Book of the Week: Amazing Spider-Man #529


ASM529bThe only thing anyone’s been talking about for the last few months in regards to Spider-Man is the new costume. Most seem to hate it, although Joe Quesada would have you think otherwise. Personally, I’m not fond of it. It seemed like a change made solely to create buzz around Spider-Man, which it’s certainly succeeded in doing. It didn’t even enter into my mind that the new suit could be important to the storyline. Boy, was I wrong. I still don’t like the look of the new suit all that much, but I’m certainly not against the concept of the new suit anymore.

While the bulk of the story does center around Peter trying out the new suit, it really doesn’t fell any different that any other Spider-Man story I’ve ever read. Iron Spidey isn’t suddenly a different character (which I’m sure was one of the big fears people had looking at the new design), he’s just the same old Spider-Man in a different suit. It certainly helps that Ron Garney draws Spidey just as sleek as he always was. It’s not bulky armor, and Spider-Man isn’t suddenly a body builder. Garney really draws it more like a red and yellow version of the black costume than a high-tech cybersuit. And thankfully, he doesn’t have those stupid spider legs yet.

There are two main reasons I chose Amazing Spider-Man as the Book of the Week. The first is the subplot that J. Michael Stracynski has been developing for quite a while now of the growing relationship between Peter Parker and Tony Stark. The new Spider-suit is just the latest in a long string of things Tony has done for Peter to gain his trust. At the end of the issue, Tony convinces Peter to enter into a “blood pact” with each other where they will trust each other above everyone else, including their fellow Avengers. Peter agrees to “stick with [Tony] through what’s coming, no matter what.” And with that, Tony takes out a summons to appear in front of the Senat Metahuman Investigations Committee. The first step on the road to Civil War has been taken, and Spider-Man has pledged to stick beside Iron Man “no matter what.” Now it’s just a matter of time until Spider-Man either does something he regrets to keep his promise or betrays a trusted friend to do what he feels is right. And either way, that’ll be a good story.

The second reason was this:
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Take that, fanboys!