I’ve already decided to ignore Fear Itself and focus on Spider-Man as my event of the summer. Maybe that’s because Fear Itself sucks, maybe its because I love Spidey or maybe its because I thought issue #666 was fantastic. My only complaint is that Marvel is counting this as part 1 of the event when it was clearly last issue. But its time for me to stop complaining and start complimenting.

Humberto Ramos stays on art duties as he did last issue. As such I feel like I’m repeating myself when I say how well his style fits into this story. Stylised and occasionally cartoony, the art bounces along fluidly. Every panel seems to be full of movement and action. Perhaps I could find fault if I was forced to, but I’d rather shake of the super-critical, comic-fan, stereotype and revel in the fun that Ramos has imbued this book with.
Of course Dan Slott is writing again here (who else even gets a shot at Amazing Spider-Man now-a-days?) and continues to show why Marvel has trusted them with one of their biggest properties. Granted this issue isn’t a masterpiece, but it does what it has to. What we have here is hopefully the groundwork for a wide-ranging, epic event. It does feel as if it retreading old ground a little, but great chunks of action and a concept that’s more than interesting enough kept me from getting bored.

My favourite part of the whole issue was just looking at all the Spider-Man costumes that the spider powered villains wore and attempting to name them all (I still love that scarlet spider hoodie). But this book doesn’t just aim itself at die-hard spidey fans like myself, this really feels like an event that most people could pick up and understand. So if your looking for something better than Fear Itself, look no further, pick up this issue (or the last one if your comic shop still has a copy) and give it a go, it’s well worth a try.