| Comic Review | Paul Milligan |
Amazing
Spiderman #529
Writer: J. Michael Straczynski
Pencils: Ron Garney
Inker: Bill Reinhold
Colorist: Matt Milla
The already infamous Iron-Spidey costume makes its debut!
Since Peter Parker has run out of costumes Tony Stark
presents Peter with a brand new set of duds as a
replacement. And because Tony Stark is also Iron Man, the
new suit has an abundance of gadgets like a built-in fire,
police and emergency scanner, infrared vision, a
communication system and Kevlar to make it resistant to
small arms fire. Oh, and mesh webbing that allows Peter to
glide for short distances. But all of this comes with a big
price, one that may factor in heavily when the Civil War
(Marvel’s next big “event” in which the government tries to
impose a superhuman registration act which splits the
companies heroes right down the middle) hits in a few
months.
It’s really no secret that I’m not a fan of the new
“Iron-Spidey” or the Spiderman books in general at this
point. While I do dig Spidey’s presence in the New Avengers
I’m just not into his current status quo, living in Avengers
Tower, being Tony Stark’s protégé
and gaining crazy new powers. I don’t hate it… I just don’t
care for it.
Having said that, this isn’t a bad issue of Amazing, within
the context of this current status quo. While I don’t
necessarily dig the design of the new costume (actually I
think it’s pretty much one of the ugliest costumes I’ve seen
in a while) I do understand its purpose within the larger
story. Now that Tony Stark has given this gift to Peter and
used it to secure his loyalty Peter will have a much harder
choice of whom to side with when the Civil War happens. It’s
an interesting way to create more drama for what is sure to
be an already tense and dramatic story.
I wasn’t too crazy about the James Bond way in which several
of the suits’ features just happened to come in handy when
Spidey, during a “test flight” for the new suit, tackles a
couple of hoods on the run. Just about every gadget gets
used to resolve the situation as if without them Spiderman
never would have been able to stop the criminals. I have a
hard time buying that aspect, but I guess you’ve got to show
the suit in action somehow.
Probably the best part of this issue is the debut of Ron
Garney as the new artist. One of the things that turned me
off about Amazing Spiderman recently was Mike Deodato’s run
on the book. I don’t think Deodato’s a terrible artist
really. I just wasn’t digging it. Garney’s long been a
favorite of mine, ever since his run on Captain America with
writer Mark Waid, and it’s good to see him back on a big
name book like Amazing Spiderman. He’s probably the only
artist so far who’s been able to make the new costume look
even remotely cool.
Eh, I think I might be coming around a bit. This Civil War
event sounds more interesting all the time, certainly more
interesting than House of M. Ron Garney is doing a great job
on the art. The drama and relationships developing in this
book are pretty intriguing. Oh, God! Could it be that during
the course of writing this review I have somehow convinced
myself to give Amazing Spiderman another shot!? Well… crap.
Special thanks go out to Jeremy Shorr, owner of
Titan Comics for allowing us to use his advance
preview books for review purposes.