Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Review- SPIDER-MAN: SPIDER-ISLAND

SPIDER-MAN: SPIDER-ISLAND (Marvel, 2011; Hardcover)
Note: Book actually released in 2012.
Collects Amazing Spider-Man Nos. 666-673, Amazing Spider-Man: Infested, Spider-Island: Deadly Foes, and Venom Nos. 6-9, and the Infested back-up stories from Amazing Spider-Man Nos.659, 660, 662-665 (cover dates June, 2011- January, 2012).
Writers: Dan Slott (ASM), Rick Remender, Christos Gage, and Fred Van Lente.
Artists: Stefano Casselli, Humberto Ramos, Giuseppe Camuncolli, and others.
I really, really cannot stand Humberto Ramos' artwork. It just grates my nerves, with his fat, squared fingers and buck teeth on everybody. This story arc as a whole was okay, and I would have liked it better if Ramos wasn't the artist on the bulk of it. Dan Slott can only do much when saddled with deadweight like Ramos.
I did not, and will not, buy the Spider-Island Companion hardcover, which collects all of the sidebar and crossover issues. While I'm sure that it will flesh out many of the seemingly minor guest appearances in the main arc, I refuse to support these types of things any more. I often have buyers remorse and dump them on eBay anyways, so I will save myself some time and money.
The Remender penned Venom issues were interesting, and I am curious about this run. I simply cannot afford to keep up with all of these titles any more. I would gladly read (and review them) if someone wants to loan them to me. Ha! I stopped counting my backlog at 200 books a few months ago, and need to whittle that down before I start gobbling up everything under the sun again.
The OCD zone- Way to go, Marvel! After 27 Premiere Edition Hardcovers collecting the last 121 issues of Amazing Spider-Man in a consistent format, Marvel ups and changes formats to the oversized hardcover for this arc. The dimensions of a Premiere Hardcover are 7.2 X 10.5 inches, while this oversized hardcover's dimensions are 8 X 11.2 inches. Now my bookshelves will be forever marred by this unfortunate deviation, since they went right back to the Premiere Hardcover format with the next book in the run. A pox upon you, Marvel!
The nice thing about the oversized hardcover format is that, over the years, Marvel has managed to perfect it so that they lay reasonably flat, even with glued binding. Not all OHCs have glued binding, but this one does. This also has a nice paper stock.

Follow my blog on Facebook.
DC has made strides in fixing the problem of their books not laying flat. Join the cause page if you want make sure that DC keeps up the recent good work on their hardcovers. Don't do it for me, do it for the children. Won't somebody please think of the children??

No comments:

Post a Comment