Comic Review: Amazing Spider-Man #677

Story follows Spider-Man & Daredevil as they attempts to clear the name of Felicia “The Black Cat” Hardy after she is framed for a crime she didn’t commit.

Book: Amazing Spider-Man #677Written By: Mark WaidPencils By: Emma RiosPublisher: Marvel ComicsPrice: $3.99Pages: 32

Release Date: OUT NOW IN STORES & DIGITAL DOWNLOAD (VIA COMIXOLOGY)

I remember my exact reaction when I discovered that there would be a two-part crossover between Daredevil and The Amazing Spider-Man: €œOh god that means I have to read Spider-Man doesn€™t it?€ In recent years my interest in the Spider-Man books have sadly dropped due to the new direction post-One More Day. I was flicking through the details of the crossover and assumed regular ASM writer Dan Slott would pen part one, to my surprise current Daredevil writer Mark Waid was tapped to write both parts of the story. I€™d be lying if I said this didn€™t perk up my interests slightly in the crossover.

I€™ve been quite a fan of the direction Waid has taken Daredevil in the past year and it€™s nice to see him shake some of that magic over my once favorite web crawler. I was always a fan of the Spider-Man/Daredevil team up stories as a kid and its been a while since our last team up. Seeing two of my favorite characters bouncing off each other was a really nice throwback moment for me and it€™s a fun entry point for casual readers like myself to get back into Spider-Man.

The story follows Spider-Man & Daredevil as they attempts to clear the name of Felicia €œThe Black Cat€ Hardy after she is framed for a crime she didn€™t commit. Dialogue throughout is quick, snappy and almost always funny. There is some slightly clunky expository dialogue in the stories middle to help fill in the gaps for readers who aren€™t the most familiar with Daredevil. Not to mention a reference to the awful black spot on DD€™s history known as Shadowland (something the core series has gone out of its away to avoid mentioning). The story so far is a lot better than what I was expecting and I actually feel like I give a dam about what happens to characters like Peter and Felicia again. I was planning to buy this issue of ASM and drop the series after its connection to Daredevil had finished however I may stick around for a while to see what it€™s like on this side of the pond. Fair props to Marvel, this crossover got me interested again.

Artwork is where I was most surprised throughout #677. Emma Rios pencils were a real joy to behold, characters are dynamic with whispers of Steve Ditko in every panel and this classic feel does help make my return to Spider-Man a little more smoother. I€™m quite intrigued by Rios€™s style and I€™ll be looking out for any of her work in the future.

I was expecting very little from this crossover and I now find myself pleasantly surprised at what has been brought to the table from the creators. If you€™re up for a quick fun crossover, pick this issue (and Daredevil #8) up when you go to your local comic shop and enjoy the ride.

rating: 3.5

Contributor
Contributor

Follow him on twitter @Jay_Slough for constant film/tv/comic commentaries. This is the rather strange story of how Jamie Slough, at 3am one morning decided to try and form a cohesive sentence on his laptop by bashing his head on a nearby keyboard while finishing some university work. It's been doing him surprisingly well for the last few years and things don't seem to be changing anytime soon. At most times Jamie can be found reading from a large stack of comic books, catching up on TV shows such as Doctor Who, Breaking Bad & Curb Your Enthusiasm, begging people for work (but less said about that the better) and pretty much trying to be analytical about stuff. When he's not doing any of those he's writing or replacing yet another broken keyboard...