Modern Comics Review: Amazing Spider-Man #640

Well, I can say that the Amazing Spider-Man #640 is easily the best of the three issues of the “One Moment In Time” storyline. Unfortunately, this still isn’t saying much. The story continues to be Joe Quesada’s personal attempt to justify the events of “One More Day” and explain what exactly was changed by the deal with Mephisto a few years back. The events of this particular issue are definitely less ridiculous than the previous two and make more sense, but I still just don’t like the way this story is going.

This issue sets up the events that will lead to the more permanent break up of Mary Jane and Peter as well as how, in the post-OMD continuity, Spider-Man was able to make everyone forget his identity. Unfortunately, all of this once again hinges on the random henchman that has been behind all of the One More Day problems. The same guy that was Electro’s henchman and the guy that fell on top of Spider-Man to make him late for his wedding is the one hired by the Kingpin to try and gun down Mary Jane and her Aunt Anna. I don’t understand why Quesada is pushing this guy so hard; he’s just not that interesting of a character and certainly not a threat worthy of Spider-Man. Maybe Quesada wants to show how any bad guy can be a threat to Peter, but he just is not a well enough developed character to hinge so much on. Also, the use Doctor Strange gets in this issue just feels so uninspired. I was hoping that the plot thread he is being used to solve would have a more surprising and interesting person behind it.

One area that I do have to give credit where it’s due is in the art from Paolo Rivera. I know that I previously been unhappy with his work, but that was mainly when it was juxtaposed against pre-existing art from the Amazing Spider-Man Annual. Here it is actually very good and looks quite classic and like a modern version of the art from the 80’s and 90’s. It really does look good and I loved his take of Peter here. The only problem I had with his work was when the assassin almost shoots Mary Jane, I honestly couldn’t tell if she had been shot or not. It wasn’t until later when someone says she only has a concussion that I knew for sure. Quesada’s artwork is still and odd as always. His characters still look like blobs that are all connected together and his faces just look so odd. Luckily, he barely has to draw any panels this issue, so I didn’t mind as much as in previous issues.

All in all, this is far and away the best issue of “One Moment In Time,” but it’s still a mess of a story. This one isn’t as completely annoying as the other two were and it’s at least nice to look at (for the most part) and the story make more sense, but it still just feel as though Joe Quesada is just trying to make people think “One More Day” was a good idea to begin with. I really would have been fine with this story never being written and I don’t see it getting much better in its final issue, though hopefully it’ll be at least readable like this issue was.

Overall: 5.5/10

Modern Comics Review: Amazing Spider-Man #638

I wish Joe Quesada would stop writing (and illustrating) comic books. I respect that he was able to help bring back Marvel a decade ago and I’m grateful for it, but I wish he’d stop forcing his ideas into comics. I know it’s practically cliché to say this these days, but I hated One More Day. Even if you excuse the whole “deal with the devil” thing, it was just a mess of a story with some terrible characterization and ugly art. I know J. Michael Sraczynski technically wrote that, but it wasn’t his idea so I still heap most (though not all) of that blame on Joe Q. That being said, I have really enjoyed many of the issues of Amazing Spider-Man that have come as a result of this, but this issue, the first of the “One Moment In Time” arc almost undid all of that and just angered me.

“O.M.I.T.” has been announced as promising to explain what happened to stop Peter and Mary Jane’s wedding after the deal with Mephisto as well as to finally explain what MJ whispered into Mephisto’s ear at the conclusion of that story. First, let me say that the reveal of what was whispered is nowhere near as exciting as anyone will hope it would be. It’s extremely anticlimactic, though it does, however minutely, help take some heat off of Peter for making the deal at all. As for how the wedding is stopped, that’s explained too, but the story is absurdly dull and uninteresting.
(Spoiler alert!!!!!!!!!)


Having some chubby thug of Electro’s fall on Spider-Man and knock him out and make him miss his wedding is possibly the stupidest reason Quesada could have come up with. I honestly would have accepted nearly anything else other than this. It doesn’t help that huge amounts of unnecessary story were devoted to setting this up when no setup was really needed at all.

Surprisingly, these are actually the least of my gripes with the issue. What bothered me most was the inclusion of (many) pages from Amazing Spider-Man Annual #21, i.e. the marriage issue from 1987, to frame the flashback in. This idea in-and-of-itself isn’t bad, but Quesada picks and chooses specific pages that show Peter doubting whether or not he should marry MJ. Reading just the included pages would make one think Spidey barely cared for MJ, had no interest in marrying, and only wished he could have Gwen Stacy back. It doesn’t help that Quesada and artist Paolo Rivera add in extra parts to these pages to make Peter seem even more in doubt and it becomes obvious that Quesada picked these pages mainly to further his agenda of making others believe his stance on the anti-marriage. It all felt very childish to me in this sense, almost more like a fan fiction, and that is not a good thing.

The art also deserves quite a bit of criticism here. I have never, ever been a fan of Joe Quesada’s art. It’s unbelievably inconsistent and can makes it nearly impossible to recognize characters sometimes. Here, that’s not an issue, but he’s only drawing Peter and MJ, so it’s not all that surprising. His characters can change wildly in proportion as well and he has some serious problems daring Peter’s head. I thought his sequence’s were just painful to look at. Paolo Rivera fares quite a bit better, but is stuck trying his best to imitate the art from the 1980’s as he is only used in the extra scenes from the flashbacks. I admit, he does an admirable job, but it is still starkly obvious when he takes over and it’s a jarring shift at times. It made me wish that they would have just brought in Marcos Martin from the backup story instead.

It’s a bad sign when your two-page backup story is the best thing in your double-sized issue, but it really was about the only thing I enjoyed in this issue. I’m honestly hesitant about picking up the next issue, but I will in hopes there is something better about it. Not only did I not enjoy this issue, it butchered a very good issue from 23 years ago. I’m already excited for O.M.I.T. to end and hope it will be promptly “O.M.I.T.”-ed from Spider-Man continuity afterward. And yes, pun intended. A bad joke for a bad issue.

Overall: 2.0/10 (Mainly for the beautiful cover and Stan Lee and Marcos Martin’s backup, if you care)