Amazing Spider-Man #546 by Dan Slott, Steve McNiven, Dexter Vines and Morry Hollowell.
© Marvel
Title: Amazing Spider-Man
Issue: 546
Authors: Dan Slott, Steve McNiven, Dexter Vines, Morry Hollowell
Publisher: Marvel
Price: $3.99
Amazing Spider-Man #546
By: Kurt Amacker, ColumnistDate: Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Amazing Spider-Man #546, the first issue of Marvel’s controversial Brand New Day has finally landed. You likely know the story by now – Peter Parker reset his world and sacrificed his marriage to save dear Aunt May, with whom he now lives. Harry Osborn remains very much alive and apparently clean of any goblin-related issues. Peter still can’t catch a break. He’s unemployed, unattached, and unregistered, per the dictates of the Superhuman Registration Act. This issue spends most of the story exploring his new world – one built largely on nostalgia. A girl hits on him so that she can work her way into Osborne’s social circle. J. Jonah Jameson thinks Spider-Man is a menace that should be arrested. A mugger in a Spider-Man mask keeps sullying Parker’s reputation. It’s all stuff we’ve seen before, outside of the actual kernel of a super-villain conflict involving a crime boss named Mr. Negative who’s purchased a mysterious briefcase from a crooked detective. The issue also features three backup stories. The first (Marc Guggenheim, writer; Grand Land, penciller) involves a new registered New York superheroine named Jackpot, who offers a couple of either clues or red herrings as to her identity. The second (Bob Gale, writer; Phil Winslade, penciller) shows Aunt May foiling a drug shooting by chasing off the assailant with faked naïve kindness. In the third (Zeb Wells, writer; Mike Deodato, penciller), Harry Osborn works himself into the good graces of his girlfriend’s father who may run for mayor – but just barely. The three stories further explore the new world that Spider-Man inhabits via plot points and characters introduced in the main narrative by Dan Slott.
This issue would work better if it didn’t read like an Ultimate-style reboot of the series designed for new readers. The young adult soap opera squabbles wore out their welcome in this series ages ago. While that kind of thing may resonate with people that only know Spider-Man from licensed media, it feels like a regression for anyone that’s read the character over the past 10 years. Parker had become a teacher, a faithful husband, and a member of the Avengers (pre-Civil War, anyway) – in other words, a mature adult by any superhero’s standards. To see him reduced to a mid-20s sad-sack with no job and no place of his own feels depressing, not nostalgic. Most of us already know about five people like that, and it doesn’t do the character or the series any favors by rolling back the clock.
On the other hand, this issue presents an opportune time for new readers. I mean no sarcasm by this. If you harbor no attachments to the in-continuity Spider-Man of the last 20 years or so, by all means get this book. There’s very little baggage here, unless Marvel has a colossal retcon planned down the line. On those terms, the book works all right. It’s pure cotton candy, and it feels like Spider-Man-by-way-of-The-O.C., but I honestly think Marvel intended that. If that’s what you want from the character, pick this up. The art from Steve McNiven looks fantastic, as well. It’s a nice-looking book, regardless of whatever continuity baggage this issue does (or doesn’t) carry.
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