"The Amazing Spider-Man: Spider-Island"

 

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

            Peter Parker/Spider-Man had recently lost his Spider-Sense, a precognitive ability that warned Peter of imminent danger. Julia Carpenter/Madame Web had become aware of Spider-Man’s severance from the Web of life. Madame Web conferred with Shang-Chi, Master of Kung-Fu, aware that a great danger was coming that Spider-Man had to prepare for, but asking for Shang-Chi’s instruction must be Spider-Man’s choice. Madame Web had Shang-Chi watch as Jerome Beechman/Mandrill attempted to commit a robbery, using his pheromone powers to control Jessica Drew/Spider-Woman, but Madame Web instructed Shang-Chi not to assist. Spider-Man was able to break Mandrill’s control over Spider-Woman, and Spider-Man and Spider-Woman teamed up to defeat Mandrill. Spider-Man asked Shang-Chi to teach Spider-Man Kung-Fu. Shang-Chi began instructing Spider-Man, telling Spider-Man that Spider-Man had to learn the Way of the Spider.

            One night, Eddie Brock/Anti-Venom stumbled upon a vigilante called the Wraith taking down a group of Martin Li/Mr. Negative’s Demons, and saw Wraith unmask as Jean DeWolff, deceased former NYPD Captain. The next day, Peter was featured in an article in American Science Journal. Peter’s Aunt May Jameson and her husband Jay Jameson, Sr. were at Li’s F.E.A.S.T. Shelter, handing out copies of the American Science Journal when May made physical contact with Li. May had previously discovered Li was Mr. Negative, but Mr. Negative had used Mr. Negative’s powers to make May forget. This contact caused May to pass out. The NYPD, led by Captain Yuri Watanbe, were called to investigate the crime scene of the Wraith’s bust from the night before, including Peter’s girlfriend, NYPD C.S.I. Carlie Cooper. As Mr. Negative left the F.E.A.S.T. Shelter in a limousine, Anti-Venom attacked Mr. Negative’s limo, intent on ending Mr. Negative. Spider-Man, unaware Martin Li was Mr. Negative, fought Anti-Venom, and Mr. Negative’s limo was able to escape. Anti-Venom overpowered Spider-Man and webbed Spider-Man up, then told Spider-Man Li was Mr. Negative, but Spider-Man did not believe Anti-Venom. Anti-Venom left Spider-Man webbed up and went after Mr. Negative again. Li donated a collection of Terracotta Warriors to the Metropolitan Museum, with product hidden inside that Mr. Negative intended on having his Demons extract that night. Anti-Venom overheard Mr. Negative and his Demons discussing their plans for the product extraction. Carlie continued investigating the Wraith, suspicious Captain Watanabe was hiding something about the case. Anti-Venom brought Spider-Man to the Metropolitan Museum to witness Anti-Venom stop Mr. Negative and the Demons. Mr. Negative incapacitated Anti-Venom, but Spider-Man and Wraith picked up the fight. Wraith used facial recognition technology in her mask to confirm that Li was Mr. Negative and sent it out as a broadcast. Mr. Negative, now exposed, managed to escape. Anti-Venom left the crime scene, leaving Spider-Man to deal with the cops. Carlie identified the Wraith’s true identity. Carlie asked Peter the truth about Peter’s connection with Spider-Man. Peter told Carlie that Peter made technology for Spider-Man.

            Peter and Betty Brant got together for a movie night on the first Friday of every month. Betty really wanted to see a movie that was a limited engagement, but Peter said Peter couldn’t go because Peter had to work. Betty decided to go alone. On the way to the theater, Betty was mugged and the locket Betty’s mother gave Betty was stolen. Betty was discovered and brought to the hospital. All of Betty’s friend came to the hospital, except for Peter, who went looking for the mugger as Spider-Man. Spider-Man found Betty’s mother’s locket at a pawn shop and found out the mugger’s name was Harlan Finch. Spider-Man went on a vendetta looking for Finch. Aunt May called Peter and told Peter that Peter’s place and responsibility was to be with Betty. Peter gave up looking for Finch and went to the hospital and watched a movie with Betty in Betty’s hospital room.

            Spider-Man had a night where his misinterpreted situations and leapt into action at the wrong time, and his help was not needed and not appreciated.

