AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #622
What did the
iFanboy
community think?
Pulls
PENCILS: Joe Quinones & Luke Ross
COVER BY: Simone Bianchi
Size: 40 pages
Price: 3.99
Van Lente should really be removed from the Spider trust. His issues just aren’t up to par with any of the other writers. His Morbius story reads like a really bad Spider-Man/vampire fan fic. The characters have just enough time to tell you their exact motivations for what they’re about to do, and then they do it. After his disastrously awful Marvel Zombies series (which this, of course, ties into), I’m kind of surprised they let him near their flagship title.
*edit: He cowrote Cowboys vs. Aliens, arguably the worst comic ever written.*
The art on the first story by Quinones is in keeping with The Gauntlet. Very retro. Whereas some of those artists have stuck to just one retro style for their issues, and had varying degrees of success, Quinones tries a few different approaches with this issue. I really liked the variety. Particularly the layouts, they added a great visual addition to the narrative. Pity it was wasted on such a horrid story.
The second story (this one by Greg Weisman) about Flash Thompson going backwards through the stages of grief after losing his legs is not a bad story. It’s just boring. If it were the only story in the issue it would have gotten a two or a three. Again, it’s not bad, it’s just also not very special, and kind of a step down from the previous arcs.
Ross and Schwager’s art brings to mind Krause’s work on Irredeemable, and that’s a very, very good thing.
Art: 5 - Excellent
Find us on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter
Subscribe to our RSS Feed
Some rights reserved.
Disagree!
On the Marvel Zomibes part…..His work on the two sequels were great! Far better then what Kirkman produced.
Ehhh, Marvel Zombies 3 was ok, but 4 and The Return were neither fun, nor particularly interesting to me. Apart from Head Of Deadpool, nothing Van Lente has done has held any resonance for me. And this story continues along those lines. I guess if you enjoyed his MZ, you might enjoy this, but I thought it was terrible.
OMG, and he was one of the coauthors of Cowboys vs. Aliens. I forgot about that.
Yea, I’m going to have to go on record as saying he’s one of the worst writers in comics. HE MUST BE STOPPED!!!!
(note: what I mean by "HE MUST BE STOPPED" is, I’m not going to read anything else with his name on it. Probably ever.)
@akamuu: I think that’s a bit harsh. Van Lente isn’t the best writer right now; but he is getting there.
His Action Philosophers seems to be one of the most critically acclaimed series; Incredible Hercules (most of the run) have been fantastic; and I find his Marvel Zombies work to be really entertaining. Oh and X-Men Noir was pretty good too.
I mean if you don’t like him that’s fine. But I think he’s going to be a big factor with Marvel in the future.
It is, indeed, harsh. I haven’t read his Hercules work, but the rest of his titles I actively dislike. I think X-Men Noir was, by far, the weakest of the Noir series. I DID like his Action Philosophers. But his superhero issue writing leads me to believe he has a future as a conceptual editor for Marvel, but not as a writer. His ideas are great, but his actual stories are very hackneyed, and are far beneath modern comic writers, whether they’re the stalwarts like Morrison and Bendis, or the newer writers like Aaron and Hickman. Basically, he’s a young writer whose work already feels very, very dated. Again, his ideas are interesting, but his actual superhero writing is some of the worst being put out right now. I’d throw him in the pile with Claremont and Loeb.
Didn’t they already have an issue about how Flash lost his legs in the war? YAWN
This issue was all Twilighty and stuff. All that was missing was the Jersey Shore cast.
Thank GOD for backissues and collected trades. At least I can spend my money on good stories from the past.
I’m not a regular Amazing reader, but Van Lente wrote a great issue featuring the Spot a while back. I have also enjoyed his work on Hercules and Marvel Zombies.
I did not care for the Moebius story. I think it was page 3 when Peter’s sudenly undercover in Goth-Vampire clothing when I totally lost sense of what the hell was going on!
I did however like the Flash Thompson story- had a lot of heart.
@invasionforce: I didn’t realizr he was the author of the Spot story. I agree with you that that was a great issue.
Van Lente’s Sandman story was easily the best thing to come out of Gauntlet. The story blurred the lines between right and wrong, while most issues of Amazing blur the lines between crap and sucks. He’s the best thing to happen to Amazing since Straczynski.
@unlockingDigs: Interesting. You may be the only person I know who liked the Sandman arc more than Kelly’s Rhino story, which I think is easily the best ASM story in recent memory. To each, their own. I still think he needs to take some writing courses before he’s allowed to do anything more than plot (and, again, his plots are fine, it’s his panel to panel to writing that I find unforgivably amateur).
@toadmeister: I did think the Peter Parker as a 90s goth at a prty full of Twilight era vamp wannabes was a funny concept, just not executed very well.
The Flash Thompson story didn’t really hit me. I don’t mean to be dismissive of it. I suspect the previous story just put me off, and I needed a little more to get me to connect with the story.
Akamuu- I gotta agree with the Twilight vamp wannabees reference- not executed well. I would have liked to see that done better as it could have been a laugh out loud moment executed right.
@akamuu: Yeah, the Rhino story was OK, but I thought it was too coincidental that Peter Parker just happened to be on the scene at the casino when the new Rhino came. Besides, Rhino was perfected in Flowers for Rhino from Tangled Web. By the way, I read the Morbius story yesterday and you’re right about it being terrible.
@unlockingDigs: I rescind my no more Van Lente comment, as I had completely forgotten about his Spot storyline. I thought the Sandman story was good, but it didn’t floor me. Maybe some of his issues are rushed? I don’t know, but I only seem to notice his name on a title when I dislike it. And, again, Cowboys & Aliens was just the worst.
Ah, reliably crazy, crazy, crazy Akamuu.
This was a 5 star book all around.