Review- AMAZING SPIDER-MAN VOL. 4: GRAVEYARD SHIFT

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN VOL. 4: GRAVEYARD SHIFT (Marvel, First Printing, 2015; Softcover)

Collects Amazing Spider-Man #16-18 and Amazing Spider-Man Annual #1 (cover dates February-July, 2015)

Writer: Dan Slott and Sean Ryan (Annual #1)

Artists: Humberto Ramos and Victor Olazaba, Brandon Peterson (Annual #1)

Colorists: Edgar Delgado and Antonio Fabela (Annual #1)

My son and I's bedtime reading Spider-Man marathon concludes with the fourth and final volume in this line of books. Humberto Ramos is back, and his artwork is an abomination to the eyes. I am serious. Art is subjective, but sometimes an artist just sucks. And Humberto Ramos sucks.

"Artwork" by Humberto Ramos. Did I mention that he sucks?

Fortunately Dan Slott's writing has somehow made Ramos' eye vomit borderline tolerable. I enjoyed seeing Spider-Man tangle with the Iguana, a C-lister from the '70s. The Black Cat is being ramped up more and more, with this ending as a cliffhanger going into the new Secret Wars crossover, another bloated must miss event.

Things are saved by the delightful story in Annual #1. Sean Ryan proves that Slott isn't the only game in town for writing the character, turning in a tale where Spider-Man tries to reunite someone with their lost cellphone. This is a smart, contemporary story. We are all hooked on these cursed gadgets, with their processing speed and Internet connections far faster than the first home computers we all owned around the turn of the century. We have become so dependent on these gadgets, as they are our phone, camera, GPS, flashlight, and tablet all in one. It was cool to see Spider-Man go to such great lengths to reunite someone with their phone. Everyone that Spider-Man encounters thinks that he is nuts to go to these lengths for a phone, but that's the beauty of it. He can't help himself...just like people can't help themselves with these phones. To top it off, Brandon Peterson does a fantastic job in the artwork department on this one. This was a fun story.

Great artwork by Brandon Peterson.

My 9 year old son's take: That was pretty interesting. (It was) fun. Rarely (any) swearing, which is always good.

So this reboot of the rebooted reboot line was uneven but enjoyable. It could have been better in the artwork department, but all in all things are solid. I enjoyed checking these out from my local library but am still boycotting buying anything written by Dan Slott.

Junk Food For Thought rating: 2.75 out of 5.

The OCD zone-

Paper stock: Coated stock with a slight sheen.

Binding: Perfect bound trade paperback.

Cardstock cover notes: Laminated cardstock cover.