Cover art to AMAZING SPIDER-MAN ANNUAL #36 by Olivier Coipel
As the Parker and Jameson families meet in Boston to celebrate the upcoming nuptials between J. Jonah Jameson Sr. and Aunt May, trouble is afoot. First of all, J.J.J. (the one we all know and don’t exactly love) isn’t too pleased at the prospect of being related to Peter Parker. The feeling is mutual. Secondly, J.J.J. (the older, nicer one) has done his homework and unearthed (not literally) Aunt May’s estranged family, the Reillys. The act of reuniting a family isn’t exactly “trouble”, but when Peter meets his hot cousins… well, it’s a little uncomfortable.
Next thing you know, some crazy dude in a bad ‘90s-era lookin’ costume with some sort of bony protrusions coming out of his arms (no, it’s not Wolverine) attacks Peter, who quickly changes into Spider-Man and the two do battle. But the guy isn’t a super-villain; he just wants revenge on the person who killed his family. A person who looks a lot like Peter Parker and has a familiar last name.
You guessed it.
It was a stand alone story that furthered the current storyline in Amazing Spider-Man without being a “must read” in order to understand the story. That being said, the story had enough impact that it seems like it’s definitely a must read for Spidey fans.
Marc Guggenheim handled the characterizations well and did a great job with the sense of humor. This is how you write Spider-Man. Witty banter throughout, and it never got stale or corny. And, no offense to Bostonians (is that what you call people living in Boston?), but the accents depicted in this book were hilarious. Yes, that is what you sound like.
And there was a nice balance of action and uh… non-action scenes.
The art, while technically sound, was not this reviewer’s cup of tea. When in costume, Spider-Man looked as though he was drawn by John Romita jr’s third-cousin twice removed. The rest of the book just had kind of a bad 90’s-ish look if that makes any sense. Which is kind of appropriate considering the book’s end, but… yuck.
And “Velociraptor”? Blah. Why did this guy even need a super-name? Couldn’t he have just been “The guy who wanted revenge”? But I guess it’s a superhero book, so what can you do?
Cover art to AMAZING SPIDER-MAN ANNUAL #36 by Olivier Coipel
I enjoyed it and I’m giving it a B. It was a great “Annual story” – it stands on it’s own as a good story but is something that will undoubtedly have quite a bit of impact down the road. It’s got me geeked for this whole American Son storyline to wrap up so we can see what’s coming next. Good stuff, and I wish the regular Amazing Spider-Man book was this good.