            Jay and May invited Peter, Carlie, and Mayor J. Jonah Jameson to dinner to tell the family that Jay and May were going to be moving to Boston. Carlie discovered she was developing abilities similar to Spider-Man.

            Professor Miles Warren/Jackal unleashed bedbugs upon New York City whose bites gave the bug’s victims powers similar to Spider-Man. Shang-Chi continued to train Spider-Man, under the watchful eyes of Madame Web.

            Jackal resurrected Peter Parker’s clone Kaine Parker and transformed Kaine into Jackal’s new Tarantula. Abby-L, clone of the deceased Gwen Stacy, attacked Jackal and Tarantula, intent on ending the Jackal’s threat once and for all, but failed in Abby-L’s quest for revenge. The Jackal made a new ally in his machinations.

            Mayor J. Jonah Jameson’s approval ratings were at an all-time low due to his Anti-Spider Patrol. Peter presented his new invention, the Cryo Cube, to Peter’s boss at Horizon Lab’s, Max Modell. Carlie’s powers continued to get stronger. Phil Urich/Hobgoblin saved Peter from getting hit by a bus. Daily Bugle reporter Norah Winters told Peter of reports of multiple Spider-Man sightings at the same time. New York citizens were hospitalized after developing Spider-Man-like powers. Jackal began to recruit an army of spider-powered soldiers. Madame Web challenged Spider-Man to a fight. Spider-Man was able to hold his own in the fight until Madame Web revealed to Spider-Man that Madame Web had been grooming Spider-Man and that Spider-Man would have to use a killing stroke in the battle ahead, a move Spider-Man intended to refuse to make. Jackal’s ally brought Jackal Steve Rogers/Captain America to transform into the monstrous Spider-King. Carlie revealed to Peter that Carlie had powers. Jackal had his army dress up in Spider-Man costumes and commit crimes. Peter and Carlie brought May and Jay to the airport. A group of superheroes arrived to fight the Spider-Men attacking New York City and ended up fighting the real Spider-Man as well. Norah Winters wanted to report on the happenings and called Phil Urich to be Norah’s cameraman. Phil had been watching Norah for a while and knew Norah was going to call and purposely planned to take Phil’s time answering, but Norah gave up and called Norah’s boyfriend Randy Robertson instead. Randy raced to the scene of the action where Norah was, where Randy was attacked by Hobgoblin. Randy fought back, using spider powers, including some Spider-Man himself didn’t even possess. Norah recorded the whole fight. In Randy’s anger for Norah’s obsession with getting a story with no regard for Randy’s safety where Norah had an opportunity to help, Randy broke up with Norah. Hobgoblin escaped, and Phil returned to the scene where Norah and Phil got together. Shang-Chi and James Howlett/Logan/Wolverine identified Peter as the real Spider-Man, and Luke Cage told Peter for Peter’s safety to leave the fight. Carlie and the Anti-Spider Patrol joined the fight. As the heroes were losing the battle, Peter made a rallying cry to the spider-powered people of New York to be superheroes and led a group of spider-heroes into the fight, and the spider-heroes were able to turn the tide of the battle. Horizon Labs was chosen to work on a cure for the people of Spider-Island. Reed Richard/Mister Fantastic of the Future Foundation (which Spider-Man was currently a member of), was called in to lead the work for a cure. Peter was selected to repurpose the confiscated gadgets in the superhuman evidence locker in the police department into gear for the Anti-Spider Patrol. Carlie figured out the Jackal was behind Spider-Island and got a lead on Jackal’s location. Peter and Carlie went to an abandoned lab at Empire State University, where they were attacked by Steven Hudak/Scorcher, Lorina Dodson/White Rabbit, and Nicholas Powell/Chance. Peter and Carlie defeated the villains, and Carlie told Peter that Carlie wanted Peter to bring Spider-Man to the precinct so Carlie, Peter, and Spider-Man could talk. Horizon Labs created Spider-Sense Jammers that would create a psychic barrier that would quarantine Spider-Island and prevent the infected from leaving the Island. Reed discovered that the virus had been carried by bedbugs but was now airborne. Reed also discovered that mutants and superhumans were immune to the virus. The Jammers were inhibiting Madame Web’s ability to see the future. Anti-Venom was curing the infected of their spider-powers through physical contact. Spider-Man met with Carlie. Spider-Man and Carlie went to a crime scene to fight Herman Schultz/Shocker, who was mutating. Jackal’s ally, Adrian Soria/the Queen, began transforming the infected into giant spiders, including Carly. Mary Jane Watson, Peter’s ex-girlfriend, remained unaffected by the virus. Anti-Venom set up a base at Our Lady of Saints Church, where Anti-Venom was curing the infected. Mayor Jameson teamed up with Spider-Man. Flash Thompson/Agent Venom had been impersonating Spider-King and was with the Queen when news of Anti-Venom curing the infected reached the Queen, news that Agent Venom shared with Venom’s handlers at Project Rebirth. This news was then relayed to Reed, who wanted to get Anti-Venom immediately so Reed could formulate a cure. Mayor Jameson brought Spider-Man to see the imprisoned Allistaire Smythe/Spider-Slayer to learn how to stop a city of spiders. Mary Jane began to exhibit spider-powers. Agent Venom caught Anti-Venom and brought Anti-Venom to Reed. Reed asked for Anti-Venom’s help in curing Spider-Island but told Eddie it would mean giving up being Anti-Venom. Mayor Jameson mutated and attacked Smythe and Spider-Man, but Spider-Man was able to web up the mayor. The Queen mutated Horizon Labs scientist Sajani Jaffrey. Reed tested Reed’s cure on Sajani, and the cure worked. Madame Web came to Horizon Labs to tell Max Modell that the Jammers were inhibiting Madame Web’s visions, and that Spider-Man no longer had Spider-Sense. Max got all the scientists in Horizon Labs working on a way to fix Spider-Man. Spider-Man went to Peter’s lab at Horizon Labs and was attacked by Tarantula. Jackal had provided Tarantula with a toxin that would contaminate Reed’s cure. Tarantula was going to throw Spider-Man into the cure along with the toxin, when Spider-Man’s Spider-Sense was restored. Spider-Man overpowered Tarantula and knocked Tarantula into the cure. Kaine emerged from the cure in a human form still possessing spider-powers. Jackal told the Queen that Jackal no longer had contact with Tarantula. The Queen discovered her powers were amplified to god-like proportions and used them on Jackal. Steve Rogers and Agent Venom battled the Queen in Central Park. The Queen transformed into the gigantic monstrous Spider-Queen. Ben Grimm/Thing, Spider-Woman, and Mary Jane arrived at Horizon Labs. Spider-Man and Kaine pulled a quick costume change before Max, Thing, Reed, Spider-Woman, and Mary Jane arrived in Peter’s lab. Peter gave Kaine Peter’s Stealth Suit, and Spider-Man, Kaine, and Mary Jane joined Steve Rogers, the X-Men, the Avengers, Agent Venom, and several other superheroes as they fought the Queen and to deliver the cure and put an end to Spider-Island. Carlie figured out Peter was Spider-Man. Carlie forced Peter to admit that Peter was Spider-Man, then left Peter. Peter went to Doctor Stephen Strange and learned that Doctor Strange’s spell was now weakened and people would now be able to figure out that Peter Parker was Spider-Man without Peter unmasking to them, due to Peter’s actions during Spider-Island. Peter took a dose of the cure to give to Mary Jane, who never fully transformed.

