Amazing Spider-Man #544 Review

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #544
Written by J.M. Straczynski
Art by Joe Quesada

If I had a Worst Book of the Month heading, this one would beat out Countdown, as this is worse than any issue of Countdown to date.

The first, and most immediate, concern is the atrocious art. Just look at the cover, especially his Peter at the bottom who looks like he is half way between a seizure and laughing, for some verification of this claim and realize that the cover is probably the "best" art featured in this issue. I usually like Joe Q's art, all the way back from his Ash and Azrael days at DC and even his more recent Daredevil work. But this ASM work is brutal.

I do believe that his work as EiC at Marvel has made for too many rushed and sloppily penciled pages in this issue. Facial features and expressions, which usually require the most work, seem to be the biggest causes for concern, and an issue that features one splash page of Spider-Man and short fight with Iron Man, this makes for a lot of "emotional" and talking head scenes that Quesada just did not do anywhere near a decent job at.

For the amount of hype and prep time One More Day has had and the quality of Quesada's previous work, this issue appears rushed and sloppy and almost like it was phoned in. If he was going to do work like this, he should have assigned this job to a more suitable artist. Also, while not Quesada's fault, the narrative text boxes used for Peter in this issue were terrible. Maybe it is just my copy, but the text was practically illegible near the Spider-man eye piece in the corner of each box. The way it blended into the dark black outline of each white eye piece from the mask was distracting and hard to read for me and that just should not be the case with such a high profile book.

The actual story has been discussed to death and spoiled from preview issues last week, but for the uninformed, a quick summary is in order. The issue is basically about Peter being informed, yet again, that he does not have enough money for proper treatment of May. Peter seeks out Iron Man, blaming him for asking him to unmask to the world. Peter thinks it is Stark's fault and blames him.

He basically breaks into Stark Tower and after a brief fight, whines to Tony, trying to convince him to pay for May's treatments. Tony understands where he is coming from, but refuses him, as it would be aiding and abetting a criminal and a direct contradiction of everything he has done for the Super Hero Registration Act.

Later, Jarvis arrives at the hospital with a cheque for two million dollars and, posing as May's cousin, pays for May's treatments in Tony's stead. The issue ends with Peter leaving in search of someone from his group of friends that could help May, which based on previews will be Dr Strange, and the issue ends.

I really dislike JMS's attempts to show Peter's state of mind in this and his previous Back in Black issues. It really comes off as forced. It is natural to be angry or grief stricken when someone you love gets hurt or is dying. The way Peter is acting is way over the top and borderline psychotic. It was his decision to take off his mask. He only did it because May and Mary Jane literally convinced him to do it. Tony did not put a gun to his head. He did not out him to the press or coerce him into revealing his identity. Peter outright blames him for everything that has happened though when he has no one to blame for it but himself.

Factor in that so many worse things have happened in Peter's life and that he has already "lost" May once before in ASM #400 and Peter should be prepared for her eventual death, as much as one can be, as she has lived a long and fulfilling life as it is. The fact he implies he will rob a bank or kidnap anyone he needs to get her treatment and his insistence that she is not dying when the doctor spells it out to him just seems like JMS is trying too hard to force this change in state of mind of Peter.

For the start of the so-called greatest Spider-Man story ever, this issue failed to deliver anything that has not been seen in the last half a dozen issues of Amazing already. It really left me wondering what purpose this issue serves and what the goal of this storyline will eventually be.

Finally, the extra price tag for such lackluster extras was the final nail in the coffin for this issue. Did we really need a dumbed down Wikipedia entry with some rehashed artwork at the end of this issue? Was anyone interested in Joe Q's pencils and inked versions of the phoned in artwork that accompanied this issue? Save me the extra money and use the time wasted on these "extras" and work on the actual stories for the next couple parts of this event.

Verdict - Avoid It

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