This is standard Spider-fare and contains everything that an issue of Spider-Man should have; Pete is in a pickle when he’s without the costume, large amounts of butt kicking and a cliff-hanger that doesn’t necessarily make sense until you think about it.  My only issue with this issue (ha!) is that  unless you are clued up with your Marvel U trivia, a lot of this may not be making a great deal of sense.

See, its the Gauntlet and old villains are being ‘re-issued’ to new proponents, a kind of legacy.  That’s fine.  But unless the original villain has some kind of resonance within the current populace it’s the equivalent of saying you’re the Red Baron (WWI fighter ace, not any other iteration), fantastic at the time, but no longer relevant.  Take the time to do some background reading on the ‘new’ characters that are exposed and the book becomes far more meaningful.

Great artwork is on display here with well paced action sequences.  Additionally, there is a second feature in the back which doesn’t feel tacked on; given a touch more development it could have been a story on it’s own, but perhaps that is the point.  Don’t just stop at the end of story 1, you’d be doing yourself a disfavor.

Oh, anyone get the variant cover? -Bretzke

The Amazing Spider-Man #628 (Variant Cover)

The cover doesn’t describe what’s inside,Deadpool is not giving fashion tips to the wall-crawler, this isn’t make-over time.  This is kick ass time!  Brilliant fight scenes across Manhattan with an ending that you wouldn’t expect.  Oh?  Who are they fighting?  Each other! -Bretzke

The Amazing Spider-Man #611

3 stories in here, a new concept from Marvel.  I can see the rationalle; stories not ‘big’ enough for their own book get shoved here.  It appears however they haven’t gone through the same any quality control.. It feels like the office was polled as to what they wanted to see in a Spider-Man story and it was put in.  This is utter rubbish, the first story rings true and could have stood alone, but the other two smother it in retrograde crapulence. -Bretzke

Web of Spider-Man #1