Comic authors and artists revamp 'Spidey' senses

One of Marvel Comics' longest running titles now ships three times a month with a revamped Spider-Man in "The Amazing Spider-Man."

There used to be three monthly Spider-Man books, "The Amazing Spider-Man," "Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man" and "The Sensational Spider-Man."

But back in June, Marvel announced starting this January "The Amazing Spider-Man" would ship thrice monthly with one story line with a different creative team every month.

On top of that, Marvel canceled "Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man" and "the Sensational Spider-Man."

It is similar to what DC Comics did in the 90's with the character Superman in which all four comics were connected with one continuous story line.

The story line in "The Amazing Spider-Man" issues 546, 547 and 548 titled "Brand New Day" takes place right after the finale of "One More Day" in which Peter Parker makes a deal with Mephisto (Marvel's equivalent to the devil).

In order to save a dying Aunt May, Peter made a deal that Mary Jane and he had to give up any memory of their marriage.

After the deal was made, Peter and Mary Jane were not married and other changes occurred too that are conveniently explained in a two page splash image in issue 546 that explain the new status quo.

"Brand New Day" shows Peter looking for a job so he can move out of Aunt May's house and get enough money to rent an apartment.

To make things worse, someone is running around with a Spider-Man mask and mugging people, so Spider-Man must stop him.

After a series of events, Spider-Man meets up with a new enemy, Mr. Negative, a villain that looks like a photo negative.

He is a lot cooler than he sounds. Spidey finds out that Mr. Negative has a plot to kill off a few members of a rival mob family and tries to stop it.

Dan Slott ("She Hulk"and "Avengers: the Initiave") is a perfect fit for "The Amazing Spider-Man."

The way he puts a humorous spin on Spider-Man is something that hasn't been seen since Brian Michael Bendis's early work on "Ultimate Spider-Man."

The plot wasn't too hard to follow and it was enjoyable to read.

The biggest selling point for this book is the artwork by Steve McNiven ("Civil War").

McNiven's clean artwork is very appealing to the eye and a great fit for Spider-Man.

The way he draws action sequences is spectacular.

Assisting the excellent quality of McNiven's artwork is the coloring job by Morry Hollowell and ink job by Dexter Vines.

Hollowell's colors add depth to the drawings.

The intensity of Hollowell's colors can really be seen in the splash page in issue 546 that is a montage of all the villains old webhead has fought.

Vines's inking makes the characters stand out and have the right contrast.

His inking does not hurt the artwork, it improves it.

Next month's creative team is writer Mark Guggenheim and artist extraordinar Salvador Larroca, which goes on sale next week.

Another creative team to look forward to in March is Bob Gale, who cowrote the movie "Back to the Future" with artist Phil Jimez ("Infinite Crisis").

Another interesting point is that it seems that Marvel is trying to make "The Amazing Spider-Man" comics more like the Sam Raimi "Spider-Man" movies.

A good example is the back story in issue 546 with Harry Osborne. Rather than looking like his usual self, artist Mike Deodato made him look like James Franco, the actor who played Harry in the "Spider-Man" movies.

An important note is that this book is a good starting point for new readers.

You will not need to have read previous issues of Spider-Man to understand what is going on.

If you haven't gotten into "The Amazing Spider-Man" yet, now would be a good time to get into the book.

Keith O'Neil is a senior majoring in journalism. His views do not necessarily reflect those of The Equinox.