The Amazing Spider-Man #8
Plot- Dan Slott
Script- Christos Gage
Pencils- Giuseppe Camuncoli
With Spider-Verse nearly upon us, Amazing Spider-Man #8 throws us a curveball. It has a fun team up and about as heart wrenching of an ending that a Spider-Man comic could ever have. Say whatever you want about Dan Slott, the guy isn’t afraid to take on the heat when he plots things out.
Before we talk about the depressing, let’s talk about the uplifting. Team ups are always fun, but team ups with Ms. Marvel are really, really fun. Christos Gage captures her excitement of teaming up with Spider-Man perfectly. I smiled to myself when she knew a particular move Spidey and Captain Marvel used to pull off, because I felt that “YES I KNOW THAT MOVE” response too. The Silk stuff seems kind of wasted here. It doesn’t feel like part of the book. With her getting her own series, her plot here would have been better suited as first issue material. That said, Gage and Slott make a good team. If I didn’t look at the cover I couldn’t tell them apart, and as a reader that’s a comforting thing. The book never skips a beat with Gage at the helm. I also really enjoyed the redemption tale here in this part of the story. Peter uses a move that Batman/Bruce Wayne has used before and it was just one of those nice things to see. It warmed my heart…
… If only for a fleeting moment. Ugh. That’s what I felt. I never really read much of Spider-Girl, and yet I still felt the tremendous impact of what happens here. For those who wondered if this was going to be a fluff type event, I can firmly answer no, there’s substantial things going on already and it hasn’t even started yet.
Giuseppe Camuncoli takes the team up and Humberto Ramos takes the Spider-Girl part of the book. Both parts look their usual fantastic, but I was really drawn to the Camuncoli pencils this issue. I loved his take on Ms. Marvel, especially her literal wide eyed panel near the start of the book.
Verdict.
Buy it. This books gives you an really good high and an incredible low. All within one comic. Come in and meet a new hero and say goodbye to an old one.
