Amazing Spider-Man Worldwide Volumes 1 & 2

Amazing Spider-Man: Worldwide Volumes 1 & 2, Panini/Marvel £10.99/£12.99

♦ Okay, to get the boring stuff out of the way first, these books collectively comprise Amazing Spider-Man Volume 4, issues 1 –11, with issues 1 to 5 being in volume 1, and issues 6 to 11 being in volume 2. The extra issue is responsible for the price hike between the volumes, and both volumes come with a suitable number of extras and variant covers. In fact, the production quality of both of these volumes is very high indeed, and as they are printed by Panini in Europe rather than Marvel in North America, the paper quality is very high indeed.

Volume 4 marks the start of “grown-up” Peter Parker (not for the first time – hopefully Mephisto won’t wipe this one away) and is Dan Slott on full throttle featuring SHIELD, The Human Torch, Scorpio, and many other Spider-Man associated heroes and villains, including Doctor Octopus, reincarnated as a robot made from cardboard boxes. The plot across both books features a reinvigorated Zodiac, with Scorpio back at the helm prosecuting a war against SHIELD, and as a corollary of that Peter Parker. Parker is now head of Parker Industries, a sort of Spider-Man version of Tony Stark, except that Peter isn’t a dick.

Those that were worried that Peter’s nature would change to accommodate the mantle of power need worry no longer – in Dan Slott’s hands, Peter is safe. At this point in this no-spoilers review, I’d like to point out that Dan Slott has now written Spiderman for eight years, more or less continuously, and has been the best custodian of the web-slinger since the original work by Stan Lee, Steve Ditko, and John Romita. Every so long Slott changes something about the spider-verse, and hysterical fanboys throw a bizarre wobble on the Internet. They moaned about Superior Spider-Man, but that turned out fine, but they learned nothing from that and have moaned more or less continuously about Slott ever since. Possibly this is in part due to Slott’s combative online persona, but partly it seems they never got over throwing their toys out of the pram during One More Day, when Peter’s reality was reset, in a necessary, but slightly inelegant manner. Truthfully they may never get over this, which is sad given the horrors that were perpetrated on Spider-Man during the period before – well during most of his existence to be honest with you. I’m personally grateful for Slott giving us Peter back, a recognisable character with a set of morals unique to the character. Peter’s personality shines through in these two volumes. I don’t collect comics mainstream superhero comics anymore – I don’t have space, and what space I do have, I reserve for omnibus editions, European albums and art books. This is not me being a snob  – I just literally do not have the room. This is the first time in a long while where I read a review copy of a mainstream superhero title and wanted to keep it.

The art by Giuseppe Camuncoli and Cam Smith (Vol 1), Matteo Buffagni, Camuncoli and Cam Smith (Vol 2) is exemplary throughout, combining the modern art style for superheroes (slightly too flashy for me, but hey, everyone has their preferences) with high-quality storytelling – too often you get one or the other these days. These volumes also have none of the variability in our quality that plagues the two Avengers: Standoff volumes. There is also a happy absence of soul-searching, grim and gritty misery, et cetera. Not to say that Spider-Man and others aren’t visited by occasional doubts – it wouldn’t be Spider-Man otherwise – but there isn’t the pointless dwelling on the negative that seems to infect most superhero comics. This is a romp, very
much like Janet Evanovich and Lee Goldberg’s Fox and O’Hare novels, but with cool pictures as well. If you shop around you can get these considerably lower than the cover price, which makes them even more tempting. One of the most enjoyable comic books I read for some time. Thank you, Dan Slott and company!

Peter Mann