Comic Review: The Amazing-Spider Man #12
/Anything that reminds me how fun, quirky and odd Spider-Man, his counterparts and his universe can be; I'm a fan of.
That's exactly what Dan Slott and the superbly talented Giuseppe Camuncoli did with this issue.
They combined Spider-Man's tainted past by having Harry, MJ and Pete all together again. Harry as Parker's buddy and employee, but MJ showed up to a Parker Industries Uncle Ben Foundation dealio as freaking Tony Stark's date.
While this bothered Pete to the point he could hardly give his speech, he didn't really get mad until Tony Stark or Iron Man stole his one-liner after the duo forcibly finally worked together to stop Ghost, who rudely crashed the charity's dinner.
Iron Man and Spider-Man annoyingly try to one-up each other in the quest to take on Ghost, before finally teaming up to take him down. What follows the action scene -- and I should say the tail end of the fight -- is quite easily the most entertaining aspect of this issue.
This is how the battle starts
And this is how it ends
Ah, if there were one panel I could use to describe Peter Parker AND Spider-Man's personality, this would be it. It's annoying and understandable at the same time.
This is a fun arc starting issue that gives us the clashing personalities of Stark and Parker, then the interesting clash between Spider and Iron Man. Not only is it a fun representation of this little super feud, but we get to see Harry and MJ and the whole crew back together.
Harry came out of right field for me, but that's just because I hadn't seen (or paid attention closely enough) to him popping up in recent issues. It's a firm reminder of the power MJ has over Spider-Man, she is his first worry when action breaks out all the while Peter can't even give a speech knowing that she's out there with another dude.
I'm interested to see how truly deep we get to dive into the triangle of MJ, Tony and Pete.
Slott has his hands full with this arc, especially with Regent coming into the picture, but trust in Slott.
The Good: A fun Spider-Man story using his tangled past to make matters more interesting.
The Bad: You trying to tell me Tony Stark doesn't remember who Peter Parker is? Get outta here. Also, no Doc Ock robot hints. Always hate when crossovers interrupt an interesting arc tease.
The Rating: 8.5/10 A better Tony Stark/Iron Man than that in International Iron Man, and like I said, a fun Spider-Man story using his tangled past to make matters more even more complicated. You should come to expect some of the best art in the industry and cleanest storytelling when you pick up a Slott/Camuncoli ASM book.
