Weekly Comic Reviews

Hey all, welcome to this week's edition of the Weekly Comic Reviews. This time we have the finale of the Ends of the Earth event, Thanos taking on the Avengers, and finally a crossover of spiders we've waited years to see. Let's get started, shall we?

Amazing Spider-Man #687

Official Description

The End of the Earth devastates in part 6 of this earth blistering epic! Plus: Doctor Octopus has a new Sinister Six-THE AVENGERS! Can Spider-Man sacrifice one life to save the entire planet?

Review

I hadn't realized that this was the conclusion of Ends of the Earth until I was in the later part of the comic. It ends things rather nicely, but I can't help but feel a little unsatisfied by the end. This was billed as Doc Ock's final arc, but it looks like we'll be seeing him in the future. The issue has lots of action, yet plenty of dialogue. The writing is pretty solid, often with a humorous touch. A lot of Spider-Man's lines I laughed at when I read them. There is one piece of dialogue I didn't like, where Spidey says "He's not used to the end-of-the-world stuff." Really? So for 50 years he hasn't been in an end-of-the-world event? Infinity Gauntlet? Fear Itself? Other than that pretty awful line, the dialogue kept the issue fun. There was also a lot of genuine emotion in the latter part. If you read the description, can Spider-Man sacrifice a life to save everyone? Really heavy emotion there, good stuff. The art is once again pretty good, fantastic cover.

Overall it's a nice finisher to this event, but by the end it isn't as world-breaking as it should have been. We do however get a Steve Ditko. inspired moment that will probably go down in history with Spidey's many feats.

8/10

Avengers Assemble #4

Official Description

• The secret of the Zodiac is revealed! • What impact will this revelation have on the Avengers…and the world as they know it?!

Review

Call Avengers Assemble whatever you want, whether it be a cash-in to the film or a book for new readers. Either way, there's no denying that it's been a pretty fun ride. This I was personally looking forward to. Why? Well, THANOS. Whenever this guy appears in something, it automatically makes the thing all the more epic.  Same case here. The dialogue is actually pretty good....except for the fact that everyone acts like they've never seen Thanos before. It was just sad, it's like they've had ZERO history with the guy. It's cringe worthy. This is geared more toward fans of the film, but it's also being billed as 'cannon.' The dialogue is plain awful in that aspect. Another bad piece of dialogue is the way Iron Man stated that "they can't' fight this, a cosmel level threat is beyond them." After all these years, really? That is not Iron Man talking. Even the film's version wouldn't say that. The art is a pretty big high-note, some of the best Avengers art out there. The ending is funny. It's not that it's haha funny, but just ironic. Longtime fans will laugh and get a kick out of how Marvel is doing with aligning their films with the comics.

Overall it's a fun comic featuring Thanos. That alone is worth the pickup, but the overly extreme new-reader friendly dialogue ruins a lot of it.

7/10.

Spider-Men #1

Official Description

Written by "Ultimate Comics Spider-Man's" Brian Michael Bendis, the upcoming miniseries will see the world of superheroing veteran Peter Parker explode as he comes face to face with the younger, hardly-experienced Miles Morales.

Review

Gotta admit, I had thought they would do this crossover a lot sooner. Finally, we get a 616/Ultimate story, featuring their flagship characters no less. As a longtime Spider-Man fan, this event was a must. The actual story is done pretty well, basically nothing other than a setup. It's standard crossover fare, except the catch is that it's these two. It's new reader friendly, but longtime fans can jump in without worry of cringe worthy, new reader friendly dialogue. (Like with Avengers Assemble #4.) I will say that one aspect I was not looking forward to was Bedis' writing. For his Ultimate comics it works, but he does not know how to treat 616 Spidey. Thankfully, it wasn't as awful as I thought it'd be. Spidey's monologue in the beginning was admittedly funny. (Doctor Doom's honeymoon, probably the best piece of writing in the issue.) The art is pretty good, my only complaint is that the eyes on Spidey's mask look way too small in the latter part of the issue.

Overall it's a good setup to this event. Not great, but it does its job.

7/10