Reviewer: Jesse Baker
Story Title: Acts of Aggression
Written by: JMS
Penciled by: Mike Deodato
Inked by: Joe Pimental
Colored by: Matt Milla
Lettered by: Corey Petit
Editor: Axel Alonso
Publisher: Marvel Comics
So I’ve not read Amazing Spider-Man since #500, which was so mind-numbingly bad that it made me give up the book. Since then John Romita Jr. has been poached to work on Wolverine, the horrifically bad Mike Deodato has taken over as artist, and we got to see Norman Osborn’s Orgasm Face. Anyhow the current arc has me interested only in the abstract notion that we are finally seeing Spidey join the Avengers. Granted it’s the bastard Faux Avengers but hey, at least JMS is actually ACKNOWLEDGING this as a major event for Spider-Man and his life (even if he isn’t getting that big Avengers stipend check) and playing with the aftermath of such a major event for Spidey and his loved ones. Not to mention JMS writing Spider-Man as a competent hero, which is refreshing considering how Brian Bendis has it in his head that non-Ultimate Spidey is an incompetent joke machine of a rube that no one takes serious.
Unfortunately, this bit of trying to keep continuity going has its own problems as JMS seems to be using Hydra without much of a connection with the recent events of Hydra being co-opted by the Mary Sue squad that is Gorgon and the White Light Japanese Suicidering Zombie Jamband in the pages of Wolverine. Then again, given how Millar has decimated Hydra in the pages of Wolverine just to make Gorgon and the White Light Japanese Suicidering Zombie Jamband look good, who could blame him for ignoring it. Either way it leads to the inevitable “Faux Avengers beating up stand-ins for the ‘Old Avengers'” plot with Hydra unleashing a foursome of Hydra doppelgangers of existing Avengers.
A so-so issue with the Hydra Avengers showing the imposture Avengers who’s the boss. Also we get to see Aunt May stake out her dominance at the new HQ, ordering Jarvis to take a break and doing the overbearing den mother routine to the rest of the Avengers. Oh and JMS goes out of his way to have Spidey be portrayed smarter than the rest of the Faux Avengers too, something that needs to be pointed out every time it happens given how Spidey has acted like a total and complete retard under Bendis’s mainstream Marvel writing.
But the worst part of this issue is Mike Deodato’s artwork. It sucks and really, it makes me long for his early T&A artwork which at least had a distinct edge to it. His work on Amazing Spiderman is just generic and makes me miss John Romita Jr’s Lego block artwork.
