Marvel Pick Of The Week – January 21, 2015 [SPOILERS]

Pick Of The Week:

Amazing Spider-Man 13, by Dan Slott and Giuseppe Camuncoli

One of the best parts of reading comic books in a shared universe is the potential for a crossover. This is an area where comics fans really do get more. On television, the lawyers from The Practice may pop up in an episode of Ally McBeal, and there was that time that Buffy called Angel and that happened on each of their respective shows, but this is pretty rare. In comics, it’s commonplace. New heroes don’t really count until Spider-Man has appeared in their book. Everyone’s run across Wolverine at least once. And the bigger crossovers have been some of my favorite experiences reading comics. Traditionally, in an event like the Infinity War or the Crisis On Infinite Earths, dozens of popular heroes team up to take on a threat that’s way out of the scope of any one of them. I still read big events, and in general, I still love them, but ever since Civil War, too many of Marvel’s events have been about heroes fighting each other, and things feel disconnected from the main books. In Original Sin, for instance, tie-ins like Uncanny X-Men and Guardians Of The Galaxy were thematic links that in no way helped a reader appreciate the main story. In AXIS, hero fought hero until the gloom made it hard to see the next caption box.

Then came Dan Slott and his Spider-Verse event. The story has been terrific, a blend of fan-service and original ideas. A family of vampires (not really, but I’m trying to simplify) can go into any dimension, find the person that represents a version of Spider-Man, and eat him. Some fan-favorite Spider-people like Ultimate Spider-Man and Spider-Gwen and Spider-Girl find a way to go around the dimensions collecting the targets and organizing them into an army. The plot has unfolded with a consistent beat. Strategies get played, things don’t go that well, new strategies are tried. Instead of repetition, the reader sees development of tactics, and tension rises every time the Spiders have to retreat.

The story is massive but remains contained by sticking to the checklist in the back of each issue. If you just want the main story, you can buy six issues of Amazing Spider-Man. In each issue, the editor helpfully points out that you can read Scarlet Spiders to see a team of clones try to keep the bad guys from making copies of themselves or check out Spider-Woman to learn more about Jessica Drew’s undercover mission in the bad guys’ home dimension. I’m reading all of them and loving the rich texture of the work, but a budget-conscious reader is going to have a great time for twenty-five bucks.

In this issue, as Bam Smack Pow editor Nick Tylwalk summarized in his review, the Spiders try to collect before one last push at the vampires, but the more hot-headed ones are falling out of line and into the bad guys’ trap. It’s a setup for a cacophonous finale next issue, and I am one-hundred percent on board. Even if you’ve never read a Spider-Man title, I recommend picking up this six-issue arc. This is the way a crossover is supposed to run, and it’s my favorite Spider-Man story of the last few years. Well done, team.

Honorable Mentions:

Scarlet Spiders 3, because that cover is absolutely gorgeous. We all pretty much expect that when Marvel is doing a tie-in miniseries with three enjoyable but lower-tier characters that one of the gang is going to be the Death that makes the crossover Very Important. This book doesn’t talk down to us about that and instead makes this phenomenal representation by having two of the characters swinging on web lines in the shape of a heart monitor tracing and a third falling off a flatlined heartbeat. I think I spent as much time staring at the cover as I did reading the book (which was good, too).

Rocket Raccoon 7, for a scene where Rocket comforts an ailing Groot by reminding him of how much they love Gilmore Girls. Now I want to make some popcorn and watch a marathon with a furry little psychopath on my lap. Okay, I sort of always feel that way. But especially so.

Guardians Of The Galaxy 23, for a scene where the Guardians get a call from Captain Marvel proving A), that everyone agrees that the status quo of Carol Danvers joining the team has utterly failed to start but she’s still awesome and they’re still awesome and B), that my car now feels incomplete without an adorable Thanos bobble head. Get on it, Funko Pop!

Elektra 10, for how amazing this Del Mundo cover is. If you didn’t know any backstory, you’ve got a gorgeous ninja shaped like a dart flying at a big ol’ bullseye, and that alone would be worth sticker price. But if you’re an Elektra fan, you know this means she’s going to have another rematch with the assassin who murdered her back in the 80’s, and man, does this book deliver.