Posted on: January 14th, 2010 Comically Challenged: The Amazing Spider-Man #617
I talk to a lot of people throughout the course of my day; typically just small-talk focused upon the weekend or what athlete did steroids or got caught with a gun. However, there’s always the occasional 8 year-old boy or 52 year-old man that talks superheroes. I think you can tell a lot about a person by their favorite super powered character. Not too many folks identify with Superman. He’s an ideal and it’s not all that easy to connect with a guy that’s pretending to be like you. A lot of people like Batman but few can justly relate to him. Honestly, those that say they do often are the ones that believe no one could possibly understand their pain (bullshit). Do you know the Number 1 answer I hear? Spider-Man. The world loves Spidey.
Yeah, okay-I understand that the movies and the cartoons helped out a lot, but that’s basically a “Chicken-or-the-Egg” matter. Is Spider-Man so popular because he’s well marketed? Or is he easily marketable because so many people like him? You’d like to know my opinion? Oh, I thought you’d never ask…
Jobs suck. Even if you have a great job (I don’t know-quality control at a candy factory?), chances are there are some days you just don’t want to go in. Maybe you didn’t even want to take your job in the first place but the threat of being broke and the heavy weight of responsibility attached itself to your resolve. Peter Parker can relate. He didn’t want to be a superhero. He just found himself with some powers and his destiny was pretty much laid out for him. He tried to turn away and be normal, but bad stuff happened. Poor Uncle Ben.
The guy goes out every day and tries to give it his best, but things never seem to work out the way he had planned. He’s got a newspaper mogul that spins everything he does in a negative light, trying to balance two jobs, he’s got women problems with anyone from the firey redhead to the sweet blonde to the buxom chick in a cat-suit, the company he worked for went under new management and fell apart, and all the while he has to put on a happy face so that his aunt won’t worry about him. Everything that makes you go “I’ve been there, brudda.” Good for you if it’s regarding the woman in a cat-suit. But you know, despite the crazy origins of all the villains, they are just regular guys too. You have a rich guy struggling with mental illness, a boy that feels the need to take on the role of his father, a few scientists that get a little too passionate about their work, a guy with intense anger issues, one that’s really into hunting, and some odds and ends sprinkled here or there. Those odds and ends are the foundation of The Gauntlet-the latest event in Amazing and Web of Spider-Man.
All this “event” amounts to is one big tip of the hat to the classic Spidey rogues. Each has a brief run-in with are web-wielding friend and it all is being orchestrated by a (wo)man behind the curtain. Different writers and artists typically, but it has really focused on humanizing the villains.
Technically, this story hits off in ASM #611 with Deadpool running interference with Spider-Man while some angry members of Kraven’s family kidnap Spider-Woman. It’s a stretch on the whole human element in this book but you do get to see Wade’s struggle between good and evil in the form of little Deadpool angels and devils. You also get to read a “Yo mamma-“ battle between Spidey and the Merc, so don’t think I’m saying this is heavy character development.
Then we go into Mark Waid’s story on Electro in ASM #612 with an origin story by Fred Van Lente in WSM #2. He’s just a guy that never felt respected. That’s it. He’s a blue-collar dude with a short fuse (yeah, I went there) that’s tired of getting stepped on. Oh, and he destroyed the former Daily Bugle building. Super-villain.
Next Van Lente writes a couple ASM books on Sandman. The man’s just wants to be a good father figure. He’s going about it wrong and in his desperation is replicating himself to the point of insanity, but it’s a sweet sentiment anyway.
Most recently (and most pertinent to this post), we have Rhino. Rhino’s an often misunderstood character. If you ever get the chance to read Milligan and Fegredo’s “Flowers for Rhino” story, you absolutely should. It’s a great take on Daniel Keyes novel Flowers for Algernon. Does it have anything to do with The Gauntlet? Nope, just letting you know. Van Lente hits us up with another origins story in WSM #3 and Joe Kelly heads the Rhino story in ASM #617.
Aleksei Sytsevich: Where is he now? Not running head-first into a wall; I can tell you that. He got to a point in his life where he was tired of running and wanted to answer for his crimes. He went to jail and was released pretty quickly for good behavior. Now he tries to make a living by working security at a casino. Granted, a new Rhino tried to kill him but Aleksei gave up that life. So that would-be epic battle fizzled out much to the chagrin of the new Rhino. That sounds boring. I think it’s supposed to. It’s actually one of the sweetest love-stories I’ve heard in a long time. See, when he gets out of jail, he falls in love with a waitress at a diner. He could have thrown back on the horn but for the love and safety of his woman, he laid down the theoretical sword. I’m a romantic, what can I say?
Paolo Rivera’s cover art for this book is awesome. A rhino busting through the jacket tearing up the title and the issue number box (What is that called? The key? The publisher tag? Well it’s the box in the upper left-hand corner that gets torn the hell up…) As for Max Fiumara’s inside art-it isn’t distracting. That’s not the greatest review but it’s honestly not consistent enough for me to review it. Sometimes the backgrounds are done in a countering style than the forefront characters and his daytime to nighttime perspectives are completely different from each other. I like what he does with the shadows in the night scenes; it certainly makes Aleksei seem more menacing. Fiumara’s a talented guy. He knows how to work his lighting but he was all over the map in this book.
Well now, if you’re all up in arms over this hullabaloo regarding the canceling/reboot of the Spider-Man movie franchise, just go pick up these comics. At the very least they’ll get you to thinking of different villains you’d like to see in the movies. Would you have picked Rhino? I think not…