            People were flocking to New York City, hoping to gain spider-powers. Tiberius Stone offered the Spider-Sense Jammer tech plans to Wilson Fisk/Kingpin. A young man was recruited to the Flock and dubbed Michael, along with Angela Death, Lucifer, and Gabriel, armed with flying technology. The Flock committed robberies and brought their loot to their leader Adrian Toomes/Vulture in exchange for keeping their flying technology. Carlie was investigating deaths caused by the Flock. Peter and Carlie met accidentally at the Coffee Bean and agreed to a Spider-Man/Carlie Cooper joint investigation. During a heist, Michael tried to keep a piece of loot for himself. Vulture, who kept track of the weight of each member of the Flock, tried to send Michael to the ground as punishment, but Spider-Man saved Michael and fought the Vulture and the Flock. Carlie went to Mary Jane to talk about their relationships with Peter Parker and Spider-Man.

            The Sinister Six (Otto Octavius/Doctor Octopus, Flint Marko/Sandman, Dmitri Smerdyakov/Chameleon, Aleksei Systevich/Rhino, Max Dillon/Electro, and Quentin Beck/Mysterio) went to Russia to prevent the Intelligencia from taking over the world and to get the organization of the smartest super villains on Earth to admit that Otto had the superior intellect. When Mysterio questioned Doctor Octopus about why the Sinister Six saved the world, Doctor Octopus informed Mysterio that it was because the Sinister Six would be taking over the world themselves.

