AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #635
What did the
iFanboy
community think?
Pulls
PENCILS: Max Fiumara, Michael Lark & Marcos Martin
COVER BY: Mike Fyles
Size: 32 pages
Price: 3.99
Having loved most of the build up to this event, I’m really disappointed in The Grim Hunt. What I loved about a good chunk of The Gauntlet was how we got a feel for a bunch of the old (and a few revamped) villains from the Spider Rogue’s Gallery. And how, in the background an intricate plot was being set up to destroy Peter’s world. But now that The Gauntlet is over, it appears that Kelly is throwing absolutely everything in the arsenal at once to get to the last page of this issue, and maaaaaaaaaaaaaan did I groan when I got there.
Forgetting the last page reveal, there’s also a lot of the Straczynski spidermyth involved in this issue. In short, it looks like they’re going to to guns blazing into every part of the Amazing Spider-Man storyline that I hated and thought was in the past. I’m dropping the title until OMIT, and even then, I’ll be picking it up warily.
Art: 5 - Excellent
Find us on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter
Subscribe to our RSS Feed
Some rights reserved.
I actually think this issue pretty well got rid of the Spider-totem stuff since it wasn’t really Ezikiel…all the stuff with Kraven eating the Spiders and what not was from Kraven’s Last Hunt waaay back in the day, thats not new stuff or anything from JMS.
***spoilers below***
@cubman: I know the spider-eating was from Kraven’s Last Hunt, and that the "They’re hunting Spiders" was a ruse, but the implied mystical elements harkened back to The Other for me, which, now that I’m awakier, I remember as not being just Straczynski. I think it was also Peter David.
So……this is definitely bringing back the JMS stuff? Or is the point of this arc getting fully rid of it?
Cause me and PraxJarvin were talking about this on XBL last night. Since we don’t read the title we’re not sure exactly what’s going on here. Because I thought Marvel just retcon the whole Totem angle entirely and not just the organic web shooters. But even if they did just get rid of the web shooters then it wouldn’t make sense because that means the Totem angle did happen. In that case…..*head explodes*
In short……as a JMS/Totem fan, would this be good to read in trade?
Its not a JMS toem story. it was definitely a trap to confuse Peter. I thought the issue was spectacular. Art was astounding and the story just left me wanting more and more. I dont understand this review…im sorry i just dont see it. I think it continues the quality that Spider-Man has been acheiving as of late and this story for me brought all the good elements of the Gauntlet into a clever, worthy follow up story to The Last Hunt. Very good story.
@akamuu are you on twitter or facebook or anything?
@vadamowens: Insafemode on…well, pretty much every other site but this one. Though I tend to only tweet when I’m bored at work or updating my blog (which has nothing to do with comics, and everything to do with my sordid proclivites).
@MrWilson: I gave it a three because I’m not enjoying the story. It really seems that they’re throwing absolutely everything at Peter. And in the Gauntlet it seemed like it would be an intricate plan that would slowly unravel involving all the villains. Instead I felt that in one issue they said: Here’s a buncn of the villains. Think fast! Annnnnnnnnnnnnnnnd Kraven’s back. And there’s clones and Ezekiel, and…it just felt like too much. It had a very Batman with all the villains sort of feel. I get why some people like it, but it’s not for me. And I didn’t find it in step with the set-up that The Gauntlet laid out
@tnc: You’d be disappointed at the whole "look, totems! gotchya!" angle, so…you probably wouldn’tenjoy it for that reason. But there might be some other angle in the story that you like. Personally, I enjoyed Shed much more.
Raise your hand if you think that was Kaine in the Spidey suit that got daggered.
*raises hand
couldn’t find you on facebook. forgot my twitter account info. oh well:(
I’m gonna take a risk and hope everyone else minds their own fucking business…
my email: uofmich_fan@yahoo.com shoot me a hello if you like.
*raises hand
@akamuu I dissagree about the throwing them at Peter all at once, this story has been going on for a loooooong time and it was a pretty intricate plan to have Chameleon and Mysterio make Peter think a Spider-god sent his old friend/nemesis back so that they could get him in place for the final part of their plan, and in the Grim Hunt arc alone it took two issues to get him to this point, I really don’t think they needed to drag it on any longer. Plus the way I read this it puts to rest the whole Spider-totem thing and if it was Kaine who died it pretty much gets rid of all remenants of the Clone Saga……either way, for me, this has been great and I don’t get how this issue would make you want to drop the book! Don’t do it man!!!
@cubman:While I think it’s great if they decide to get rid of all the clone saga/spider totem detrius, I don’t think they actually needed to write a story to get rid of them. They could have just not written any more about them, and moved on. When something doesn’t work (for a vast majority of readers, some people love the Spider Totem arcs…and I’m sure there are Clone Saga fans out there) , you don’t always have to fix it, you can let it pass in the rearview mirror and move on to something new.
