It is rare that I give a writer a second shot at gaining a place on my pull list. It is extremely rare that I give a them a third. The chance of me giving a writer a fourth shot can easily be classified as miniscule to non-existent. Hello, Dan Slott.
I tried Slott's SHE-HULK, which at the time was being lauded as a great piece of work, and while I found it humorous, I also found it very forgettable. It also had very bad pacing issues.
I tried Slott's AVENGERS: INITIATIVE. And while I had no choice but to try it because it had the word "Avengers" in the title, I walked away wishing it did not. Timing and pacing still bothered me.
I tried Slott's AMAZING SPIDER-MAN. Loved ... most of it. I thought he brought back the "Spidey fun" to this title that had certainly been missing for a time. Unfortunately, the pacing and panel progression was still very bothersome to me. Very, very bothersome.
I few days ago, while walking around the LCS looking for something ... ANYTHING to read (because ya know, I don't have enough already
) I saw this comic that had a cover that just hit me. This cover slammed into my brain like covers of old. This cover did not have the CRAP cover of hero poses (the norm for Marvel it seems), it did not have an image that had nothing to do with the story and this cover had no banner joining it to any damn event, mini event or cross-over event.
This was a cover of the late '70's ... missing only the text "Spidey attempts to hold back time! Will he fail?" or some other cool as hell, yet totally lame ass description. This cover .....
... this cover (ASM #679) had me mind racing back to the 'good ole days' of when I collected as a kid. When covers made sense and showed you a small piece of what you could expect inside the pages of said comic. This cover brought me over to the rack.
I then saw who was writing this book ... still. It almost made me walk away. In fact, I picked it up, put it down, picked it up and repeated this cycle for a few minutes. The owner of the shop finally walked over, smiling, and asked what was going through my mind. I told him my thoughts on Slott and my hatred of paying $4 for a freaking comic. He said he would throw me the 15% price reserved for pull list shoppers if I decided to buy it. That was like a bolt from the heavens as I gave in at once and walked to the counter.
An hour later, I was at that same shop buying the issue prior to this. I was HOOKED.
Slott, after all these years, has finally found great pacing, great panel progressions and great comic flow. This two part story is certainly some of the best Spider-Man I have read in years. So much so, that I have added ASM back on my pull, back-ordered issues 680, 681 and 682 but also just ordered of Ebay 674,675, 676 and 677 (The DD crossover that I wasn't going to buy)
This is what comics should be. This two issue arc gets a very high Perry Recommends
Hello, Dan Slott.