AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #655

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iFanboy
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761
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Avg Rating: 4.6
 
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Story by Dan Slott
Art by Marcos Martin
Colors by Muntsa Vicente
Letters by Joe Caramagna
Cover by Marcos Martin

Size: pages
Price: 3.99

I’m going to be in the minority on this, but this issue just left me a bit bored and unsatisfied. I see a lot of people gushing over this issue…i just don’t get it. Now i don’t have the history with a lot of these characters (esp Marla), but it just felt like it was taking itself too seriously and coming off a bit too melodramatic and emo for me to stomach. At the risk of sounding like a meathead…there was just too much crying and sad feelings to keep my interest. I know a lot of readers are into the heartfelt relationship-y, soap opera stuff…i’m not. Thats kinda stuff just works against why i read superhero comics. I hope we get back to the action soon….and i’m sure we will.

Dream sequences are always hit or miss for me. I find they are often a convenient way to get abstract with the storytelling and do weird stuff just to do weird stuff. I think Slott handled it well and i totally believed Peter’s torment. Martin is my least favorite of the Big Time artists, but think his work in this issue was pretty ok.

This probabally would have served better as the .1 issue thing. It goes along more with what their advertised concept was supposed to be.

Story: 3 - Good
Art: 3 - Good

Comments

  1. Meathead. 

  2. Kinda felt similarly, felt the dream sequence was unoriginal, and how many times have we seen Peter promise to himself noone would get killed anymore?  I mean we all know he’s haunted by Uncle Ben’s death and the decision he made that led to that, but what did that have to do with Marla’s death?  There was no decision made there, where was the guilt coming from, why did this make him rehash the shame he feels with Ben’s death? 

    The beginning sequences with no dialogue were some powerful stuff, and was impressed with Martin’s work in this, but yea, the latter part of the ish kinda felt old.

  3. @PaulMontgomery  –the more i think about it, i did feel bummed out by the whole Johnny storm thing and FF#588. Absolutely loved the “Uncles” backup, so its not like i’m completely devoid of all emotion. 

    Maybe i can only handle one emo issue a month in my comics. 

    I guess i don’t understand enough about Marla Jamison and why she is as important as Johnny Storm to the MVU. 

  4. @wallythegreenmonster  She wasn’t as important as Johnny Storm to the entire Marvel Universe. That why you didn’t see the Avengers at her funeral. She WAS important to the Spider-Man characters in that she was the wife of one of the major supporting characters and her death will have massive repercussions. And they’ve also been building her up as an important influence in Peter’s life lately. ALSO she’s just one more person that Peter failed to save. It’s not so much about the who as the what.

    THIS is what super hero comics are about. Not the punching, the consequences of the punching.

  5. @conor — thanks for the explanation on her importance. I see why it hit Peter so hard. I will admit that i just don’t have the history….so i guess this resonates more for really long term Spidy fans and thats fine. I had more of a connection to Johnny and that run resonated more with me. The friendship between Johnny and Ben and the rest of the family. That worked better for me personally. 

    Sure comics are about the consequences, I just don’t have that much fun with heavily emotional stuff like this in my comics. For me i read comics as my form of escapism…i like the adventure and i like the fun.i don’t like being reminded that the world is a shitty place full of pain and tragedy. I turn on the news for that. 

  6. I love when comics are able to set tones by using opening sequences which do not include any dialog or narration. Besides this issue I think the best example of this is in Richard Stark’s Parker the Hunter.

  7. ok i’m convinced…it was user error the first time. I need to give this thing a second read. 

  8. This is ridiculous. Can’t the man just not like the issue? If I had to pick one or the other, I’m going with FF this week all the way. Didn’t get emotional at ALL during ASM, did during FF. Guess I have no heart.

  9. THIS is a big part of the value of Modern super hero comics.  
    It is not the only thing they are about.

    I perosnally thought this was a great issue-
    Very well written and an important part of the overall character of this title.

    But it is only part of it- the great thing about super hero comics is that it can be pure mythos
    escapism at it’s best and it can also be about character growth real world problems- life.

    Hence the duality of most characters- Pete Parker- Spider-Man- Clark Kent-Superman

    and the great nexus where those identities merge. 

  10. I think all of it has been boring since BND ended, but I dropped it after the first Big Time arc, so what do I really know?

  11. @JimmyF1982  Of course he can, but since this is a discussion-based website we are encouraged to have a dialogue. No one ever said his opinions were wrong.

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