reading ASM #519-#524...

Amazing Spider-Man #519-#524 (written by J. Michael Straczynski, pencils by Mike Deodato, inks by Joe Pimentel)

I liked this Hydra storyline better than the previous arc. While terrorism plots aren't exactly my favorite, it was a solid action-adventure, and how it mixed with the personal B-plot in the aftermath of their places burning down worked for me. And the sinister foreshadowing of Peter's worsening symptoms, first subtle then more and more serious, has left me actually curious now about their cause.

While the story didn't seem to rely much on being familiar with non-Spider-Man comics, I think it was still a stumbling block for me that I don't know much about the Avengers. Like, I don't really know Tony Stark, but he comes across as kind of smarmy here when he offers Peter help, and I wondered whether he's always like that. Also reading this I wondered whether I shouldn't have read a bunch of the New Avengers comics that are apparently overlapping with ASM first to better follow what's going on here with Peter, his family and how he became part the Avengers now. I'm also quite lost with all this Hydra stuff, their world domination scheme and how they cloned? duplicated? the Avengers.

Also, maybe I just don't know enough about the Avengers operation, but how was Aunt May and M.J. moving in with them supposed to work while Peter still has a (at least somewhat) secret identity anyway? I mean, Aunt May has neighbors, Peter teaches at a high school, and M.J. has a job with people needing to know their address too, right? How do they intended to explain staying with the Avengers? (I can't imagine that Tony Stark blackmailing reporters into silence was the first choice of plan.) It wasn't even discussed between Stark, Peter, M.J. and Aunt May when they moved, though in a later issue it seemed to be implied (by that reporter confronting M.J.) that it wasn't public knowledge that this was the Avengers' headquarters, just that it belongs to Stark, and apparently they didn't even think of a good cover story. Though I thought that the Avenger place was known. Then again maybe that was one of the previous places. Wasn't some mansion destroyed not too long ago?

Jarvis and Aunt May are cute together though. And on a somewhat random note, am I the only one who thinks it's kind of pathetic of Hydra to produce hoodies with their logo on the back (like the one we see in the closet in #522)? At least I assume it's a hoodie because that piece of clothing didn't look anything like the spandex Hydra uniform Peter puts on later.

yet more Spider-Man comics

Spider-Man: The Other--Evolve or Die (in Amazing Spider-Man #525-#528, Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #1-#4, and Marvel Knights Spider-Man #19-#22, written by J. Michael Straczynski, Peter David, and Reginald Hudlin, pencils by Mike Wieringo, Pat Lee, and Mike Deodato, and inks by Karl Kesel, and Joe Pimentel. )

Overall I really enjoyed this crossover. I think the changes to Peter's powers have cool potential, and it was really creepy in parts. Some of the subplots didn't quite come together for me though, and I thought the first half was a bit weaker than the second.

For example I liked Tracer okay as a villain, but he vanished rather abruptly and didn't seem much connected to the main Morlun and spiderpowers plot thread. Also I was disappointed that we never found out what caused Peter's cell degeneration illness in the first place. Was it random? A long term after effect of the initial bite? of Peter not accepting the spider fully? or a side effect of that radiation thing he did to defeat Morlun the first time? Also I was a bit confused why Morlun wasn't always visible to others besides Peter.

I thought the part where he travels to see all these other scientist-type heroes was somewhat boring. I mean, I guess it makes sense that he had to ask around, but it just didn't do anything for me. MJ an Aunt May helping him to play with cool gadgets at Dr Doom's place was fun though.

Another random thing I liked in the first half was MJ beating up that creep with her pool cue. Granted, the creepy stalker fan cliche was trite, but MJ was cool. Peter imagining this plan to make money in Vegas was cute too, though I think a better bet for financial security for his family would be patenting his web fluid or something.

Anyway, IMO the story really picked up once the main fight with Morlun started. Things got much more tense and creepy. Morlun gouging out Peter's eye was really gross, and I actually found it almost OTT for a Spider-Man comic because it wasn't as necessary for the story as the later grossness when Peter transformed. That transformation Peter went through afterwards almost shocked me. I mean, he mutated before, like in stories where he grows extra arms, and that iirc fairly recent change (I forgot when it happened exactly) that brought the comic powers in line with the movie version so that he produces his own web fluid, but the teeth? weird poisonous spikes? and most importantly that then Peter ate Morlun?? It's creepy and unexpected when a hero goes for cannibalism. Not bad though. I actually kind of liked it in this story's context. And it even escalated further when he somehow pupated or something, shed his skin and then regenerated in that cocoon. Somehow cocoons have an inherent creepiness.

I've been a bit dubious when JMS first introduced these spiritual spider connections earlier in ASM, but here Peter's dream of embracing his inner spider or whatever that was, worked for me, and I'm intrigued about Peter's new powers and his control (or lack thereof) over them. I mean, he reacts now faster and on instinct just to being touched in a friendly way, and has suddenly possibly poisonous spikes at his disposal during a fight, that opens a lot of potential way for him to hurt others without meaning to. Especially considering that he already ate one guy, even if it was a villain.

I'm less fond of the upcoming costume change, I like Spidey's classic costume and and gold just isn't as nice, also kind of ominous in that those are Iron Man's colors (and it's not like I want to slash these two) and it's bad enough that apparently Tony Stark listens in on Peter and MJ making out like a stalker. Though I guess it's related to the whole Civil War event.