Amazing Spider-Man #560 Review

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #560
Written by Dan Slott
Art by Marcos Martin

Round 2 of my return to the Brand New Day era of Spider-Man was still a much better offering than my first sampling of it back in January, but I'm still not sold on a full return to the fold at this point, as this was a good issue, but not nearly as good as last week's opening salvo.

This week's issue focuses heavily on Paper Doll, who, technically, never referred to herself as that. She did get upset when Spidey called her that, though.

She's still a one-dimensional (Get it? Paper? One-dimensional? Bah, forget it.) character, in that her only motivation and drive seems to be to kill anyone that threatens or intefers with the actor, Mr. Carr. We still know next to nothing about it her, not even her name, or what she refers to herself as, or even what her powers actually are.

For instance, she can go all Chameleon on walls, blending in at will with her paper thin body, but it seems to be limited to artwork or graffiti. She never once bothered to blend in with white walls or normal brick. It was always a poster or painting. Furthermore, she can engulf anyone and compress them into paper thin versions of themselves, effectively killing them, like she did with the waitress Peter snapped a photo of Carr smacking around last issue. No blood or organs are destroyed. Everything is just paper thin. She's still a mystery, to say the least, and it appears she'll be a one off villain, showing up for this arc or until Carr, whom she loves, spurns her or is killed off.

Which brings me to our next big development. Carr is dating a mystery girl. I'll give you three guesses as to who said mystery girl is and the first two don't count. Yes, the big "surprise" is he is dating none other than Mary Jane Watson Parker. I'm not sure if Marvel is mocking us or what, but she is reading the book, Faust, which seems way out of her league and is a reference to a man who makes a deal with the devil, and responds to Carr with a line about how she makes looking beautiful so easy as, paraphrasing, "It's magic, I guess.". QUESADDAAAAAA!

The last thing I want to comment on is the paparazzi angle of this storyline. What's up with everyone hating Peter for taking photos of celebrities for money and letting the DB spin the story whatever way they want? He did the same thing with Spider-Man for years. Spidey actually makes a difference in people's lives. He puts his ass on the line everyday and everyone, including Robertson, was willing to let Jonah drag his name through the mud and twist facts to make everyone hate him, but no one said a damn thing about it! Celebrities make movies, get paid millions, end up in rehab 9 times out of 10 and contribute nothing to society remotely close to what Spider-Man does while doing everything their power to be in the public limelight and having their image splashed on posters everywhere. Yet that they all complain about. The mind, it boggles.

Verdict - Check It. I like Paper Doll, but the mystery and creepiness has sort of been lost with how much limelight she got this issue and, sadly, no Screwball this time around, but I'm hoping to see her at least one more time before this arc concludes. It was a good issue, but it felt more like the opening BND arc instead of the fun I had with the last issue.

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