched for her brother out of guilt, hoping he could help her reunite her family.

                After a go around with administrative assistant Julie, Peter’s Aunt May Parker, who recently found out her nephew was Spider-Man, gave sage advice to calm him down. While enjoying a night with Mary Jane, Peter saw red lightning and swung into action as Spider-Man. New York City was being overrun by the Mindless Ones, who were entering the city through a portal, and New York’s heroes were attempting to stem the invasion. Reed Richards/Mister Fantastic, of the Fantastic Four, created a device that would pull them back into whatever dimension they escaped from. Doctor Strange had dispersed his foe Dormammu through multiple dimensions during their last encounter, and Mister Fantastic’s device inadvertently reconstituted Dormammu. Doctor Strange used a spell to try to remove Dormammu, but Spider-Man got caught in it, and was brought outside of time and space, where they could see the past and a future where Dormammu had killed all the superheroes during the battle. Spider-Man saw his ending and had a chance to stop himself from ever becoming Spider-Man in the first place. Thought severely tempted, Peter could not bring himself to alter the course of his past. Spider-Man had to travel through his timeline to reach the present so he could prevent Mister Fantastic from activating the device and freeing Dormammu. Peter fought through the pain of his past back to the present day, to his birthday, where he was presented with a very special gift by Doctor Strange.

                A man stole a military-grade prototype mining suit and took on the name the Shaker. Spider-Man had to battle him. Meanwhile, Aunt May went to the park to talk to her passed loved ones as she continued to cope with her nephew being a superhero.

                Tailor Leo Zelinsky, who designed outfits for both superheroes and supervillains, overheard Killshot, one of his clients, planning a hit. He had to guarantee the privacy of his clients, but under the urging of his grandson Michael, Leo went to Spider-Man with this information and painted a target on his own back.

                Okay, we’ve been through quite a lengthy summary of the stories from this Modern Era Epic Collection, it’s time to move on to my input on this graphic novel. For those of you who don’t know, I’m going to start with my own personal thoughts and opinions about this book, including if I liked the book, what I liked and disliked about the book, what I thought about the stories and the art, if I thought the title was appropriate, and if I feel like the cover fit the book. So, for starters, I will say that I personally loved this book. J. Michael Straczynski is one of my all-time favorite “The Amazing Spider-Man” writers. These stories were originally published between 2002-2003, which was during my early days collecting comics, so I read these relatively close to their original release dates, I actually didn’t get the issues individually, I got the trade paperbacks, my individual comics were strictly “X-Men” series at the time. Regardless of that, I still enjoyed reading Spider-Man. Spider-Man was my childhood favorite cartoon Marvel hero, but I entered comics with the X-Men in middle school. Anyway, I enjoyed reading the developments with Ezekiel, I just like the enigmatic-ness of him, just how and when he shows up and what he does when he enters Peter’s life. I enjoyed seeing Spider-Man’s battle with Shathra, which tested the limits of Peter’s restraint, both in fighting a female and how far he would go to defeat an enemy. I was so happy when Peter and Mary Jane reunited. Their missing each other at their homes then meeting in the airport was great. I loved how Mary Jane complained that Peter never introduced her to Peter’s friends, and the Peter’s response with Captain America was humorous. I enjoyed the Digger storyline, particularly the resolution at the end, I really thought that was great. I enjoyed the storyline with Melissa, the conflict Peter felt over sending Melissa’s brother to jail and trying to make amends was very humanizing and it was a very touching and emotional story. I loved the “Happy Birthday” storyline, the war with Julie was actually very entertaining and I loved her second appearance in the story. I loved how Spider-Man had to relive his past, and some of the greatest moments from Spider-Man’s early history were relived, including his most devastating moments with Betty Brant and Gwen Stacy, although I will say that Straczynski did write these scenes incorrectly, the special features in this collection compare the original scenes to Straczynski’s scenes and they are vastly different, but I still enjoyed seeing these scenes. Peter’s struggle with seeing his demise and then having a chance to end all the pain caused by him becoming Spider-Man and having to make the choice was a very strong moment, and the ending with Peter’s birthday gift from Doctor Strange was very emotional. I enjoyed the “Saturday in the Park with May” issue, seeing Aunt May coping with her nephew being Spider-Man after years of hating the vigilante was fun to see, and the scene in the cell phone store was hysterical, I love the moments when Aunt May doesn’t take stuff from anyone and proves just how strong a woman she is. The “You Want Pants with That?” issue was great as well, I loved the character of Leo Zelinksy, even though I doubt we’ll ever see him again, and the scene with the waiter was great, particularly since the same waiter appeared twice in this book at two different restaurants, and Peter gave him sass both times, I thought that scene was really funny. All-in-all, I thought this book was extremely well-written. There really weren’t too many things I could find to dislike in the stories. There were a few small moments that weren’t great, but they really didn’t ruin my enjoyment of this book all that much. I do have a few complaints about Straczynski’s continuity issues. In the scene where Spider-Man relives the Gwen Stacy bridge scene in the “Happy Birthday” storyline, Gwen is awake when she is knocked off the bridge, but if you read “The Amazing Spider-Man” #121, she was unconscious when the Green Goblin knocked Gwen off the bridge. Straczynski states in his flashbacks that Peter was seventeen when he was bitten by the spider, but other writers have made the claim Peter was fifteen, so I honestly don’t know who to believe. Also, Straczynski made a contradiction in Melissa’s brother’s name. In “Amazing Spider-Man” #55, Melissa’s brother is called “Jack,” but in #56, he is called “Joshua.” This same mistake also happened in the previous volume, so I’ve noticed a pattern of Straczynski forgetting his sub-characters’ names, which is very bad in a writer. I thought Straczynski was a good writer for “The Amazing Spider-Man,” but he did make a few mess ups here and there. Next up, we’re going to discuss the art. I personally love the work of John Romita, Jr., I think he is a fantastic artist. With him and his father being the only artists in this book, I found the art in this collection to be exceptional. I have absolutely no complaints about the artwork inside this graphic novel. As far as the title goes, there were a lot of options from the fact that most of the stories had different titles in this book, the only story that was broken into parts was “Happy Birthday,” which was given three parts. Honestly, the only titles that I feel could have worked were “Unnatural Enemies,” “The Life and Death of Spiders,” “A Spider’s Tale,” “Unintended Consequences,” or “The Revolution Within,” or they could have just made up an original title and that could have worked as well, but I do think that “The Life and Death of Spiders” was a choice that was catchy, but I’m not completely sold on it being the correct title for the entire book. I feel like this was actually the weakest choice for the title and that a different choice would have represented this book better. Moving on to the cover, the editors of this book decided to use a cover depicting Spider-Man swinging with Mary Jane holding onto him and an assortment of his villains following in the background. I feel like this was a perfect cover for this book as this book focused on Spider-Man and Mary Jane’s relationship and all of these villains battled him in the “Happy Birthday” storyline. Overall, though, I was extremely satisfied with this graphic novel.

