The Cipher 07/13/10
July 14th, 2010 by david brothers | Tags: amazing spider-man, cipher, rap
Amazing Spider-Man 637. Words by Joe Kelly, pictures by Michael Lark and maybe Stefano Gaudiano.
Standin’ my ground, never back down, willin’ to rob, steal, and kill anything that threatens mine
daddyfatsax
big boi
You’re not reading this? You’re missing out. Amazing Spider-Man: Grim Hunt has been fantastic. If you’re still holding a grudge over One More Day… get over yourself and read some good comics.
Book-wise, this week is light for me. I got a preview copy of Matt Kindt’s Revolver
Oh, next week is San Diego Comic-con. So much for getting any reading done there.
Speaking of Good Comics
David: Amazing Spider-Man 637, Captain America/Black Panther 4
Gavin: Authority: Lost Year 10, Batman 701, Booster Gold 34, JL: Generation Lost 5, Magog 11, Astonishing Spider-Man and Wolverine 2, Avengers Academy 2, Deadpool Corps 4, Gorilla Man 1, Invincible Iron Man 28, Iron Man Noir 4, X-Men Origins: Deadpool
Esther: Definitely: Batgirl 12. Maybe: Batman 701, Brave and the Bold 35, Doc Savage 4, Power Girl 14, Superman 701
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Quite a few for me this week.
Good Stuff: Amazing Spidey 637, Uncanny X-Men: Heroic Age
Pretty Decent: Batman 701, Invincible Iron Man 28, JL: Generation Lost 5
Not Bad: Booster Gold 34
Kinda Regret: Daredevil 508
man what an end
to the grim hunt
@Froggee: I know, right? I’ve got a long conversation with David Uzumeri going up about it tomorrow. I’ll post links when it’s live.
I guess I’ll never get over myself since I don’t want to read a Spider-man book. Not my bag. I plan on reading that Batman book though. I picked up that Parker preview today.
I’ve flipped thru some of the recent Spidey books. Enh. They don’t do anything for me…
A huge week for me anyway with ten books and one that I got shorted on last week:
Astro City Special: Silver Agent
Girl Comics
Avengers Academy
The Thanos Imperative
daytripper
the Unwritten
Knights of the Dinner Table
Office Down
Savage Dragon
Orc Stain
and from last week the Weird World of Jack Staff
What? All that’s happened thus arc was a bunch of 90s-00s characters with unused potential were gratuitously slaughtered, a couple of the survivors switched powers and costumes, and a rather beautiful story by JM DeMatteis was utterly ruined in favour of…what? Bringing back ‘that Russian guy’ who no-one cares about, only slightly less threatening than the Punisher, as a glorified zombie? Grinding into the ground the message that HEROES DONT KILL U GUYZ even when it is absolutely neccesary to do so? Having Peter use the black costume, AGAIN, to signify he is in a bad mood temporarily, AGAIN? Having Peter…rip someone’s face open? What, did Kaine possess him?
I hate to break it to you, but gratuitous murders + unnecessary retcons does not good writing make.
@Stig: Did we read completely different stories?
@Stig: I guess different strokes for different folks. I’ve really been liking the brand new day output
except for that mysterio story. I can’t stand the maggia/silvermane and it moved too slow 🙁
Eh, Madame Web had long outlived her usefulness, Julia Carpenter was redundant, Mattie Franklin has been unwanted since John Byrne foisted her on us, and Kaine, one of the few likable elements of the Clone Saga got to do something relatively noble and managed to get out “alive” at the end. Or undead. Whatever.
The Kravens got a needed spring cleaning too. Although I will miss Alyosha if this is indeed the end for him. His schtick of being pretty much an entirely different character every time he appeared was kinda…amusing, actually.
Chalk me up in the Grim Hunt hater column, too.
Been loving most of the Brand New Day stuff – Van Lente and Slott have been killing – but this was awful: “Don’t kill him, you’ll be just as bad as he is” cries every cartoon character from the 1980s. “I shan’t kill you, Kraven” says Spidey, our everyman “because I’m totally over that you killed that kid Spiderwoman who’s JJJ’s neice or adopted daughter or something – I dunno, I lost track around the time that shit was happening – and you also killed that old geezer that Stan Lee’s wife voiced in the 90s toon about whom I otherwise know quite little, but I’ll leave now, safe in the knowledge that this is all over. And look, the kid’s decked out in skintight plastic now, as all teenagers in comics should be. What a step forward for the character – about whom I admittedly know nothing and care even less.”
For those that ain’t read it, I just saved your asses four bucks. That shit is some seriously weak sauce, but hey – different strokes.
A small rebuttal: Kraven didn’t kill Mattie Franklin or Madame Web. Sasha did, and she got her just desserts. Peter didn’t choose to wear the black costume, Kraven left it for him. (Kaine took the red one.) Some heroes can kill, but Spider-Man NEVER should. (Neither should Superman or Batman.)
I found to be the rare resurrection that didn’t invalidate the original story. a) Kraven didn’t WANT to be resurrected. The insanity and depression that affected him in Kraven’s Last Hunt are still with him. The story of his death still has the same emotional weight as before. As opposed to the “oh, I was never dead” style resurrection of Norman Osborn (among many others). This was not a retcon; it didn’t alter the original story in any way. (The back-up with Kaine vs. Kraven, on the other hand, WAS a retcon. But a good one.)
b) His resurrection was HARD. It was ugly and evil and required sacrifice. Coming back to life shouldn’t be easy, it should have weight and impact. This story did. I’ve been reading a lot of Hellblazer trades lately; this story could have come from that book. (If you added in cursing, smoking, and British slang.)