So the time has finally come, where I finally finish my reading of Dan Slott’s Spider-Man run. Before I go in to my thoughts on this section, I think it’s important to note that the general consensus on this section of the run is fairly negative. I only give that context because going in to this section, I was very aware of the negative buzz which did influence my opinions for the first few issues. So with all that out of the way, let’s get in to my thoughts!
Right off the bat, I want to acknowledge the 6 issue side story “Amazing Grace” that plays out across issues #1.1 to 1.6. I genuinely don’t think I’ve disliked a comic more than this. I’m generally pretty open to any Spider-Man story, but having a Spider-Man story center around belief in God and mystical powers that be just really did not work for me. I’m not sure if these 6 issues were supposed to be a showcase for the creators but it really fell flat for me. Thankfully this wasn’t written by Dan Slott so it doesn’t technically dock marks for his run, but still just not a good entry at all.
So the big status quo change in this section of the run is that Parker Industries is the biggest company on the planet, making Peter Parker a global icon and one of the richest men alive. As a pitch, this is really fun. The idea of making Peter Parker, who is notorious for being flat broke, and giving him endless money opens up so many different avenues for stories. For example, in this run we get to see how Peter Parker’s values influence how he uses his money in contrast to how Tony Stark uses his money, it’s fairly heacy handed with the “great power, great responsibility” but it’s still quite fun and a nice departure from the standard Spidey story. As a whole, I really enjoyed the globe trotting vibes this section of the run had truthfully, which is funny because it was the exact reason I was worried about this run!
Now obviously, everything needs to return to the status quo at some point so we inevitably had a story arc of Parker Industries collapsing. What I found interesting was that this pretty pivotal story arc was actually a tie in to the “Secret Empire” event that was going on across Marvel’s comic line. This story features the return of Otto Octavius, who wants to reclaim the empire he built while acting as Peter Parker. Right off the bat, the reintroduction of Otto was really silly, and not in the best way. I hate clone stuff, so Otto coming back as a ‘perfect clone’ just seems really stupid. Now with that aside, the story just is not great. Basically Peter Parker goes “hey he can’t have this, let’s burn it all down” and that just seems like a cop out when there could’ve been some alternative story options like showing a bit of Peter’s ruthless side where he does it all legally, but hey I’m not a comic writer so what do I know?
Now the best part of this run story wise follows right after the fall of Parker Industries and that story arc is “Red Goblin” that sees the return of Norman Osborn but this time using the Carnage symbiote to regain his sense of self and finally take down Spider-Man, who’s identity he’s remembered! This is by far the best arc of this section of the run, and it’s not particularly close. Thi arc brings in everyone that’s even briefly appeared in the run such as Miles Morales, Johnny Storm, and even Otto Octavius as a hero. There’s something fun about a bunch of characters joining together, not necessarily as a crossover, but just to help out the main character, it really feels like Slott making his last stand with all the toys in the toybox and it just works. The “Red Goblin” arc has everything from sadness with Flash Thompson, hope with Otto, and pure joy with the final fight between a goblin in the Carnage symbiote versus Peter in the Venom suit. And to end the story off with reconciliation between Jonah and Peter? Just the perfect cherry on top that brought a tear to my eye. If you don’t want to read the entire Dan Slott run, I highly recommend reading atleast this arc, truly a pinnacle of Spider-Man stories to me.
The last thing I want to talk about is the art in this section. Between Camuncoli and Immonen, eveyr panel and page is just gorgeous. Stuart Immonen has been a favorite of mine since I read “Superman: Secret Identity” so it was super suprising to see him in this run. Add to that Camuncoli just making this perfectly simple yet sleek and modern art, it just fits the Peter Parker world so well, easily making Camuncoli a new favorite of mine!
So that brings me to the end of Dan Slott’s run! Needless to say, I enjoyed this run a lot more than I thought I would when I first started. Hopefully as more time passes, more people will come around to like this as much as I do! Overall, I think I’d give this run a solid 7.5/10, just a great all around run considering how long it ran!
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