Reviews - Amazing Spider-Man #535

The War At Home Part Four

In this issue, Peter is slowly realizing that he's on the wrong side of Civil War. He visits the Negative Zone prison that has been built by Reed Richards and Iron Man and his conscience gets the better of him. Peter makes another "important" decision and the cover pretty much tells you what impact this decision has.

To me, this is another pivotal issue in the Civil War tie-ins that you do need to read to really enjoy Civil War. People say that the mini-series itself is enough, but I have to disagree. Marvel has really decided to make the bulk of the story elsewhere which has irked me a bit.

Although Civil War has been said to be unbiased by Marvel, this issue was incredibly one-sided. It even cast Iron Man/Tony Stark as a villain. The last page of the issue definitely sees this as Iron Man assaults Peter. Honestly thought? I thought Peter Parker was a genius but apparently his lack of insight time and again has really put him in tough situations. You would think that after everything he's been through over the 40 years, Peter has some "experience". It doesn't take too much for Peter to see that he's on the wrong side. Another brash decision by the young Peter Parker? I think that's what Marvel wants us to see.

I'm not sure this is part of Straczynski's idea of Spider-man. Sure he's the writer of the issue, but with the Civil War tie-in, how much of this is really Straczynski's idea or Mark Millar's. One has to wonder. The direction that Civil War has taken so many of Marvel's characters is a direction that, if reverted by Marvel in a few years, will stop me from reading more Marvel books. Everyone knows who Spider-man is...but there are so many loopholes that future writers can exploit that the whole Peter Parker secret identity event is just another hyped up marketing tool.

Ron Garney's art is decent. I've never been a fan of his work. It's funny; I see traces of John Romita Jr.'s work in some of the poses. By not having a top-notch artist on one of Marvel's top-selling books...well...Marvel's really screwing the pooch here. With such a large pool of talent artists at Marvel's disposal, I wonder how Garney was selected (perhaps the monthly schedule?).

A so-so issue of Amazing Spider-man. More of the same Civil War stuff meant to generate sales through controversy. Like I said before, pick it up if you really want to know what's going on in Civil War.

DRAGONCRYPT Sunday, October 22, 2006