Without doing some major reposts, I figure I may as well get in some opinions about SPIDER-ISLAND and some of the developments afterward now, before the next issue of ASM comes out in two days. If you want to read reviews, I am fairly certain every issue of SPIDER-ISLAND was reviewed at my Examiner column, via my signature. Review articles are always headlined under, "PICKS OF COMIC BOOK WEEK" and either AMAZING SPIDER-MAN and/or SPIDER-ISLAND will be the subjects. It's likely easier to read all my reviews of each issue there than it is to go back via SHH B/T threads.
Oh, and lots of spoilers.
Overall, I thought SPIDER-ISLAND was very good. Without there being a "DnA" space event to take the spot of Marvel's "mini event". that allowed Dan Slott to fill that void. While some of the spare tie-in's were just that (spare), but the core story in ASM was solid. While it was 8 chapters long, because each issue came out every 2 weeks, it was over in about five months - roughly the same length of time as SIEGE last year, which is perfectly find. While I do prefer the artwork of Stefano Caselli to Humberto Ramos, I do think Ramos did good work here; I find his recent work to be better than his earlier run on Spidey stuff at the start of the decade. I liked how Slott made the Queen - a newer villain from 2004 - into more of a major threat. Many people have criticized the lack of a major female adversary in Spidey's rogues gallery (especially since Black Cat has long been an ally of his), and at least for a few months, Queen (later Spider-Queen) filled that gap. The Jackal being at the forefront was also some great use of him, as he'd mostly taken a siesta since the end of the 90's. There was a fake out with his death, and some may have wanted him to be the big bad instead of Queen, but I see him as Spidey's version of Mr. Sinister - a maniac scientist who is basically immortal because he can endlessly clone himself. While the Avengers did hog a lot of the story, I saw that as fine because it was supposed to be a big event, drawing in the attention of virtually every superhero in New York, along with some spare X-Men. Jackal's Spider-Gang plot was either brilliant or ridiculous, but above all, memorable. The VENOM tie-in's were the most essential, but ASM covered all the key bits anyway, which is how to do it.
I liked two things about SPIDER-ISLAND most of all. Firstly, I liked how it cemented the idea that it's Spider-Man's mind, not his powers, that made him a hero. In a situation where virtually everyone in NYC has spider-powers, or is another superhero, it was Parker's intelligence and imagination that prevailed in the end. Hence, I didn't mind the Avengers having the big "final battle" against Spider-Queen at the end; beating the enemy via violence wasn't the goal for Spidey's subplot. The second thing I liked most of all, and this may seem petty, was that SPIDER-ISLAND never was humorless. Far too many "big events" take themselves so seriously that they border on unintentional satire. They brag about deaths or shocking changes and in the end those tropes are often much ado about nothing. FEAR ITSELF, in contrast, was almost a textbook case of what to do wrong with an event storyline. SPIDER-ISLAND knew when to turn on the drama or suspense, and when to deflate with a one-liner or another comedic bit. Later issues had more of the drama and tenseness while the earlier chapters were a little more "fun", and that's fine. There are other things I liked about SPIDER-ISLAND but if I had to nail down two boons, it'd be these two.
Quibbles? While I know Kaine has appeared in this book before, it did seem as if he has morphed into Ben Reilly into everything but name, via the weak excuse of "all his clone degeneration is cured, which also somehow fixes personality traits". There were too many moments where Peter needed someone else, such as Carlie or MJ, to spoon feed him something obvious. While the "spider-virus" was supposed to be incurable to anything but Eddie Brock's anti-venom, other tie-in material suggests that other sources should have been able to "cure" it to lessor degrees, such as Dr. Strange's magic or even Elixir from the X-Men. While Ramos' artwork is great for showing kinetic action as well as inhuman monsters or beings, there were other times some rush was evident. Towards the end, Carlie claims the giveaway that Peter Parker was more than he seemed was that he was "too good" with spider-powers too quickly, which would make more sense story-wise if Carlie herself hadn't been written as very close to a "natural" as well.
