Amazing Spider-Man #677 - Writer Mark Waid pinch hits for Dan Slott for this issue which is the first part of a crossover that'll be continued in Waid's Daredevil series. I enjoyed the banter between the two characters, and it's always great to see the Black Cat character.Yet I can't help but wonder what a fan of Spider-Man feels about the issue. While told from Peter's perspective, it is mostly as a cypher for other characters. The majority of the story is about Daredevil and showing how cool he is. Which I don't have a problem with being a fan of Waid's DD, and I don't read Spider-man. Yet I could see how someone who does, might wonder why their character is constantly upstaged in his own book.
Don't get me wrong I liked the book, it was sharp, witty and made me want to see what happens next.
Artist Emma Rios's (who is a new name to me) work is breath taking. From subtle things like body language that tells you a story even without words, to gorgeous action shots as the characters race across the city's roof tops she nails it. She's a name I'll certain be on the look out for from now on.
Captain America #7 - I've been enjoying Brubaker's run on this since its beginning, but have found something just a little lacking about this volume of the series since it started. Perhaps because it comes on the tails of such big stories like Death of Captain America and his return, so it just seems too small.Add in that Cap losing his powers has been done so often, so this all just seems so normal. It's competent, with some good moments, but I enjoyed the prior stuff at such a higher level that normal is a let down.
I know this is blasphemous as well to say, and it hurts to say it as I'm a fan of Alan Davis's art on other works. Yet it just looks so flat here, as if the art lacks depth to the point that it reminds me of the old Colorforms sticker toy sets.
Scarlet Spider #1 - I never thought I'd be reading a Scarlet Spider series, as I hated the Spider-Clone saga to the point that I have still to this day not read more than a TPB worth of Spider-man stories in a row.
Yet this series had two strong things going for it that made me try it. Writer Christopher Yost whose work on things like DC's Red Robin impressed me, and it is based in the city of Houston, TX. Which is near me, and I wanted to see how they would portray it in comic form.The thing that wound up impressing me most though was artist team of Ryan Stegman, Michael Babinski, and Marte Garcia work. Their sense of movement as Kaine swings through the city was really well done, but their best bit was spiders crawling all over the opening pages. I have a small fear of spiders and it creeped me out a little to have to touch the spiders as I turned the pages.
Yost has a job ahead of him to make Kaine a character readers can truly care for. He's got such a dark past, and still comes off as a bit selfish. He has potential though, and I think being set off on his own can really give him time to grow.
Also kudos to bringing Houston to life, it was nice seeing familiar places brought to life in a beautiful way. I also appreciate that the it isn't populated with everyone wearing cowboy hats, boots, etc. We may have a higher % of people who wear that stuff than most, but it had become a bit of a stereotype for everyone from TX.
The series has a long road ahead of it, but at least it has started off on the right foot.
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