A Taste of Things to Come: The Comic Review

This will mainly be for trades of comics that I have either read and are coming out the next week, comics that deserve to be bought, even if it is a week late, or just books to buy or not buy. We'll see.

Amazing Spider-Man: Skin Deep –A good Spider-Man tale, but still lacking the magic.

When JMS first came on Spider-Man, he started strong and powerful. His Spider-Man was fun, exciting, and full of wonder. Since issue 500, the comic has been in limbo. It has floated along, with even the “big” stories being much of nothing. There has been a special thing missing. The feeling of fun has been gone.

Skin Deep tries to recapture some of the fun, but still comes up short. The flashbacks make for an interesting story, as we see the way the characters grew from their childhood days. We see how someone can grow into a man, or stay bitter and resentful. But then it turns to an angry villain tearing up the city, and Spider-Man having to use his brain to defeat the villain. It becomes standard fare, and this story doesn’t have the special spark that can turn the normal story into something great. JMS has been coasting. He doesn’t know how to make normal stories as exciting and different as his big events.

JMS still makes fun Spider-Man stories, but here’s hoping he can go for something else. Maybe he can get his spark back. Maybe something will come to him, but for now, it looks like coasting is the order of business.