[CBRC] Amazing Spider-Man #680

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Amazing Spider-Man #680
Writers - Dan Slott, Chris Yost
Artists - Giuseppe Camuncoli, Klaus Janson



Preview of middle 4 pages

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Everyone is welcome to join in provided you have read the issue. To be clear, you must read the issue prior to reviewing it. If it is obvious that you have not read the issue or your post is completely off topic, kt will ask a mod to delete your post. (I don't have to ask anymore ;)) kt wants this review session to be fun but I also want it to stay focused on the comic we are reviewing.

If you are interested but don't normally read comic books, don't worry, we have purposely chose an issue that is supposed to be new reader friendly. If you have questions on where to acquire this issue, feel free to pm kt.

The Good: Continuity in ASM has been outstanding since Brand New Day started. Continuing from last year's story arc in ASM #652-654, this story ties up some of the loose ends left behind while progressing the build-up to the upcoming "End of the Earth" story. My favourite part of the issue is the return of the Spidey / Human Torch dynamic which was executed almost perfectly (despite being slightly ham-fisted) in this issue. Even though torch had only been gone for a little while, I feel like it hasn't been utilized as much in recent years even before his "death". Overall excellent characterization, a good action scene, and a nice cliffhanger to lead into the next issue.

The Great:

The Great

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The Ugly: Artwork was definitely nothing to write home about. Everyone has the same basic face structure and are not very expressive. In addition the "Come with me if you want to live" line kind of just irritated me (it may be hypocritical based on what I posted above, but still).

Overall I really liked this issue a lot. Probably one of the better issues of ASM in recent times, even though most of them have been pretty good as well.

Final Score: 9/10

Ok, there's one thing that really bothered me from the start and it probably has something to do with me being somewhat of a space nerd. Extra-Vehicular Activities (E.V.A.s) in outer space are extremely dangerous and there's no way mission control would distract an astronaut performing an E.V.A. with video chat from his dad. I mean, I get why Dan Slott wrote the scene the way he did (emotional impact/JJJ appearance) but it's just so unrealistic (yes, I know I'm reading a super hero comic). Other than that I don't have any gripes with the story.

I really enjoyed the banter between Spider-Man and the Human Torch. I haven't read that many comics with both of them in it but I know they're good friends. This issue is really making me excited about the upcoming FF #17 where they become roommates.

As far as the art goes, the expressions on a lot of the characters were tortured and painful to look at, but the overall artwork wasn't too bad.

I thought this was a pretty entertaining issue and it looks like this one and the next are basically the prelude to the "Ends of the Earth" arc which according to solicitations is "the Doc Ock story you've waited 50 years for!"

My rating: 7/10

Spider-Man's thought explanation on the second last page is completely unnecessary. The captioning comments I made for Incorruptible applies here too.

♫ Let's embark on a road mission to the negative zone ♫