The long awaited Spider-Island begins. This event has gotten a lot of hype over the past couple of months, does the prologue live up to it? Read on.
It should come to know surprise that I didn't like the One More Day fiasco. I dropped off the bandwagon of comics for awhile, came back for News Ways to Die and then dropped off again. I came back to the spidey world at the end of the Character Assassination arc and has been reading since. The end of Brand New Day was welcome, and then Dan Slott came in and started Big Time. Big Time has its high ups and low downs, but it has been a good status quo. Spider-Island is meant to be the finisher of this, it's going to bring out all the loose ends. So, does the prologue set out to do this?
YES.
As a prologue, it works perfectly. We get a "real" day in the life of Peter Parker, Spider-Man. At the same time, bad things are happening around him. I must commend Slott for making this also new reader acceptable, not many can really pull that off.
Pacing is not a problem, for it is a prologue. We get some great character moments, such as banter between Spidey and Thing. Of course, the best moments is with the Jackal and his giant spider companion.
I never read The Clone Saga sadly. (Darn you library for not having it.) But some of this stuff is linked to it. The Jackal is a fun villain to watch on page, and his spider partner....intriguing.
What's even more intriguing is the mastermind villain, who on earth is she? It makes things a whole lot more interesting.
The art is great, but the dialogue can be a little too goofy for my taste. It makes me miss the late 80's/early 90's Spidey.
In closing, a great start to Spider-Island.
I give this issue an 8/10.