                Next up on our agenda of topics to go over, we’re going to discuss accessibility. Now, I know some of you have never read one of my reviews before and are wondering just what the heck I mean throwing out the word accessibility like this, so I shall explain it to you. I’ve been over this over six dozen times before in my previous reviews, so I know there are people who already know what they’re about to read, but I have to write it again for the newbs, so if you’ve read my reviews before, please bear with me for a few sentences. So when I say accessibility pertaining to any media I’m reviewing, I’m saying if a person who, in this case, has somehow never heard of Spider-Man before, sees this book anywhere they get books and decides that they want to now read this book based just on looking at the title or cover, then obtains it and reads it, will be able to comprehend the entire story based solely on the content contained in this book and this book alone. In this case, I would say that is a definite no. The content in this book is a direct continuation of the previous storylines written by J. Michael Straczynski, which can conveniently be purchased in Modern Era Epic Collection format as “The Amazing Spider-Man: Coming Home.” Prior reading is essential in understanding the status of Peter and Mary Jane’s relationship, as well as the presences of both Shathra and Ezekiel, and Aunt May’s struggles with Peter are established in the previous volume as well. I would say not having read “Coming Home” is extremely detrimental to understanding this particular volume. Also, the “Happy Birthday” storyline brings up Spider-Man’s past struggles without context, something than people not acquainted with Spider-Man would recognize. If you are looking to start getting into reading Marvel Comics, I would not say this is a good first volume for you. For those people who do know things about Spider-Man, whether from movies, shows, or video games, I still wouldn’t recommend reading this book without reading “Coming Home.” And for current or lapsed readers of Marvel Comics, again I would still say read all of Straczynski’s previous storylines before attempting to read this book. As a book for accessibility, this one isn’t the greatest. I will say, however, that this does only contain issues from one series and it does not include any tie-in issues to any events, so the narrative is consistent and doesn’t deviate from the one focus, so if you have read “Coming Home,” reading this book won’t present difficulties with following the story.

