1. Nice lead-up to this event. - Slott and the editors in the Spider-Office did a nice job of building this event up. Usually when something like this is coming from Marvel, we get zero build-up in the pages of the comics themselves ; the hype is all in ads scattered throughout the comic book. ”IT’S COMING!” LOL… I know this is done for the purpose of making trade paperback collections “self-contained”, but it’s a dumb way to do it. Why wouldn’t you want one trade paperback to tease the next trade paperback? That’s how manga does it. This story feels natural because Slott has been showing us little hints of Doc Ock’s plan for months now. Nicely done!
2. Enjoyed seeing Peter’s technology in action. - It was great to see all the dual-purpose uses of the technologies that Peter has developed at Horizon Labs. Not only do these techs help Spidey with villains, but they’re also making the world a better place for consumers. Perhaps I question how Horizon is able to get new technologies onto the market SO fast, but hey, it’s comics. It’s been enjoyable seeing Slott focus on Peter Parker as a scientist during this run.
3. Always nice when there are guest stars. - Looks like the Avengers will play some role in this “event”. That’s good because I don’t think we’ve gotten a good Avengers comic book in a few years. I’ve enjoyed their brief appearances in ASM under Slott, so maybe we can have a good Avengers story here? For some reason, seeing the Avengers teaming-up with Spidey in the pages of ASM makes Spidey seem more “Big Time” than seeing him hanging around in the Avengers Mansion in that other comic book.
4. Surely there will be plot-twists. - What do you think? Will Doc Ock’s plan really be to leave the world a better place? I kinda doubt that it’ll be just that simple, but it is worth considering that Spidey’s rogues have never been purely evil. They always have some trace of humanity. All I’m saying is that the plot twist might not be as simple as we’d first assume.
5. Capable art. - I’m not the biggest Casselli fan. He’s a little too soft and leaves a LOT of room for the colorist to add texture with colors. And his Peter Parker is little too urban, hip, punk looking with his fussy looking hair. It’s not my bag… In fact, Peter looks like someone I’d like to fight. And while I respect the job that colorist Frank Martin, Jr. does in this comic, it’s just not to my personal taste. I’d much prefer strong, bold linework with flat colors. But, that’s just me. However, you cannot fault Caselli’s storytelling. Everything just clicks along and you can always tell who the characters are. One other negative is that I really like how Casselli draws women, yet there are hardly any women in here. What happened to Peter’s love life? Slott handles that so well, so I’m always disappointed when it doesn’t appear for a few issues.
Conclusion: This was a nice first issue to a story arc, but that’s it. It’s probably not as good as I’d hoped for, but that’s to be expected when I’m not really digging on the art. But, that’s a personal taste issue more than anything else
Rating: 7/10