            Okay, now that we have that highly lengthy plot synopsis out of the way, we can move on to my individual bits. We’re going to start where we always start, with my own personal opinions about the book. I loved the stories in this book. I thought they were fantastically written. I enjoyed Madame Web throughout the course of this book, the way Madame Web shaped Spider-Man to prepare Spider-Man for the great battle and using Shang-Chi to teach Spider-Man the Way of the Spider was really interesting. “The Return of Anti-Venom” was enjoyable, I loved how Wraith exposed Mr. Negative. I loved “Crossroads,” especially when Aunt May guilted Peter, that part was heart-wrenching and a great moment, extremely powerful. Aunt May and Jay leaving for Boston was unexpected, and the emotional impact it left was really touching. The Jackal is one of my favorite Spider-Man villains, and I loved that he resurrected Kaine. “Spider-Island” was my favorite story in the book, and it had a lot of great moments. Peter using his spider-powers openly as Peter Parker was one of my favorite parts of the book, and I love that it had huge consequences. Mayor Jameson getting spider-powers was a great ironic moment, hating Spider-Man so much for so many years and then becoming one was just great divine punishment. I loved watching Carly develop throughout the book, seeing her detective skills improving, from learning the identity of the Wraith, to figuring out her boyfriend was Spider-Man, to investigating the Flock, it was fun just seeing her as an intellect, and I totally respected her decision to leave Peter the way she did. The aftermath of Spider-Island was hysterical, and the panel with Hercules, I just can’t. The Sinister Six issue was also very entertaining, seeing Spider-Man’s villains fighting to save the world just so they can conquer it later. Now, of course, this is a graphic novel, so I would be remiss if I did not talk about my opinions about the art. I will say in general, I enjoyed the artwork. There were a lot of panels by Giuseppe Camuncoli that just did not appeal to me. It was just the faces of the human characters, they just don’t quite look right to me. The superhero faces and actions look fine most of the time, it’s just the regular people that just don’t always appeal to me. Humberto Ramos is an artist who, for me, is great because his proportions are distorted, and yet somehow, are still pleasant to look at, which I can’t explain, because usually that is an immediate turnoff for me, but something about his work is still enjoyable to me. Ryan Stegman and Stefano Caselli also did fantastic jobs illustrating this book. Next up, I will go and get nitpicky and talk about the title. Seeing as the majority of this book pertained to the “Spider-Island” storyline, I will say that choosing to call this book “Spider-Island” was the appropriate choice for a title. Getting even more nitpicky, I will evaluate the appropriateness of the cover. This cover depicts Spider-Man, along with Cloak, Dagger, Luke Cage, Black Panther, Hulk, Shang-Chi, Iron Fist, Captain America, Spider-Woman, and Thing all wearing various costumes that Spider-Man or Spider-Man’s clones wore at points in the past. I feel like this is a misleading cover as this does not happen in this book. None of the heroes ever wear Spider-costumes. In fact, Hulk does not even appear in this book at all. As such, I feel like this cover does not properly represent this particular volume. In summation, as stories go, I found this book to be well written, and the artwork was, for the most part, appealing to me, but I feel like the cover should have been one that delivered on its promise and gave the readers what it showed on the front of the book, but the title was absolutely spot on.

            Next up on the agenda is accessibility. I’ve done over seven dozen reviews like this, and I’ve explained every time my meaning of using this word, but I know every time I have readers who have never been to this blog before and don’t know what I mean when I use the word accessibility in application to a graphic novel. As such, I will explain it once again for you newbs. Accessibility means how easy it is for someone who knows absolutely nothing about Spider-Man or Marvel in general to obtain this graphic novel, read the entire story, and understand the content as written with no outside context or prior knowledge. I feel like this book has accessibility with a few takebacks. It continues on stories previously established, but it does not pick up directly from a previous story at the start of this volume. It features the main storyline of an event and includes two tie-in issues. It does not contain issues from any other ongoing series. I feel like this book could be considered standalone, but it is not complete. There are references to moments from other series in the event that are not contained in this volume. If you’re just starting to read Marvel Comics and are looking for a first book, this is not the perfect starting point, but it’s not a book that I would discourage you from picking.

