Amazing Spider-Man #546 Review

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #546
Written by Dan Slott
Art by Steve McNiven

I'm too lazy to get the actual cover, so I'm still sporting that old What If? one.

So, this is it. The supposed Brand New Day. I'm not sure what to think. I think I like it though. There's a lot of things that are hard to swallow and I think there's some things that just don't fly with the way Peter would or should act, but there's none of the old 'nerd rage' flaring up telling me to hate this issue the way I dispised One More Day.

Most who are reading this probably already know the details of what happens in the issue, so I'll spare the full spoilers. Coming out of OMD, Peter wakes up in Aunt May's house, the 30 year old, unemployed loser still living at home. Somehow Aunt May has an amazing house that looks to be a lot better than the one that burned down pre-Avengers Tower.

Later, Peter goes on a job search, which I found pretty funny, but had seen in previews already. After his last interview, he's called by Harry and invited to go out clubbing with his girlfriend and the hot, nerdy roommate, Carlie, whom Peter ignored in the last part of OMD. Well, he completely ignores her at the club as well and oggles Harry's girlfriend the entire time. He also gladly takes hand outs from Harry to help him cover his rent. That really bugged me for some reason. I just never saw Pete as the type or person to take hand outs unless there was something seriously wrong, like hospital bills or something. To just casually pocket the cash seemed out of character for me and rubbed me the wrong way.

This money issue continues with Peter confronting Jameson about some money he owes him for royalties on photos he sold him long ago. I can understand wanting to stick it to JJ, but the way he flips out and goes off the deep end over some cheques when he's just been told the Bugle is in the middle of a hostile takeover and has frozen all employee's pays rings hollow. And this is after he took the free money from Harry, meaning he technically didn't need that money right at that moment, making him seem like more of an ass to me.

The new villain, Mr Negative really impressed me. He wasn't all that much when I first say his character design a while back, but seeing him in action in this issue won me over. Not sure if he's physically in Spidey's league or if he just relies on his weapon as the killings were done off screen and he used a energy-charged sword thingy.

Finally, the art was exceptional, but I'm biased towards McNiven. I only wish he had some actual Spider-Man to draw in this issue. I do have a small complaint though. A lot of his faces look very smug. These instances where they look like that seem to accompany the scenes that I hated, like accepting money from Harry or his discussion about marriage at the club, and almost made it seem like the characters were laughing at me and throwing it back in my face that there's nothing I can do about the changes to Spider-Man. It's a weird complaint and I'm not sure I explained it well and I don't even know if it's only something I see or if it's something everyone can notice. Regardless, the art was excellent and anything bad I can say about it is only nitpicking.

Verdict - Check It. I'm not sure if it's a Must Read book or not. It's so odd and different from what Spider-Man has been for so long and there's things that just don't sit right with me. I like it on one level and then there are times I hate it. I think I'll know after the next issue whether I really like this or not.

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