Awright, with the “morning after” syndrome winding down from One More
Day, Brand New Day is finally hitting it’s stide, no doubt. Things have
been feeling a little strange, a little strained since the reboot, with
issue 555, I’m feeling pretty confident in what’s coming, at the very
least in Well’s arc. Zeb has written Spidey before and I feel like he
really gets the humor aspect of the character. A very sudden snowstorm
has broken out during April and while the cold is keeping last arc’s
villian Freak in stasis, with it comes a new threat for Spidey.

This has been foretold by this issue’s would-be weatherman: Dr.
Strange, who we see doing his very best Etrigan The Demon impression
(with the rhyming and the whatnots) and guest stars the omnipresent
Wolverine. There is some very clever back-n-forth between Wolvy and
Spidey regarding breakfast-beers, counting past three, the reason
Wolverine allows himself to take such unnecessary scrapes in a fight
and why they just don’t team up too often (though really, does anyone
team up MORE then these two, except for Batman and Robin?)

Some tidbits: We are finally given the answer as to whether or not
Spidey is an Avenger, which is his cereal of choice, and yes, the folks
at Marvel still think that Dexter Bennet not knowing anyone’s name is a
funny gag.

So ok, the story is solid but what about the art? I was VERY skeptical
knowing that Bachalo would be penciling this arc, but this is one
beautiful looking book. There isn’t any of his trademark muddiness, no
confusing layouts, every panel crisp and clear, even the busy ones. I’m
not sure if it’s the inkers doing, but holy hell this looks good.
Though I do feel bad for the colorist having to put snow effects in 90%
of the book. Also, his devilishly cute Betty Brant almost makes me
forget MJ!

If you’ve been avoiding Spidey the past couple of months, now’s the time to grab this issue and start lovin’ him again.
JD!