After a stellar last issue which was highlighted by the debut of the new-and-much-lauded Captain Marvel, Spider-Man and co. seem to be right back into the thick of things, dealing with a girl whose size is out of control. This sudden growth spurt could not only threaten herself, but people in a... let's say... fifty mile radius around her.
Not good.
Things I liked:
- Banter, banter, banter. I enjoy how Carol and Peter talk to each other, even behind the mask. They have a nice rapport going, and that was one of the things that made last month's issue stand out so much to me. Kelly-Sue Deconnick is writing good Captain Marvel, and that translates into good Spider-Man too, apparently.
- Despite my complaints about the ending (see below), I did enjoy the sequence with the "mother" still being able to converse with her daughter. I'm a sucker for stuff like that.
Things I didn't:
- This ending didn't do much for me. The suddenness of it all, coupled with the lack of any kind of redemption for the character seriously made me believe that the heroes were completely impotent to stop the threat that had presented itself. It kind of took the situation out of everyone's hands, which would be fine if we were given more time with the person who eventually DID take charge.
- I guess what I'm saying is that this two-parter could have easily been three, and it would've given us a reason to care about the new parties that were involved in this struggle. Key characters just showing up out of nowhere as the plot needs them just felt rushed.
Avenging Spider-Man
#10 Marvel Comics
$3.99 (with free digital copy)
The Verdict: Sadly I'm going to have to give this three rocket-packs out of five for some glaring pacing errors that turned this plot from something awesome to something a little more than mediocre. I don't want to harp on it too much, but the setup just seemed to be a bit much for the payoff - we really didn't get enough of either.
You can find Matt Demers on Twitter. He writes about comics and other nerdy things, and could really use a sandwich right now.
