As this becomes an all Spider-Man, all the time blog... I swear, I'll blog about other things, but the whole Brand New Day thing is holding my attention surprisingly well these days.
I missed this story when it came out on Free Comic Book Day last May, but it's a very tight issue that does a nice job of establishing different elements of the new status quo. Allow me a little space to discuss what works.
Page 1: Now we know where May got her name.
"What? My Spider-Sense is tingling!" In a thought balloon. With the half-Peter, half-Spidey face. If I was writing my first-ever Spider-Man script, that's how I'd want the first page to end, too.
Pages 2-3: New third-tier villain "Overdrive" is a good addition to the stable of utility players. Since chasing robbers in a getaway car is a superhero staple, he can fill that need while providing just enough of an extra twist – he’s a Spidey fanboy with gadgets – to make things interesting.
If you’re building up the web-slinger’s rogue’s gallery again, it’s good to pad this tier. Eventually you hope to create an icon or two at the level of the Doc Ocks and Goblins, around whom entire storylines may be built. But you also want your Shockers and Rhinos, guys who can maybe fill out an issue when they’re first introduced, but then recede to supporting players in future installments, maybe to start an issue with some action.
Peter's leap to safety is a nice homage to Amazing Fantasy #15, plus it establishes that he's protecting a secret identity again.
Pages 4-5: What a gorgeous splash.
Page 6 teases Mr. Negative. Page 7 introduces "Vin," one of the police-perspective characters.
Page 10: The Bar with No Name. "C'mon, a new guy? What's the point? He always beats the new guys." Of course, the bar is loaded with post-Lee "new guys." I recognize Spot, Slyde, Cobra, Boomerang, and the Answer. (And Kraven? I'm not up on Kraven's post-suicide successors.)
Page 13: Jackpot’s got a cute design, but her identity seems at once too obvious to really be estranged girlfriend Mary Jane Watson, and yet so appropriate as MJ that it may be hard to accept anyone else under the mask, unless they’re closely related to her. Is it a long-lost twin sister? Universe B MJ, using the Slott idea from the tail end of his She-Hulk run? Clone? Making MJ a superhero could address how to better involve the love interest into the stories, without just making her a damsel in distress. If it wasn’t for their adamant position that no one knows Peter’s identity – and by now they’ve established enough trust for us to take them at their word, ha ha – I might think that Peter broke up with her because he didn’t want her to keep getting in danger, and becoming a superhero somehow was her way of joining his world.
I'm guessing she's got luck powers, kind of a reverse Black Cat. Maybe Felicia Hardy has gotten a major makeover to be more Spider-Man's type. Though of course she wouldn't know what that is now, would she?
Page 15: Using Spidey's knowledge of New York traffic to stop the bad guy is just brilliant.
Page 20: Who is this "Joe" escorting May? And how will he be tied into a super-villain?
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