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Marvel Pick Of The Week – October 7, 2015 [SPOILERS]

By Matt Conner

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Pick Of The Week:

Amazing Spider-Man #1, by Dan Slott and Giuseppe Camuncoli

Dan Slott’s reign on Spider-Man has been the best the title has pretty much ever been. This writer knows what makes for a great Peter Parker story, but he’s creative enough to use that to push the story harder than it’s gone. Under his guidance, Spider-Man took a year where he tried to prevent all death, got replaced by archenemy Doctor Octopus, led an island of Manhattanites that had turned into spiders, and united Spider-themed heroes across the multiverse into an army. After Peter Parker came back from the dead last year, Slott gave readers an oversized first issue that set the tone for the great stories that followed, with a second half made up of three-page vignettes teasing developments in companion titles like Spider-Man 2099.

This issue feels like revisiting some of Spider-Man’s greatest hits, and it’s perfect in almost every way. The set-up is that since returning from Battleworld, Peter Parker has made his technology company into a global brand, so most of the action involves him driving a super-cool high-tech Spider-mobile around Shanghai with SHIELD liaison Mockingbird riding shotgun, then coming home to attend the wedding of his old Horizon Labs boss to his same-sex partner. The lovable supporting cast from Parker’s Horizon days are still every bit as charming as I remembered, and the way they roll their eyes when the Parker luck sends a group of costumed terrorists to crash the party reminded me of the time they mocked the ridiculous plots by dividing up for softball teams based on whether an employee had been turned into a lizard or a spider in recent months. The last page suggests a twist as monumental as the one that gave us the Superior Spider-Man title, and I can’t wait to see what Slott wants to do with this story.

The backup strips are also compelling. To set up Spider-Man 2099, we see Miguel O’Hara stop a bank robbery and lose his faith in the future. Silk foils a robbery only to steal the loot and take it back to the Black Cat. A six-months-pregnant Spider-Woman take out three bad guys while chatting on the phone to Captain Marvel. The multiversal Web Warriors fight the Sinister Sextet in Marvel 1602. And finally, Slott reveals that Regent (the big bad from the amazing Renew Your Vows Battleworld miniseries) has made it to the main continuity. None of these failed to hit their mark, and Spider-fans are in for a great time this year.

(Bam Smack Pow’s David Goodman loved it, too!)

Honorable Mentions:

1602: Witch Hunter Angela 4, because in this scene, Angela has brought her beloved Serah back to life by becoming the next Enchantress, but that deal means she has to send her away for her own good, and now my face is leaking all over the place because MAN, this is good work.

Old Man Logan 5, because even 80’s-action-movie-dad-jokes are awesome when they’re alongside gorgeous Sorrentino art.

Spider-Island 5, for a dinosaur Thor. I am ready to read a madcap buddy comedy about Dino-Thor (Thorannosaurus?) and Frog Thor trying to catch bad guys. Marvel? Please?

Groot 5, for this amazing shot of baby Groot about to kick some butt.

Siege 4, because Siege already had great queer representation with Leah and Illyana Rasputin, but now we get a heartbreaking love story between Michelangelo and Leonardo Da Vinci. Between the gay wedding in Spider-Man, the romance between a cis-woman and (at least in main continuity) a trans woman in 1602, and this, Marvel is so good with LGBT issues this week.

Catch up on previous Picks here!

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