Wednesday, September 24, 2014

The Amazing Spider-Man #1.5 Review




Laugh and the world laughs with you.


Slott manages to excel at the conclusion of this miniseries as he is able to reach the heart of the main character.

With a lot of humor and laughter, Spider-man is given the proper treatment to bring this story to a close.

Perez is able to help Slott on this journey – and it finishes in a good place.

SPOILERS FOLLOW…………..


This was an interesting take on why Spider-man uses quips and puns so often – generally being some light-hearted despite having undergone tragedies that would have broken another.

Look, for me – Spider-man and his quips go hand in hand. Iron Man has his tech, Cap his shield, Hulk his rampage but Spider-man is defined more by his ability to laugh in the face of adversity than his costume or web shooters.


The last issue dealt with the infamous Parker luck. This time it’s the famous Spider-man aggravating jokes.

Clash is but the first of many – Green Goblin, Dr Octopus etc….

Speaking of Doc Ock, do you know how his greatest enemy the Goblin learnt that Peter had reclaimed his own body after a switch with Ock – he made a quip about Gobby’s pouch.

That’s always been what Spider-man has been about.

But I digress. Back to the issue at hand.

Clash, in a misguided attempt at popularity, commits antisocial acts repeatedly while Peter tries to get his life back into shape.

Using his powers, he photographs Clash’s escapades and sells them to the Bugle, returning the stolen equipment to the lab. But his thief tag haunts him on the court and elsewhere – as he’s shunned and harassed.


This changes when Aunt May pulls a joke on him – false teeth, and reminds Peter that his uncle Ben’s fondest moments were when he made Peter laugh.

Leading to a change in perspective as Peter decides to live as his uncle lived, and not mourn his death, he comes across Clash in his school and makes him the butt of repeated jokes.

This brings up the social exile issues that Clayton had been facing and unlike Peter, he loses his cool and allows Spider-man to catch him off-guard.

Two big moments occur – Flash Thompson starts his life-long following of the webcrawler and we finally get the tag ‘ Friendly Neighbourhood Spider-Man!’.


Even as Spider-man moves on to his next battle, we see a montage of everything he will suffer and fight though in the next few years.

And yet he keeps his promise – never forget to laugh.

This was an excellent conclusion. Slott is able to move past the event nostalgia trying to recreate the early days of Spider-Man and makes the character’s origins his own.

While I feel Slott still doesn’t get what makes Peter the complex figure he is now, when he’s able to highlight some of the most important features of the character so well, I love it.

SPOILERS END………………

Slott manages to get to the heart of the character and bring out the best in him in this excellent conclusion to the miniseries.

Perez also contributes well to the plot, and some great visuals help Slott get his point across.

So, I give it 9.5 out of 10.

+Some great character moments
+Spider-man’s metamorphosis is done excellently
+Slott gets all the voices right
+Aunt May steals the show
+Perez is able to support Slott well

-Clash still ends up as a plot device

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