Marvel Comics Review: Amazing Spider-Man #608

Posted by David Torres Categories: Reviews, Marvel Comics,

Rating: ***

Since I read the amazing (no pun intended) Amazing Spider-Man Annual #36, I’ve been looking forward to more Spider-Man stories focusing on the Spider-Man story the Clone Saga.  In Amazing Spider-Man Annual #36, we saw the premiere of the character called Raptor who has a grudge against Ben Reilly.  He blames Ben for the death of his family and he’s out for revenge.  Since Peter obviously looks like Ben, Raptor has set his sights on Peter.

Our story begins with Spidey battling it out with the relatively new super-villain Screwball.  I wasn’t reading Spider-Man back then so this was my first introduction to the character.  I like this character.  A perfect modern character that uses the Internet in order to get that “celebrity” status that comes with it if you can get people to watch your videos.  Peter tries to use his photos of the fight to try and sell them to Ben Urich at Front Line.  Raptor whose name is Damon Ryder shows up to the offices of Front Line to confront Peter.  Ryder calls Ben and hands Urich an old newspaper clipping of the fire that occurred at his house that resulted in the deaths of his family.  A sketch of the suspect matches that of Peter’s face. 

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Marvel Comics Review: Spider-Man: The Clone Saga #1

Posted by David Torres Categories: Reviews, Marvel Comics,

Rating: ***

Finally, Marvel will be returning to the infamous Clone Saga storyline with a mini-series that is set to tell the story of the Clone Saga as it was meant to have been told. As I’ve mentioned before in previous posts, I was a big fan of the Clone Saga when it first began and have always liked the character of Ben Reilly. So this week, issue one of the revisited Clone Saga storyline hit the stands, and while it did not blow me away, I was entertained. Two of the writers working on Spider-Man back in those days have come on board to tell the tale: Tom Defalco and Howard Mackie.

Before I go into my review for this issue, I must profess my love for the Spider-Girl title in which Defalco worked on. Defalco’s Spider-Girl/M2 universe sprang from the stories that were created during the Clone Saga, and he was able to make a grown up Spider-baby May Parker work well along with continuity of those storylines. Marvel completely abandoned the characters for years in the regular 616 universe until the upcoming Who was Ben Reilly? storyline that we’ll see next month in Amazing Spider-Man. 

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Marvel Comics Review: Amazing Spider-man Annual #36

Posted by David Torres Categories: Reviews, Marvel Comics,

Rating: ****

Wow!  Last week I gave a glowing review to Grant Morrison’s Batman and Robin #2 where I used the phrase “wow” to express my appreciation for that issue.  Well, here I am saying “wow” again for Amazing Spider-man Annual #36 because that is exactly how I felt after reading this issue.

I’ve been reading Spider-man on-and-off since the mid-80s.  If the writing was good, I read it, but if it wasn’t I dropped it.  There were three or four monthly Spider-man titles to chose from so I was at least collecting one of them at some point through out the years. In the 90s there was a storyline that will go down infamy as far Spider-man and comics in general: The Clone Saga.  If you’re a comic reader, there is no explanation needed for what was the “Clone Saga”.  I am one of the few people who liked the “Clone Saga” at first, but as time went on the story became a mess and the original planned ending was abandoned due to fan outrage. 

I haven’t read Spider-man for probably over a year now.  I haven’t read it since Marvel Comics committed the sin of the “Brand New Day” storyline which effectively wiped Peter Parker’s marriage to Mary Jane from continuity.  The way in which they did it was atrocious and I refused to buy another Spider-man comic until they reunited Peter and MJ.  Well, I decided to break my promise this once and pick up this issue.  The reason I broke my promise is because of one name: Ben Reilly

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