But the main reason I’m dropping this is that in Brand New Day and The Gauntlet, they Spider-trust set out to make the old rogue’s gallery interesting. I like how theymade a new Vulture, because the old one wouldn’t make sense in the modern Spider-Man comic. I love that they evolved The Lizard, who seemed to be caught in a plot loop (don’t like the constant drama about him being a good dad? what if he EATS HIS SON!!!!). They made me care about Rhino, one of the lamest villains in the Marvel Universe, by making him seem human, and then ripping the humanity out of him. I liked introducing the next generation and widow of Kraven who set out to avenge their dead dad/husband.They fixed or improved on a lot of characters who needed work. But Kraven? Kraven’s character progression in Spider-Man was fantastic, and his death is one of the greatest spider-man stories of all time. We don’t need him back. They told his best story and killed him off. Let all the hunt stories be about his daughter and widow’s quest for vengance. That’s great, but we don’t need Kraven to be alive again. Even if they immediately kill him in the next issue. His return seems pointless, and, actually makes his family less interesting to me. So I’m dropping it for a while.
This also has me terrified for OMIT, which I hope is short.
@neurns: Almost definitely.
@akamuu
Okay I am with you on the bringing back Kraven thing, "Kraven’s Last Hunt" is one of the best Spider-stories ever and one of my all time favorites and for me is an instance where the character should remain dead….but I’m kind of figuring that since it was probably Kaine and not Peter that it will mess up the resurection and not really be Kraven or something…or like a Zombie Kraven (which would be cool I think)….if not I will be a bit dissapointed but I def. want to find out!!
I’m scared/excited for OMIT…..I want to get some answers but at the same time I’m hoping its not the same kind of messy nonsense that was BND.
oooorrr not. sorry. wasn’t trying to come across as pushy or stalky:( just wanted further discussion without the limitations of the site…
To be completely honest, I actually started with Clone Saga 2 (a.k.a the Clone Saga that never ended), right when Seward Trainer told them that Ben was the real deal. So, yeah. And personally, I loved the Spider-Totem arc. I thought it was great, even though I don’t really understand one big thing: If OMD retconned pretty much everything, how could the Ezekiel arc happen and the whole Morlun/The Other thing not have happened? Because we’ve seen in "American Son" that "Sins Past/Sins Remembered" happened. Or did "The Other" involve MJ so much that simply her absence kept it from taking place? I mean, seriously, I’m half-expecting Morlun to show up again eventually.
Either way, I’m a Spidey fan, and despite the bumps, I honestly don’t see myself dropping this title anytime soon. I started with (arguably) one of the worst arcs in Spidey history, and it’s going to take a lot more than Brand New Day to get me to quit.
@vadamowens: hahaha. I didn’t mean "insafemode" as in "I’m not going to tell you." I meant, if you google "insafemode", that’s me. It’s my name on Twitter, Facebook, Livejournal (which I haven’t updated in a bazillion years) and http://www.insafemode.com. All insafemode all the time.
@cubman: Ok, weird zombie Kraven might entice me back in. Wait, no. There’s no might there. Weird zombie Kraven wiping out the rest of his family and then tearing off Rick Grimes’s arm. Yes, definitely, yes.
@neurns: Yea, I try never to think about how One More Day affected theMarvel U/Spideyverse apart from eliminating the marriage. It makes my brain ache. I’m not quitting quitting Spidey for good. I’m just dropping it for this arc. I’ll pick it up again for the beginning of OMIT, and if I drop that, I’ll pick it up again at the beginning of the next arc. I feel like dropping most titles is a long term commitment, but with the 4 times a month ASM schedule, I can skip two full story arcs and only actually spend two and a half months not having Spidey. Whereas, if I wanted to drop, say, Image United for two storyarcs, I’d miss eleven years worth of that title.
@akamuu just have to say, it’s neuMs, with an "m". For some reason, you’ve been spelling it with a "r n". Just thought I’d clear that up.
And you’re right about the multiple issues a month thing. But I’m a completist, so I have to have complete runs (in fact, I actually go back from time to time to see if I’m missing anything, which forces me to sift through 6 boxes in case I happened to put an ish in the wrong spot…pain in my ass). Also, I’ve found myself recently coming into some of the more recent ASM variants because my local shop owner was doing a "take a variant for every $10/15 you spend" deal, so on top of my regular issues, I’m getting multiples that’ll hopefully be worth something someday. That, or my kids will be loaded in like 20-30 years.
@neums: Sorry, I need to get my eyes checked, I think. I totally understand your completist tendencies. Unless I *really* hate an arc, I will skip reading it in issues, only to buy it in trade, because I must not have a gap.
I don’t have that problem with ASM. Some of the arcs around the #600 issue region were awful to me. I had no problem trading those in for credit.