AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #50

By: Tony Whitt
Date: Monday, March 10, 2003

Few writers have emphasized the "man" part of "Spider-Man" quite as well as J. Michael Straczynski has. Off the top of my head, I can only think of two who brought out Peter Parker's human side just as well: Stan Lee and Gerry Conway. The latest issue - a fiftieth issue without all the pomp and circumstance that normally accompanies fiftieth issues, even ones which are closer to the 450th mark - just goes that much further to prove it.

Peter and M.J. are finally face-to-face again after a comedy of errors in which each attempted to fly out to see the other. Thank goodness for forced landings in Denver. But just as the two are about to hash out the problems that have kept them apart all this time, Doctor Doom appears - and yet he's not the one setting off Peter's Spider-Sense. When Latverian freedom fighters attempt to assassinate the iron-clad dictator, nearly taking out the airport in the process, it's up to Spider-Man and Captain America to save the passengers...and to save Doom.

Straczynski's probably going to catch some flak for having two of Marvel's most popular heroes save the life of one of its most popular villains, much the same way he caught some fire for having that same villain weeping over the September 11th tragedy a while back. But those critics will be missing a vital point: these are heroes, both with strict moral codes that simply won't allow them to condone the murder of anyone, even someone who truly deserves it. Even if Cap hadn't been there, you know as well as I do that Peter simply isn't the killing type, either directly or by inaction. It's a brilliant way of injecting a bit of action into an issue that's really about Peter's relationship with M.J.

The resolution of the couple's problems - and you knew they'd resolve them, of course, no spoilers there - is handled with just as much style. We've rarely seen a superhero having to take time out while doing his duties to have a serious talk with his ex-wife, but Straczynski makes it work with both humor and poignance. He's also one of the few people besides John Ney Reiber who can write Cap without making him sound like some patriotic robot spouting homilies about truth, justice, and the American way. And as usual, the artwork is a perfect complement to the script - John Romita Jr. nearly surpasses the work of his father on this series, creating with Scott Hanna a visually distinctive style for the book comparable to the Todd McFarlane days.

So, we've got a tremendous pair of artists and a writer who can work with equal skill in television, movies, and comics - why not have him write the next SPIDER-MAN movie, and let Romita and Hanna design it? This is probably the closest the comic has gotten to a "big screen" feel in its entire run. (And speaking of its entire run, shouldn't there be some big celebration in about nine months from now, when the original numbering hits the big 500?)

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