Correspondent Tony Thornley is back to talk about Spencer and Coello’s Amazing Spider-Man while the most prolific writer on the Xavier Files crew, Vishal Gullapalli, dives into Aaron and many artists’ Avengers #31!
Amazing Spider-Man #40
There’s a lot going on in Spider-Man’s world. But then, when isn’t that true? However, Amazing Spider-Man #40 covers a lot of ground for the ongoing plot of the series. Peter and Jonah reconcile (mostly). Spidey faces off against Chance (an obscure villain even I had to look up). The Foreigner reveals his hand. And Peter gets an unbelievable job offer.
If that sounds like a lot, well it is. It’s an entertaining issue, but there’s so much going on that the issue suffers for it. Every plot thread really needs more room to breathe. It creates a chaotic feeling that is almost anxiety inducing.
It does do a lot of things right though. The humor of Chance trying to lose the fight is spot on. It’s unexpected, and shows how good Spencer’s comedic timing is. The reader almost forgets that Chance actually wants to lose the fight up to that moment, and it leads to a great payoff to the supervillain casino plot.
The heart to heart that Jonah and Peter needed finally happens. It’s clearly cathartic and leads to some solid plot advancement in their relationship (and Peter’s personal life). The problem with it is that it largely happens off-panel, with the readers only getting four mostly silent panels of a conversation that should take up at least a full issue.
It has the feel of the classic comics of yesterday. The main plot gets resolved. The B plot is revealed to have some long term meaning. There’s soap opera stuff in the denouement. And then a long-forgotten plot gets connected to the whole thing in an issue ending twist.
And that’s the problem with Spencer’s run on Amazing. It’s largely nostalgia bait- from Hunted to 2099 to this story, chock full of 80’s and 90’s villains and references. When it does unique and new things, it’s good, maybe even great. But when it’s not stretching itself it’s just popcorn comics- entertaining but forgettable. Thankfully Coello’s line art and Reber’s color art is solid and enjoyable.
Next issue though, one of the best parts of Spencer’s run- Boomerang- returns, and hopefully that means an uptick for one of Marvel’s flagship series.
Tony Thornley is a geek dad, blogger, Spider-Man and Superman aficionado, X-Men guru, autism daddy, amateur novelist, and all around awesome guy. He’s also very humble.
Avengers #31
A few months ago, Tony Stark got whisked away to the faraway past. This plot point was left there for a bit while the rest Avengers went on a pretty nonsensical space adventure featuring Black Widow, but now we’re back with THE LAST TEMPTATION OF TONY STARK. Now, I’m a pretty big fan of Grant Morrison’s run on Batman. I think it’s genuinely fantastic. Evidently, Jason Aaron thinks so too, because this issue feels like his attempt to bring some of those elements into Iron Man. Which is a weird choice to begin with, given this is an Avengers book and not an Iron Man book, but if there’s one positive thing I can say about this comic, it’s that it’s really ambitious. Aaron feels like he’s really trying. Unfortunately, trying isn’t enough to be successful, as evidenced by the fact that this issue does not succeed in its ambitions at all.
This issue’s Morrison Batman inspiration is on its sleeve, given its usage of the literal devil, the hero’s father (or someone posing as him) being his greatest enemy, and the fact that Tony got shot back to the Caveman era a la The Return of Bruce Wayne. But despite this inspiration, it feels like Aaron just missed the entire point. A big part of what made Dr. Hurt so imposing as a villain was that his posing as Bruce’s father threatened to undo the entire foundation upon which Batman was built. His being described as the Devil wasn’t literal, it was intended to show how people viewed him. This issue forgoes all subtlety by retconning Howard Stark into being a satanic cultist who was planning to sacrifice Tony and also working for the ACTUAL DEVIL, Mephisto. These retcons would be really frustrating as is, because it doesn’t feel like they’re adding anything interesting to the character, but knowing the inspiration for them makes it even worse because this has already been done so much better.
I’ve not liked Avengers under Aaron’s pen for a while now, no matter how hard I try to. There’s some stories where it feels like nonsense, like the entire prior arc. But sometimes there’s stories where I know exactly what Aaron’s aiming for, and that makes it even more frustrating to read. I really hope he pulls it together soon – there’s been some very good stuff in this run, but it’s been almost a year since the last issue I found worth reading.
Vishal Gullapalli is a comics enthusiast studying computer science to enable his media consumption. He’s currently reading through the entirety of DC’s New 52 (for some reason) and logging his experience.
Vishal Gullapalli is highly opinionated and reads way too much.
Tony Thornley is a geek dad, blogger, Spider-Man and Superman aficionado, X-Men guru, autism daddy, amateur novelist, and all around awesome guy. He’s also very humble.