                Continuing on with this review, as I have been going on for quite a long time, we’re going to get on to a key segment of my review: the numeric score. I know that some people come to my reviews solely to know just how good I score these books I read, but this isn’t the only thing in my reviews that is important to everyone, the story is the most important thing to some readers, but there are readers who come to just read everything I have to say because for some reason they enjoy reading these reviews, and to those people, I say you are THE BEST! I know some people who read these reviews do actually personally know me as well, and read these reviews because of that, so I say “hi” to all of you, and thanks for reading my long-winded review, as this one is particularly long today. But moving one, I’m going to explain my scoring system. I’ve been over this over six dozen times in my previous reviews, and I know some of you already know it, but they newbs don’t, so I have to explain it again. It’s a very simple system, running on a scale of exact integers from one through ten. One is the lowest score I can possibly give, which means this book is not worth reading, and if you really want me to be extreme, in my opinion, every copy of this book should be removed from the shelves or storage and collectively obliterated in a massive fire, then Marvel should go and delete all the plates containing the contents of this book so it can never be reprinted again (honestly that is extreme and I don’t really mean that, that’s just a joking example of saying that it’s bad and shouldn’t be read). Now, if on the other hand, I score anything at a ten, that means that this book is perfection, one of the best things I have ever read in my entire life, and if you get stuck in a conversation with me about it, I will probably rave about it nonstop for ten minutes, and if anyone reads this and doesn’t like it, I will probably think they need to have their head examined because they don’t know what a good story looks like (again, that’s extreme, I actually welcome everyone to have their own opinions on anything I write in my blog as this blog is strictly my opinion and I cannot control what anyone else thinks and I wish you to formulate your own opinion if you read it so we can have a thorough discussion about it, but I still will have a hard time comprehending how you can’t possibly enjoy this book). Now I am extremely strict about giving out tens, I will not give a ten out unless I can find absolutely no flaws with the book at all. That said, I also don’t like giving low scores unless I feel the book actually really deserves it. If you’ve actually been paying attention to my words two paragraphs ago, you’ve probably gathered that this score is going to be relatively high, and I will tell you that you are correct. I did think the story was excellent, but there were a few moments that weren’t spot on, and yes, there were a bunch of continuity mistakes. I thought the art was consistently exceptional throughout the whole book, I find no visual things to complain about. I feel like the title was a little weak. I thought the cover was an adequate representation of the content within the book. So, putting all of that together, the score that I’m going to give this book is… an eight! There were flaws with the writing and the title, but they weren’t too overpowering, and the art was great, so I feel like my score is fair for this book.

                Next up on the docket is my recommendation segment. This section always answers two separate questions. The first question is: do I, Tim Cubbin, personally recommend this book to you, my readers of this review, or to anyone unfortunate enough to get caught up in conversation with me about this book? The second is, regardless of if I recommend this book or not, whom do I think, beyond the obvious answers of fans of the character or the publisher, should be reading this book? So, to answer the first question, you probably don’t need me to say this, but yes, I do recommend this book to anyone who is reading this review and is now interested in reading this book based solely on the words I have typed in this post. As for the second question, I think the best audience for this book is people who enjoy the story of lovers trying to make their romance work through many obstacles in the path of their relationship. It’s also good for people who like reading mob stories. It’s also got a story good for readers who enjoy trying to reunite a family. Finally, it’s also good for readers who enjoy a character forced to face their past, present and future with the option to change all three.

                Okay, we’re at the point where we’re just about ready to wrap this all up and move on with our lives. I’ve been working on this for several hours now, and you’ve been reading this for several minutes now, and we now have other things to do. Maybe some of those other things you have to do is continue browsing timcubbin.blogspot.com for more content from me? If you liked this post and want more “The Amazing Spider-Man” content, I’ve posted reviews of two other “The Amazing Spider-Man” Modern Era Epic Collections, so feel free to check out “The Amazing Spider-Man: Coming Home” and “The Amazing Spider-Man: Big Time” if you liked this and want to read more of my work. I’ve also written over six dozen other reviews, including Epic Collections, Modern Era Epic Collections, Ultimate Epic Collections, prose novels, and comic book events, so there are plenty of other reviews you can check out as well. I’ve also written short stories, poetry, articles, essays, and editorials. I’ve done over 170 posts, so there’s plenty of other content you can check out if you want to read more from me. I’ve been doing this blog for five years, so there’s plenty more to read. I post on a very frequent basis, I purchase every Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection and Ultimate Epic Collection as soon as I can after it is released, so you can usually expect at least one post a month. My next post will be “Deadpool: Magnum Opus” which you can expect to see within the next three weeks after the posting of this review, so keep checking for it, it’ll be up soon. I’ll be doing this blog for as long as I can, until I can no longer see or type, so expect this to be going on for a long time. That’s all I have to say for now. I’ll just leave you with the words: Tim Cubbin… out!