AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #547Written by Dan Slott
Art by Steve McNiven
Well, that was resoundingly pedestrian. I'm not sure if I'm punched or bored at this point. There is nothing here, except for the Harry Osborn stuff, that couldn't have been done with the previous status quo. All they had to do was let Aunt May get better and they could have did this entire issue, as well as the previous, with a simple time skip and I see no reason for the marriage to be gone.
I suppose I should judge the issue on its own merits and not the reasons for its genesis, but when they can't impress me with this new era with a superstar team like Slott and McNiven, I'm not sure what to think.
We picked up where we left off last time with Jonah's heart attack. In an image I wish I had never seen, Peter is shown giving JJ the ol' mouth to mouth as paramedics come rushing in. Peter blames himself for this, as JJ's lifetime of smoking, occasional drinking, overworking, bad temperment and lack of exercise had nothing to do with his heart attack. To help him out, he sets off to take pics of Spider-Man for the Bugle, despite his wanting to run the paper into the ground and avoid getting caught as an unregistered hero.
To that end, Peter sets off to find the mugger that stole his web shooter last issue. The mugger is seen trying to fence the stolen goods before realizing it shoots webs after tapping the button. Who cares if the shooters require something like 65 pounds of pressure to shoot due to Peter no wanting to fire them off every time he makes a fist, the 150 pound criminal can simply tap that button and fire webs at will. We don't have to explain it, it's magic!
On top of learning how to shoot webs, the mugger tags a mobster with a spider tracer that confuses Spidey as to which one was the mugger. He ends up tailing the mobster and he conveniently gets kidnapped. Spidey sets out after him and trails him back to Mr Negative and his complex plot to syphon off all the mobster's blood, which is apparently super toxic for some reason. In a rather old fashioned display of monologuing, Mr Negative explains his evil plan as he wonders how Spidey could have possibly found him and why he has been interferring in all his crimes (ed. note - see Free Comic Book Day Comics that came out back in May for stories that should be explained in the main title of this Brand New era of Spider-Man because we won't tell you about it) and how he's getting tired of it. It's a rather long winded scene, as is the whole issue now that I think about it, and ends with Spidey fighting generic thugs in masks while complaining about only having one web shooter. Mr Negative obviously got away.
But wait, we aren't done there. It turns out Mr Negative's plan is to kill all the mob bosses by using the poison blood as a gas in the vents to kill all the meeting bosses. Spidey gets the idea he might be going here because the mobster with the poison blood is the gang's resident screw up and was the only one not invited to the meeting. So, off to the meeting Spidey goes just in time to get shot at a few times before everyone starts dying to the toxic blood gas, ending our issue with Spidey collapsing. Good times.
Verdict - Check It. Despite the negative tone, it wasn't a terrible issue. I'm a bit bitter over the direction of Spidey and these issues aren't convincing me of the need for this change. This could all be done with a married Spider-Man and there's still not much of a supporting cast, or at least one that Peter interacts with. One more issue I suppose.
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