Brand New Day: My spin on the new webs

In my opinion, it is really hard to build a complete and objective opinion on a comic series or new direction after reading only one issue. That would be similar to watching only the first 30 minutes of a movie and passing judgment on the overall movie; you’re just not taking in the overall picture until the overall story is complete. And as most first issues are essentially setting the ground work for the story that is to follow, typically the story picks up in tempo after the first issue or so. However, what I can comment on is the overall feeling I got from reading the first issue, comment on what I saw as the pros and cons, and determine whether or not I’ll buy the next issue or not. And for a comic series, that seems to be the most important thing: holding on  to fans.  I also typically wouldn’t do this for a single comic issue, but in the case of Amazing Spider-Man #546, which starts the ‘new chapter in Spider-Man’s life’, I figured it was an issue that deserved a closer look. Heck, everyone else is doing it right?

Cons:  I feel as if, outside of the jarring change of pace that takes a bit of time to sink in and the lingering sense of “is this right?” and “wait, what happened when-?”, my only real complaint is with the writing.  Not the overall story or characterizations, but just the dialog and foreshadowing that is done throughout the book.  It’s as if the writer wanted to be sure we ‘got’ and understood each and every character the very first time they appeared and it made it filled forced at times.  But again, this is only a minor complaint compared to…

Pros:

1.  The overall story. As a first issue leading the way into a huge change it did it’s job quite well.  Aside from the minor -and for me, I do mean minor- issues stated above, I think this was a great first issue to lead the charge into the ‘new’ world of the Webslinger.

2. The art.  Spot on.  I can’t wait until Spidey is back in full costume; McNiven draws him great.  But he also proves he is a great visual storyteller as well, and he never went too over the top like some artists do.  The art and story matched perfectly, which leads to…

3.  The feel.   A lot has been said about “erasing history” and such.  But after this issue I can’t help but be a bit more optimistic about what the future holds for Pete and his friends.  That’s right; his friends.  It’s nice to see Pete with people in his life again.  It is also great to see his struggling to be the eternal optimist when his entire life is nothing but a…well, struggle.  This is the Spider-man that I looked up to as a kid; I knew he had struggles but he always found a way through and usually with a smile.  He didn’t wallow in his guilt, he used it as a force to carry him on to the next challenge.

So will I be there next week?  For now, heck yeah.  I’m still giving everything a chance.  But as long as the overall creativity stays at the level of this first issue -and those horrid backup stories don’t become the main focus (Aunt May-trickin’ the thug, yo!)- I’ll be there each week with webs on.

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Tags: Brand New Day, Spider-Man

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