Review Shooter: Amazing Spider-man 656

Writer: Dan Slott
Artist: Marcos Martin

656 follows on from 655 in continuing the ā€˜No One Diesā€™ story. Spider-man rushes to a hostage situation at a bank and finds a new villain, Massacre, straight out killing people for no reason. This doesnā€™t go down well with Spider-man because at the end of issue 655 he vowed that no-one else will die on his watch. I think the new villain ā€˜Massacreā€™ is a great addition to Spider-man’s already brilliant rouges gallery. Due to a car accident, he no longer feels emotion, therefore has no regard for human life. Pretty much the opposite of Spider-man. Heā€™s quite sinister and adds a real threat to the story and the issue. Dan Slott has created quite a few new villains for Spider-man since heā€™s been on the book, most of which Iā€™ve really liked. Marcos Martin also does a great job at drawing his emotionless face and gives him a pretty cool costume.

Much like Massacreā€™s regard for human life adds a real threat to the issue, so does Spider-mans lack of ā€˜Spider-senseā€™. I donā€™t want to spoil too much (BECAUSE YOU SHOULD READ THIS ISSUE!) but we start to see in this issue how itā€™s going to be causing a lot of problems for Spider-man. Itā€™s the first story where Spider-man has taken on a villain since losing his ā€˜spider-senseā€™ and if he doesnā€™t get it back anytime soon, things are only going to get worse for the old web head.

And Spider-man gets ANOTHER new costume. Most people probably hate all these new costumes, because fans always hate it when costumes are changed, but I think it makes sense for the story Slott is telling.

Spidey's new duds.

Peter now has a job. A REAL job. Because of this job, he has facilities and resources available to him were he can experiment with his Spider-man persona. Okay, I will admit, that the answer to Hobgolbin and Massacre was basically: make a new costume so Iā€™m not weak to their strength. If Slott continues to do this, its probably going to get boring fast. I donā€™t think he will though. Spidey now has a stealth and bullet-proof armour, which heā€™s going to need due to a lack of spider-sense. Extra turmoil can also be added, were Spidey needs one of the costumes to beat a villain, but for one reason or another: he canā€™t reach them (the classic Spider-man complex). So the costumes can go either way. At the moment though, I like them. Plus, theyā€™re not going to last anyway. So Iā€™m not wasting my time getting angry at the costume changes, Iā€™m just going to enjoy the stories.

All in all, while itā€™s not quite as powerful in parts as 655, I think 656 is another great Spider-man issue from Dan Slott. Slott and Martin are a great creative team and I wish Martin could pencil every issue of Spider-man.

New Reader Accessibility Rating: 7. Personally, I think Spider-man comics are pretty easy to jump into. Especially now, with Dan Slott writing, because his story-arcs usually only last 3 or 4 issues. The main thing that would probably throw off new readers is the loss of Peters ā€˜Spider-senseā€™. This is pretty important to the issue and not really covered in any great detail (because it only happened in issue 654) so a new reader may be wondering why heā€™s lost his ā€˜Spider-senseā€™. Also, being perfectly honest, if youā€™re buying this comic and itā€™s your first issue of Amazing Spider-man: buy issue 655. Itā€™s the first part of the story and you WONT regret it.

Earl Rufus

The owner of this little chunk of the internet. Enjoys having a good time and being rather snarky!

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