Writers: Various, including Dan Slott, Robert Kirkman
Artists: Various, including Pete Woods, Takeshi Miyazawa, Khary Randolph
Publisher: Marvel Comics
The original Amazing Fantasy #15 is of course famous for launching Spider-Man into super stardom, and Marvel apparently hope to do something similar with one or more of the stories in this special anthology issue of the second volume. While I’m personally a little doubtful of Marvel’s confidence in and commitment to these concepts, there are a number of strong stories and characters here that I’d certainly like to see given their own titles, and on those grounds, the book is definitely a success.
My particular favourite is “Blackjack”, an irreverent secret agent spoof more in tune with 2000AD than Marvel, from Dan Slott and Pete Woods. It’s light, throwaway stuff, but it’s got a good humorous edge to the writing, and Woods’ semi-realistic art is a perfect fit for the over the top action and violence. The strip crops up repeatedly in the comic, in a series of two-page vignettes, and if an ongoing series isn’t a possibility, I hope Marvel consider putting a regular “Blackjack” back-up strip in some of their regular titles.
Mastermind Excello is well done, and I particularly like the little caption-arrows pointing out important, and not so important, elements in the panels, a nice little bit of play with the comics medium. I’m not sure the strip is compelling enough to hold an ongoing title, although a miniseries might well work. Takeshi Miyazawa’s art is clean and simple, yet very attractive, and I wonder why he’s not on something more high profile than this. He’s miles better than David “Facial Paralysis” Finch, for example.
Also impressive is Robert “Let Him Write New Avengers Already” Kirkman and Khary Randolphs’ Monstro strip. Even in such a short space, Kirkman’s gift for writing realistic characters and relationships is apparent, and Randolph produces wonderful dynamic art that brings to mind a mix of all the best elements of John Romita Jr. and Bruce Timm’s styles. Together they’ve crafted a very interesting little introductory tale that leaves plenty of potential for future stories.
“Positron” from Sean McKeever and Kristian Donaldson is something of a disappointment, coming across more as Runaways-light than a compelling story in itself. That said, the ending leaves things open for some interesting developments down the line, and as such, I wouldn’t be unhappy to see it return, unless it were at the expense of one of the more deserving strips. Also disappointing, ironically enough, is “The Heartbreak Kid”, a tale set shortly after Spider-Man’s first appearance, and guest starring a disgruntled Peter Parker. This is something of a non-story, as Marvel can’t shake things up too much for Spider-Man, and the script itself acknowledges that the Kid doesn’t learn anything as a result of the encounter, so we end up with a well-produced bit of fluff with no real consequences, seemingly included only because it directly references the first Amazing Fantasy #15. The same is also true of the other Spider-Man story in the book, although that is at least funny.
It’s somewhat disappointing that Marvel didn’t take this opportunity to test the waters regarding black and white comics or non-superhero tales, but nonetheless there is a strong showing here. Whether any of these new concepts can crack the insular superhero comics market is unknown, but I hope that some of them make it; I’d even be quite happy to see an ongoing Monstro/Mastermind/Blackjack anthology title if that’s the best we can get.
What did you think of this book?
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