Still, there were other sorts of good points besides the two main ones. The series provided a lot of action as well as no end of cameos, from heroes to villains. It properly utilized continuity details and subplots from either earlier Slott stories, or prior issues of ASM, to weave things together as a whole. Because ASM had built towards this, many of the conclusions felt natural and not arbitrary. And the ending didn't tie up every loose end, to provide ore for more ASM stories. While this was a "mini event", it was supposed to also be an arc of ASM and it never lost sight of that - unlike, say, SHADOWLAND sometimes did in regards to Daredevil. The final bits with MJ were very good, too. I especially liked how the story effectively undid the "spell" of OMIT which kept Peter's identity safe, because I always felt it needlessly eliminated suspense.
Now for Carlie chat. During earlier segments, I thought the story unintentionally depicted Spider-Man as being uncomfortable fighting alongside a lover who had equal power to him. That he was still a bit "macho" and either wanted his girlfriends to either not be as strong or need to be protected by him, instead of battle at his side. Despite the fact that Carlie was an NYPD officer with official training, Peter would usually gripe about protecting her as if she was Zelda from COFFEE @ GO-GO. To a degree this is maybe why a romance with Ms. Marvel could never work - in terms of power level, he'd almost be her sidekick. However, then the ending comes and Peter seems to not mind fighting alongside a super-powered MJ in the slightest. Despite the fact that she has NO training and is just a super model with a decent right hook, there were no whines of being careful or "let me handle that" when they were fighting off spider-monsters together. You could argue the situation was more dire at that point, but I wouldn't. It maybe came down to something MJ said at the start of BIG TIME where she claimed that if Peter didn't love or trust Carlie enough with his secret, he didn't love her. I still think Peter was a bit a moron about it, and handled the situation poorly. Carlie LIKED Spider-Man, and may have handled it fine so long as Peter was the one who broke it to her, rather than her finding out the hard way. She was willing to accept her boss was a masked vigilante, for heaven's sakes. The oddity is that if SPIDER-ISLAND proves anything, it is that Spidey still has his big emotional beats with MJ, just because marriage is taboo, they can't enjoy the perks of it. She still acts as his wife emotionally, but can't enjoy the perks like sex or whatnot. While she is free to date others, Peter is naturally far more of a swinger when he's single while MJ is always off watching in the distance. I could argue it was almost a literal manifestation of the Double Standard (a man as a bachelor is awesome, a woman who is too much of a bachelorette is disapproved of), but that's editorial stuff that is above Slott's level. That was what he inherited, it's up to him to make the best of it. I still think the editorial decision to forbid Spidey from dating superheroines is stupid, as that would distract readers from the revolving doors of Mary Sue's or spare supporting cast gals he thus has to date.
I liked that Eddie Brock had a big moment, although I will miss Anti-Venom; he had an interesting dynamic from what little I saw of him. He looked like a big, scary monster, but he was so eager to BE either a big scary monster or accepted as a vigilante despite the fact that he was insane or over-eager made him kind of adorable. It reminded me of Brock's roots as a stalker. However, he is set to join the cast of VENOM and mentor Flash Thompson, which looks fun.
As for Kaine, he is obviously going to be SCARLET SPIDER, as confirmed by POINT ONE #1 as well as Spidey editor Steve Wacker:
Steve Wacker said:
but there are no plans for Ben Reilly. My belief is that his story was told completely during the 100+ issues of the “Clone Sage” 15 years ago. Bringing him back just to appease a few fans doesn’t seem to be doing any service to that character. He had a complete, highly emotional and final journey and it’s better to leave that story told.
http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=35432
Basically, Kaine will be Spider-Man, only more angst ridden, more "edgy", more bearded, and set in the south. I am not convinced there is a place for him, but I'll give Chris Yost and Ryan Stegman a chance to convince me. I wasn't initially sold on Flash Thompson as VENOM, but I haven't regretted that one.
t:
Yesh sir...
