Amazing Spider-Man #700
Written by Dan Slott
Art by Humberto Ramos, Victor Olazaba, and Edgar Delgado
Bonus content:
Spider-Dreams by J.M. DeMatteis, Giuseppe Camuncoli, Sal Buscema, and Antonio Fabela
Date Night by Jen Van Meter and Stephanie Buscema
The short of it:
Otto has been settling nicely into Peter’s life, making the changes he wants, taking advantage of his acquired memories of Peter’s life. First up? MJ. Unfortunately, he lacks in the subtle nuances. Like not wearing the Spider-Man costume for a couch make out date…and talking like a total schmuck. News breaks about Doc Ock and friends breaking out of jail, so Peter goes to do the only thing he can do….he books a flight to Belgium. Meanwhile, OctoPete is trying to get the decrepit body working enough to get his own back with the help of Trapster, Scorpion, and Hydro Man. He’s got a plan, they assault the NYPD, and Jameson’s taunting of Ock afterwards is what forces the ego driven villain to stay behind…and gather all of Peter’s loved ones in one location.
OctoPete is trying to rework Ock’s tech to undo what he did, but both are so evenly matched that they’ve already thought out several steps ahead for the other one. Supporting cast members have their moments before we finally get everyone in one location for a brawl to end it all…which Ock promptly cuts down to a one on one by poking Scorpion’s revenge button.This leads to a vicious strike, and the final throwdown. Pete tries to take his body back, but Ock still has a few tricks left up his sleeve….but will it be enough? Who is the Superior Spider-Man? I will not spoil that in this part of the review! Maybe later!
What I liked:
- Otto’s answer to stopping Peter’s plan from the get go had me laughing my ass off. Priceless, brilliant, and completely simple. Why don’t more characters fly to Belgium to escape their problems?
- And on that note, the baiting by Jonah completely sealed it. Really, Jonah was great here, and Dan has been doing a spectacular job with him. So many writers opt to just have him be an obnoxious dick, but he’s actually pretty three dimensional here.
- Horizon getting the KO on Hydro Man was nice, Peter works for a super science brain trust, they should be capable of knocking out a super villain every so often.
- I liked the JM DeMatteis back up story. I mean, at first I thought it was stupid, but it grew on me. Grandpa Spider-Man whose memory isn’t quite what it used to be, mixing together people and events, trying to tell his great grandson about the old days. Kraven, The Rhino may be the best part of the whole bit, but the whole thing was good. The rare jamband style mini story at the back of an over-sized-over-priced anniversary issue that I really like.
- The art. Can I put over the art? Humberto Ramos makes this book his own, and if nothing else, this issue showcases just how amazing his talents are. The whole art team, not just him, he just gets big name value. The Spidey/Ock fight was awesome.
What I didn’t like:
- Has Peter ever called MJ “Woman” before? Shouldn’t that being her new nickname be proof that something is up? I keep half expecting him to tell her to shut up and go make him his dinner. Otto the misogynist?
- Trapster doesn’t get nearly enough love, I mean, yes, his gimmick is dumb, but I’ve seen writers use him excellently in spite of his joke status. Seeing him used as a punchline for Spidey’s jokes is a bit over killed, especially when Hydro Man and Scorpion are there too and not getting half of the disrespect.
- So Otto’s condition was caused by being hit in the face too many times, but he still underestimates how strong Spider-Man actually is? Doesn’t he owe this entire situation to Spider-Man being ridiculously strong?
- The ending as a whole, the giant sized Spidey Spoiler. I understand what Dan is going for, but it just…it doesn’t work for me. Maybe if nobody had to die it wouldn’t bother me, but the fact that we’ve got a body ruins it.
Final thoughts:
I think the thing that gets me the most is that this is actually a really good issue. I mean, from the first page all the way through the end, this is an amazing book, I couldn’t put it down. I had heard the spoiler over a week ago, but I could not put the book down. I just kept reminding myself that Dan Slott told everyone to keep context in mind. So the end of the main story came up, and I got to the context, and I got to the spoiler, and the issue was just ruined for me. There’s no sense of permanence to the ending at all, and I can’t imagine it lasting until this time next year. I respect the balls behind the move by Slott, but this is Spider-Man, and a change of this magnitude just can’t last. No more than the Death of Superman, or Dick Grayson as Batman, or anyone other than Steve Rogers in the Captain America uniform. You can get good stories out of these sorts of things, but at the end of the day you’re never going to see the classics go away. I give this change six months and fifteen issues in this book, God only knows what other books as well. Then I imagine we’ll have status quo Peter back, as well as classic Doc Ock.
Oh well, at least it isn’t the Final Chapter and the Spider-Man relaunch that spun out of it. I don’t know if I could deal with another Mattie Franklin.
The end reaction takes this issue, which is a great Spider-Man story, really, it is. Hell, I’m just going to talk more about that first. This is a classic Spider-Man story if I have ever read one, he has to battle against impossible odds in order to save his loved ones and himself, and he gives it every last ounce of energy that he can, he refuses to quit. That’s the core character of Spider-Man, someone who will never give up trying to do what is right and protect others. So the ending was just a total buzzkill, it just made everything feel like “all of this for nothing?” I figure it will be fine going forward, because I can’t imagine Dan doesn’t have a plan, but it was just totally deflating as a fan of what Spider-Man represents.
So this overall is going to be funky, because I’m going to give a number, but I’m going to explain something here. If the ending hadn’t sat as bad as it is with me, this book would have been a 9. No tricks, no fooling, not even any whining about the price tag. A 9/10. Now, I promised to take my bias out of the review score (because it wasn’t coming out of the review), so I am going to do my best to be fair, because the book isn’t bad. I just don’t like the ending. Really, with my bias fully in effect, the book would be scored around a 6.5. The end result isn’t an average, it’s just…this review isn’t for one set of fan. It’s not for the diehards any more than it’s for the casual observer who is curious if they should give Spidey a shot. It’s for the Pete and MJ forever people as much as it’s for Brand New Day lovers. So the end result is what the score is simply for what it is. A really great Spider-Man story with a disappointing ending.
I’ll be buying Superior Spider-Man #1 just like every other Marvel NOW! first issue, but I can’t promise I’ll be able to stick around. This issue really took the wind out of my sails.
Overall: 7.5/10
