by Nick Walden, CMRO Contributing Writer
Amazing Spider-Man
Issue #681
Written by Dan Slott & Christopher Yost, Art by Giuseppe Camuncoli
Published: May 2012
Spidey in space. This is always a fun idea. To start, I really like the idea of teaming Spiderman with the Human Torch. They both have a similar attitude that allows for fun dialogue and a lot of inter-character banter. Plus as a bonus we get a good look at John Jameson and his ranting and raving.
Slott has done a really nice job of making a classic comic book story. We have bad guys with a villainous plan complete with bad guy speeches. We have good guys who have to figure out another way to win because the environment is not conducive to what they do best. Then of course we have wise cracks. It finishes off with the standard, “Why that idea is so crazy that it just might work!” Who doesn’t love that!
The art was really good. Space is always a fun medium for background and while normally I am not much of a big fan of Camuncoli, his work here seems different and more refined. I thought he did a bang up job and honestly the flow was much better than I expected from him. Spiderman was a little more lean and mean and the Torch looked great. Some of the blurriness added to the background gave an interesting impression of the effects the lack of air was having on the scene which was excellent.
Overall I am rating this book at a solid 9 out of 10 much like the last issue. As the story goes along with Slott and Yost at the controls I find myself more intrigued for a Spiderman title than I have in a while which is a good thing.
One Response to “Amazing Spider-Man #681 Review”
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Yes! I’m distinguished now! I was tniryg my darnedest to not spoil the issue. The team up was good, I just want to talk about it. I tried to keep in mind that I’ve known for months who it is, but the official solicit does not tell you. Its funny that you should mention OMD/BND. While yes, I agree with everyone else in the world that One More Day was a total mess, the end result, Brand New Day, I have some respect for but I will leave that for another article. I must admit, Slott is who originally made me start collecting comics month to month. For the first year-two years I visited PackRat, the annex was my best friend. I purchased old issues of Spidey, that I thought looked cool . Haha. But as soon as I read an article that detailed that Slott would be starting an arc in ASM where he would be reintroducing and reusing some of the old villains that we love. BND was filled with new villians, but it was time for the oldies to come back. I love his work, so I can recommend a lot. Here is a few that you may have missed out on since you say you have been steering clear of the title since OMD/BND: -New Ways to Die (collects #568-573)-The Gauntlet vol.2 (collects #617-#621)- The bulk of the book is written by Slott. I have not read this arc yet, but its my favorite villain written by Slott, so you can’t go wrong.-Anything starting with #648. This is where Slott takes over as solo writer. I have every consecutive issue starting here, and I do not regret it. Any HC you buy that contains these issues is worth your time in my opinion. Hope that helps!