Monday, July 27, 2009

The Colonel Reviews ASM #600



Daron "The Colonel" Jensen returns with his weekly Marvel pimping.

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Amazing Spider-Man #600

The Amazing Spider-Man has reached issue #600, and Marvel’s celebrating with 104 pages of all-new stories! No reprints! Featuring the talents of Dan Slott & John Romita Jr., Stan lee & Marcos Martin, Mark Waid & Colleen Doran, Bob Gale & Mario Albreti, Marc Guggenheim & Mitch Breitweiser, Zeb Wells & Derec Donovan, and Joe Kelly & Max Fiumara! Also are Amazing Spider-Man covers you’ll never see by Jeph Loeb & Mike McKone, Ed Brubaker & Mike McKone, Matt Fraction & Mike McKone, and Brian Bendis & Klaus Janson!

Amazing #600 has everything you’d want in a Spider-Man anniversary issue. Adventure, thrills, humor, guest stars, a classic villain, a wedding, a surprise appearance, girls in bikinis, and the kitchen sink. Dr. Octopus has discovered his old girlfriend May Parker is getting married and tries to stop it, and Spider-Man can only thwart his evil plot with the help of Daredevil, the Avengers, and the Fantastic Four. Oh, and poor Dr. Octopus, you’ll even feel sorry for him when reading this issue…

Lots of back-up strips fill out this meaty slab of comics, including a Stan Lee written story looking over the years of Spider-Man stories, Mark Waid writes a touching story of Peter and Uncle Ben, Bob Gale tells us what it would really be like to be Spider-Man, Marc Guggenheim tells an Aunt May story of hope, love, and loss, Zeb Wells treats us to an appearance of the Spider-Mobile, and Joe Kelly unveils a preview of things to come with Madame Web.

With 104 pages of all-new material, your cost comes to less than a nickel a page. That’s value for your money, and it’s awesome! And if I had a nickel for every time I’ve said awesome today, I’d have three copies of Amazing Spider-Man #600!

-Daron “The Colonel” Jensen

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There you have it, "The Colonel" says it's worth a read and he tends to know what he's talking about when it comes to Marvel, so grab yours before they disappear from your local Amazing Fantasy location!

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2 comments:

  1. I agree, Colonel, this was a very entertaining and satisfying issue.

    The main story was triple the length of a regular book before you even get to the all new back-ups. I've been disappointed in the past when Marvel would put out these monster size books with a normal 22 page story and 80 pages of reprints that are older than the average reader. But this issue and the Cap #600 were well worth the hard earned dollar. And I really am worried about my favorite Spidy villain Doc Ock.

    And for those Spider-man fans out there who turned away from the book after the unfortunate "One More Day" story line, I would say don't judge these new stories based on it's editorially mandated changes. I've been a Spider-man fan for over 30 years and I actually jumped back on the book with "One More Day". Although I'm not completely happy with the new status quo, I would have to say that the changes have been much more good than bad. On the down side, Peter Parker is younger and less responsible, his marriage has been erased and Spider-man's 20 year history has been re-imagined, leaving long term fans kind of in the dark about certain past events until they choose to tell us what the missing pieces are. But on the plus side, they restored Spider-man's powers to what they should be, and brought back all the supporting characters and old villains in new ways. Let's face it, A reboot was necessary whether we like it or not and characters like Aunt May and J. Jonah Jamison have not progressed much in 30 years, but now they have been brought back to life with fresh ongoing sub plots that are still faithful to the way the characters should be done. The new stories actually make you care about these characters.

    Of course one of the biggest downsides is the absence of Mary Jane Watson, who I consider to be as important to Spiderman as Lois lane is to Superman. We all know who Spider-man's wife/girlfriend is or should be. Does it matter if they are married? Not really as long as the character is in the book and given proper treatment, and we won't have long to wait for that either.

    So for all those who thought they could never thought they could read Spider-man again, you really should pick up Spider-man #600 and give it another chance. Just try to put aside all the things you're still mad about long enough to appreciate all the things they are doing right.

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  2. I decided to jump back on board with Spidey 600 after at least 15 years of not reading his book.

    I've always loved the character and found it odd that he was handled more to my liking in the things that featured him that WEREN'T the comics, like the animated series and movies and video games and whatnot.

    With ASM 600, it just seemed like it was the right time to revisit the character and see if there was anything there for me. While I haven't read the issue yet, I fully intend to do so before week's end. Looking forward to it!

    I'm slowly gravitating back to superheroes again after a very long time. Between Cap, Thor, Hulk, Batman and now Spidey, I'm really rediscovering everything all over again. I can't say that superheroes will ever dominate the top spot of my comic book reading hours, but I am definitely buying more superhero books than I have in a long time. Hell, I'm even enjoying certain mutant titles again and I haven't liked the X-men since Paul Smith left the book with Uncanny X-Men 177. Of course, it may just be Joss Whedon's run on Astonishing and the various 'First Class' books I'm digging (because they are more like the X-Men I know and loved), but I'm even appreciating Wolverine in small doses again. Who would have ever thought that of me?

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