I suppose I should prefix this with something of a confession.  Since the beginning of the year and the start of the Brand New Day canon, I was one of the naysayers who decried the change as unnecessary and unwanted.  I wasn't exactly ecstatic about the book pre-OMD but I thought Quesada and crew were looking at the wrong thing as the thing wrong with the book.  Of all the things I found wrong with the book, the unmasking and the marriage were not among them.  Thus, when Brand New Day rolled out, I only passively read it from the hands of friends and such before it fell out of my gaze completely.  The book lost all gravitas and resonance with me at that point and I scarcely looked back since.

Then Jimski's article about a month or so back about the subject came up.  Typically, I don't autonomously wax on about my distaste for the new direction anymore, but the book was a case of out of sight, out of mind for me.  Nevertheless, people kept clamoring about this new arc, "New Ways to Die" and how good it was.  Romita, the most iconic artist of Spider-Man over the last fifteen years, was back.  Norman Osborn, not seen in a Spidey book since the Marvel Knights days, was returning with Bullseye and Venom in tow, finally giving Amazing Spider-Man a classic foe to battle in years.  I figured if I'm going to speak ill of the book, I should at least give examples less than eight months old.  And I might even like the story.  Thus, I bit the bullet and went out and grabbed the back issues of the arc and read.  And then, in the interest of giving the story its fair shot, today I bought the last issue.  And now I sit to give my take not just of this issue, but the arc as a whole.

My verdict?  Meh.  There were good things and bad but overall, I really wasn't impressed with the story, especially not enough to keep reading.  In all honesty, there's no reason Amazing Spider-Man should be any less in quality than Captain America or Green Lantern or Invincible.  The character is a truly iconic, incredibly engaging one yet it feels as though Marvel is floundering on how to continue to make the book great again.  It's clear to me they feel a book more in tone with the golden years, the late sixties and seventies, is the way to go, but for my perspective, it just feels hollow and inorganic.

A few points I noticed about this story:

* While the thing I cringed about most before hand, Anti-Venom was actually pulled off somewhat well, at least better than I expected.  The inverted colors and "Anti-" motif sounded very silly and unimaginative at first glance yet the inclusion of Mr. Negative into the framework made it a little less hard to swallow.  The idea of Brock as a hero seeking redemption isn't a new one yet it still has something about it.

* On the other hand, the other big selling point, the return of Norman Osborn from the purgatory of the Thunderbolts fell flat on its face in my opinion.  Norman no longer knows Peter is Spider-Man due to the acts of Mephisto, which all but neuters much of the Goblin's threat level.  Much of Norman's threat came in the fact that he knew Spider-Man inside and out and could at any point inflict another attack upon him and his loved ones.  Here, the intense personal conflict is gone: Norman is just another mad stock villain (or government agent now) gunning for a faceless, nameless foe.  Norman might be flanked by the Thunderbolts but it doesn't substitute his lack of gravitas as Spidey's numero uno.

* While on the subject of Norman, I should also point that I found particularly his and,to a lesser extent, everyone's dialogue a little stale and a little stiff.  Norman especially sounded a lo like a bad Saturday morning cartoon villain rather than the sinister and cunning madman he typically is, using way too many exclamations and too many monologue moments.  Bullseye's homogenized pseudo-profanity in a few scenes was painful, too.  Also, some of Harry's dialogue is a little rough, especially during his angsty moods.  Anti-Venom gets a little groan-worthy as well.  I understand a lot of the dialogue to supposed to invoke the seventies era of the book when it was at its peak, but that kind of exposition and emoting simply doesn't wash in 2008 for me.

* I'm supposed to think Menace is Harry Osborn, right?  The mutual anger at Norman's obsession with Spider-Man?  The use of Goblin weaponry?  The very clear "dark side" Harry is showing here?  The sly bits of dialogue ("And whose little boy might you be?")?  The mutual need to push things one way or another politically?  The wanting to "help" Hollister?  I'm not the only one seeing this, right?  Is this a big red herring or is Slott just being that obvious with it all?

* I might get burned for this, but I don't think this story is going to be listed among JRJR's best stuff.  His Ven-orpion suit is a little underwhelming and his rendition of the Goblin is kind of a disappointment (look at the cover of Peter Parker: Spider-Man #75 for a truly realized Romita-penned Goblin.  Still, overall, I think his work here was good enough to warrant a four.  A lesser Romita page is still a Romita page, after all.

* I also had some problems with the internal logic of some things such as troops hitting Spider-Man and Bullseye both with these bullets center-mass with them pretty much okay and still live or why Bullseye is shackled up for half the arc in the chopper and base yet later, Norman just lets him chill free in the briefing room and nobody bothers to re-shackle him after his mission is over in this last issue.  Granted, they're small problems, but I'd expect a little more consistency and thoughtfulness in these things.

* Some of the action was somewhat underwhelming.  I've anticipated a good Bullseye/Spider-Man fight for a long time and to say I was disappointed is a slight understatement.  The fight lacked any real threat and felt more like a dance than a battle which I think might be attributed to the "light" nature of the book these days.  Still, between this and the Goblin battles (against both Menace and Spidey), I was really hoping for some good slobberknockers and felt a little cheated.

* So as not to say I hated the story out right, there were moments I enjoyed.  Some of the humor (such as Vin accusing Peter of a rowdy party after the T-Bolts thrashed the place) was well done.  There were moments of the older, more conniving Norman underneath the overly giggly and non-threatening one.  After a few years of suffering comic limbo, somebody finally decided what to do with a Venom-less Brock.  The idea that all is not what it seems with Harry is an interesting one and one that tickles my curiosity even if that tickle isn't enough to keep me buying.  And, even with a few design missteps, Romita is still the storyteller supreme of comic book art.

All in all, the book's good and bad mix together to make something qualitatively uneven.  It seems like the book is attempting to be something it hasn't been in years and really shouldn't.  The result to me shows a book attempting to recapture the glory days yet becoming something that comes across more cheesy and light than it should.  It seems to have lost that edge and tension that the book had even during the worst points of the last 20 years, that maturity and weight that makes Green Lantern, Captain America, and All-Star Superman such engaging reads.  Obviously, many others really like this title as it is today and I can appreciate that yet I find myself somewhat disappointed with the Spider-Man of today.  I would have liked to say this story was pretty good and something I enjoyed throughly after writing this book off yet, alas, I found myself more yawning than anything.  Hopefully, I'll feel different in the future, but I'm not going to be holding my breath.