            Moving on, I’m going to give a numeric assessment of exactly how good I feel like this book was. This means I’m going to give my score for this book. I know some people come to this blog with the score as their main interest in the post, but I know that the plot synopsis is the most enjoyable part, but every segment in this blog has value and is important to different people for different reasons. As I said when I discussed accessibility, I always have new readers every time I do a new post, so I have to explain how things work. So, I must explain my scoring system. It’s fairly basic; I score on a scale of exact whole numbers ranging from one to ten. One is the lowest score I can give, and that means that this book is a flaming pile of trash and should be avoided at all costs. Ten, on the other hand, is my highest score, and that means that this book is sheer perfection and belongs on the bestseller list. I’m not in the business of just handing out a ten. To get a ten, a book has to have a story I can find no faults with, consistently appealing artwork, and a title and cover that appropriately represent the content within the pages inside it. We’ve already established that I loved the stories, found the art to be appealing for most of the book, the title was proper for the book, but the cover did not deliver on the promise it presented. So, taking all those factors into consideration, the score we’re looking at here is… an eight! This book was a fantastic effort, but it could have used visual improvement and a cover that showed events that actually happened inside the book.

            As we continue, we have now come to the recommendation segment. This segment is meant to achieve two goals. The first is to answer the question of if I, Tim Cubbin, would personally tell you, my readers, to actually read this book. The second is to establish the best audience for this book, beyond just fans of Marvel, Spider-Man, or the creative team, based on qualities or characteristics or story elements or areas of interest from this book that appeal to readers that I feel would make this book be enjoyable to them. So, we’ll start off with asking do I recommend this book? The answer is a definite yes. If you’re reading this review and now, based solely on the words you’ve just spent the past few minutes perusing, you’re interested in reading this book, I would tell you to head to your local bookstore, comic book shop or library, hop onto your favorite online retailer, or try to find a friend or relative with this book, somehow get your hands on this book and read it, you will definitely enjoy it. As for establishing an audience, I feel like those interested in the martial arts could be interested in this book. Fans of stories about viral contagions could find this book to be entertaining. This book could also be of interest to people who enjoy stories about physical metamorphoses. This book would also be interesting to readers who enjoy books about everyday people stepping up to do the extraordinary.

            Okay, I think we’ve reached the cooldown point. This is where I explain a few things about this blog before I let you move on with your life. First off, I have been doing this blog for six years now. During that time, I’ve posted over 200 times. If you enjoyed this post and have more free time, check out more on timcubbin.blogspot.com for more of my work. If you think all I do is book reviews, you’d be wrong. While I have reviewed over seven dozen books just like this one, I have also reviewed prose novels, comic books events, and manga, and I’ve even written a few short stories, poems, essays, articles and editorial, so there’s plenty more content to view. If you liked this post and have more free time, search for my reviews of “The Amazing Spider-Man: Coming Home” “The Amazing Spider-Man: The Life and Death of Spiders” “The Amazing Spider-Man: Sins Past” “The Amazing Spider-Man: Big Time” “Spider-Man/Deadpool: Isn’t it Bromantic?” “Spider-Man/Deadpool: ’Til Death Do Us” and “Spider-Man/Deadpool: Road Trip” for more Spider-Man content. This blog currently focuses on reviewing Marvel Modern Era Epic Collections and Ultimate Epic Collections. I purchase each one as soon as I can after it is released and post a review of it as soon as I can upon completion of reading it. As such, I usually post at least once every two months. My next post is going to be a review of “Carnage: Prophecy of the Darkhold” which you can expect to see on this blog within the next two months of this posting. I hope you will be back with me. I would like to go on the record as saying that everything on this blog is my personal opinion, a fact I accept. I don’t expect you to agree with me about everything I say. If I ever review a book, and you read it, you can leave me a comment about how you feel about it, if you agree with me, disagree with me, whatever you’d like to say about the book, you are always welcome to voice your opinion. If any reader ever has anything to say about anything on this blog, feel free to do so. I’d love to hear from you. This honestly does not happen, and I really would like for it to, I’d love to have discussions with my readers. Please like, react, share, retweet, get me out to your friends, I’d really love to reach more and new people. That’s all I have to say for now. Until next time, Tim Cubbin… out!