Written by:
Dan Slott
Art/Cover by:
Stefano Caselli
Colors:
Edgar Delgado
Letter:
Joe Carmagna
Publisher:
Marvel Comics
Holy $#&* beans. The inaugural issue of 'Revenge of the Spider Slayer' rode me hard, put me away wet and left me desperate for more. This is an outstanding book. Alastair Smythe is back and he want's to make J. Jonah Jameson pay. He's brought along some friends who all have scores to settle with JJ, so far we have seen the return of Mac Gargan as Scorpion and Paula Crane AKA Fly whose family business was destroyed by a Bugle expose when JJ was in charge. First on the agenda? Taking out John and Jay Jameson Sr during the launch of the former's latest space shuttle mission. Luckily Horizon labs new golden boy is on hand inspecting the shuttle when it all goes down.
I'm tempted to gush over this issue like a teenage girl over a sparkly vampire but I will try to reign it in just a touch,. Dan Slott's writing is once again completely on point. His dialogue is witty and creative while his characterization is excellent. So much so that I turned up for a Spider-Man story but stayed for the Pete/Carlie/MJ triangle that seems to be taking shape. The most surprising thing was I didn't care, Slott manages to tell both side's of Pete's life so well that I was equally enthralled by both of them. This issue, and possibly this arc, see's Stefano Caselli take over on art duties from Humberto Ramos. While his style is somewhat different from Ramos I have no complaints, his characters look great and are nicely proportioned. Each panel is nicely detailed and vibrant. I particularly liked the panels showing Spidey trying to get onto and then into the shuttle to save John, You can almost feel the g-force pushing on him and the strain it takes to crawl up the side. Just awesome work all round.
As if all that wasn't enough there is a small back up story involving Spider-Man being presented with the key to the city from JJ and being interrupted by the new Power Man. After a brief smack-down it becomes evident this was a diversion to steal the aforementioned key and we meet the man responsible...The Looter! While not particularly long or engaging it's by no means a bad read, written by Fred Van Lente with pencils from Reilly Brown, it definitely felt less like filler than some of the recent back up stories I have seen in books like The Incredible Hulks.
Just to clarify the final rating for this book is based solely on the excellent main story, Spider-Man has always been one of my favorite Marvel characters but under the expert guidance of Dan Slott Amazing Spider-Man has quickly risen to the top of my must read pile each time it hits the shelves.
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