Amazing Spider-man: Matters of Life and Death-Review

Ok so this blog will now become a comic book reviewing blog. Yeah I know what you are thinking: "Oh no not this comic book crap. Get back to the anime." Well let me tell you something, the anime reviews weren't happening. I've drifted away from that stuff, kicked the habit, slapped the mule, ridden the donkey to space-camp, if you will. Yep, now I'm in Space camp, and we don't review anime at space camp, we review comics. Always have, always will. To all you people who enjoyed my anime reviews I have this to say: "I'm sorry. Pretend this blog died with your family in that fire you don't want to talk about anymore." AND to all you people who are open to new things I have this to say: "GET OUT! GET OUT YOU PINKO COMMIE SLOBS!! WHY DO YOU ENJOY NEW STUFF?! THINGS WERE GREAT THE WAY THEY WERE!!"

Ok I think that settles things now to get to the reviewings.

This collection continues the run of Dan Slott on Amazing Spider-man, which has been great. This run is being referred to as "Big Time" because Peter Parker has gotten a job with a big time science company, getting paid a shit ton of money to basically design new stuff for his spider-suit. (Mini Review alert!!!) The last run of comics was called "Brand New Day" which was basically a nearly weekly run of issues that culminated in perhaps the greatest Spider-man story ever, "Origin of the Species." That storyline featured a pregnant supervillain that crashes into a cafe where Peter was having dinner then aforementioned supervillain immediately goes into labor. Without ruining things I will just say that Doc Ock delivers the baby, Spider-man snatches the baby away, and then Spidey and the baby are chased through New York by Doc Ock, The Rhino, a bunch of other villains, the police, and the media. It was awesome! (Mini Review Over)

Matters of Life and Death follows the storyline of a bunch of villains who blame J. Jonah Jameson for their shitty lives. JJJ is riding high right now, he is mayor of New York, his estranged father is back in his life, his rekindled his relationship with his ex-wife, his son is an astronaut. To put it bluntly, he has alot to be proud of both personally and professionally, and these supervillains, led by some guy named Smythe and the Scorpion don't like it. So the bad guys decide to attack JJJ and his family, naturally they choose to attack on the day that his son is due to blast off into space, and even more naturally this leads to a scene where Spider-man fights the scorpion on the side of a space shuttle as it is entering orbit. This first story arc is alot of fun, and is full of great moments. The artwork by Stefano Caselli lives up to the strong tradition of excellent artists that has been the norm for Spider-man books for the past couple of years.

Venom stars in the next storyline, with a new host and a new job, G-man. Seeing the new venom, I won't spoil who it is, go on a spy mission is great, but seeing venom lose control and eat a dude later on is even better. Humberto Ramos draws this story, I know his art can be polarizing, but I tend to really enjoy the guy's work.

The final story involves the fallout from somebody dying, again I won't say who, and is drawn by Marcos Martin. It begins with a trippy dream sequence as Peter visits all the people who have died during his career as Spider-man. This issue is one of the best Spider-man stories I have ever read, mostly due to the excellent art by Martin, who is pretty much one of the most creative artists out there.

This leads into Spidey fighting with an insane guy who basically enjoys killing hostages. The police can't stop him, Mayor Jameson wants him dead, and Spider-man is the only guy who can deal with it.

This is the final page to the storyline, which is just amazing.

You should read this.