Cover art to AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #599 by Phil Jimenez
The American Son storyline comes to a conclusion as father battles son in the war to settle the score.
Spidey’s been tortured and beaten to a pulp by Hawkeye (aka Bullseye) and Harry Osborn has learned the truth about Lily Hollister and their “child”. Fed up with his father’s power plays and backstabbing tactics, Harry dons the American Son armor and goes toe-to-toe with daddy. Meanwhile, Spider-Man does whatever he can to help his friend, even though he can barely stand. He’s watched Norman tear apart not only his own life but the life of his best friend Harry for too long and wants to end it all. But will he be able to do the deed when the opportunity presents itself.
As a whole, the American Son storyline has been solid. I absolutely love the way Peter and Harry’s friendship has been handled as well as the way Norman has been using his son as a means to an end. Menace/Lily Hollister has been an interesting character and welcome addition to the Spider-Man Universe.
And Norman Osborn has been one hell of an evil S.O.B. When written well, he’s a villain I love to hate and I love to hate the way he’s been written in this book.
Joe Kelly’s dialogue just doesn’t ring true with me. He has some good character moments and I like what he’s going for, but their voices just don’t ring true with me. It can be a chore to read.
Speaking of characters, those don’t always ring true either. I know the event took place a few issues back (though it was referenced in flashback in this one) but anybody who knows Wolverine knows that Logan would never advise Peter to kill Norman. Yes, he’s a dark character, but he’s not the type of guy who invites anyone to share that dark world he inhabits. If anything, he would advise Peter to not kill Norman – he’d want that job left to the anti-heroes like himself. To me, it’s an example of a writer altering the way a character has been portrayed just to service the story. Couldn’t you just have Peter make the decision on his own or come up with it after watching a Death Wish marathon?
And I didn’t really dig the art either. Not enough to make me spend any more time complaining about it; just not my cup of tea.
Cover art to AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #599 by Phil Jimenez
If you’ve been reading my reviews and columns, you know I’m not in love with Spider-Man lately. It isn’t a terrible book, but it simply isn’t up to the standard I think it should be. For my money, it’s been consistently at a C-level for a while now. It’s a passing grade, but when Nova and New Mutants outshine Marvel’s flagship character, something is very off at the House of Ideas.
As Jerry Orbach’s character says in Dirty Dancing, “When I’m wrong I say I’m wrong” … well, I won’t exactly say that I’m wrong but I will say that Amazing Spider-Man has been growing on me lately and I think that it’s moved up from a C-level to a B. A B-, actually, but that’s not bad. It isn’t as good as it could be and it isn’t even close to being as good as it should be, but it’s been worth my $2.99 (and it’s nice to see that it is still $2.99).
Has every issue been up to this level of quality? No. But this issue was a great payoff and taken as a whole, American Son has been satisfying. I’m actually kind of looking forward to picking up the next issue. However, I shouldn’t be “kind of looking forward to it” – I should be salivating at the prospect of another issue. Spider-Man deserves better.