Dark Reign: The List - Amazing Spider-Man
Nov 23rd, 2009 | By Ben Gilbert | Category: Marvel, Reviews
Written by Dan Slott
Art by Adam Kubert and Mark Morales
Much has been said lately of how Norman Osborn’s sanity is showing signs of slipping and how we may be seeing the beginning of the end of his control over the Marvel Universe. This newest Dark Reign: The List one-shot may offer some clues as to how that may happen, as the hapless Peter Parker tries to finally gain an upper-hand on his old nemesis. The result is a pretty satisfying read and a nice change of pace to how Peter has been portrayed lately in his main book.
The one-shot begins with Spidey bemoaning the public’s blind allegiance to Norman and swearing to do whatever he can to make them see Osborn for what he really is. We then see Peter meeting with Ben Urich and his staff at Front Line trying to find out how to make the public aware of the unethical experiments Osborn performed on illegal immigrants in a recent Amazing Spider-Man arc. Determined to get this proof, Pete, as Spidey, infiltrates Avengers tower, where of course he runs into Norman. This results in a battle between Spidey and the Iron Patriot over the streets of New York - with the crowd of onlookers solely behind Norman, at least for a little while.
One of the things that has bugged me the most about the main Amazing Spider-Man book is how the writers are going to great pains to portray Spidey as this sad, pathetic loser who never seems to find any luck. That’s OK every once in a while, because that has always been part of his charm, but it gets really old when that’s the only part of the character they choose to focus on. In this one-shot, however, Dan Slott finally decides to make Spidey somewhat competent and less self-pitying. If he could only find a way to incorporate this into the main book when he writes it, he may be onto something here.
It’s obvious that Norman Osborn is not going to be defeated this easily. It is interesting, however, to see his enemies get some headway into their struggle against him and know that his grasp of the Marvel Universe isn’t as tight as it once seemed. Time will tell whether the events of this one-shot will have any effect on the future of the Dark Reign storyline, but I know that, for Spidey, in the words of Kevin from The Office
Rating - 4 out of 5 Civilian Standoffs
It bothered me greatly when, from a room that was nothing but walls and computer screens, we saw Spider-Man burst out a window of Avengers Tower. WHAT!?
Well, if you remember back to the whole The Other arc, Spidey got a bunch of new powers, including the ability to materialize windows or flagpoles with a simple thought. I guess he retained those powers through OMD.
I think I love you.
Seriously though, he’s cornered in that room, and the next scene is him crashing out through a window. It doesn’t work. If he somehow evaded Norman and got out of the room, that’d be worth seeing. Even just a page of him webbing Iron Patriot’s face plate and swinging past him down the hall. SOMETHING. This. is. a. vi. su. al. me. di. um. You can’t just shrug your shoulders and say “He got away off panel.” That’s crap.
Admittedly, though, the shot of Spider-Man when the door opened was PRICELESS!
I think “Dan Slott’s writing it” has replaced “It’s magic” when dealing with narrative and logical lapses in Spider Man stories.