Panels of Awesome!

Moving into the third month of Spider-Man’s Brand New Day, the creative team changes up once again with the addition of Bob Gale as writer and Phil Jimenez on pencils. The title has been moving along nicely since it’s “relaunch” earlier this year but the main question is, how long can the Spidey brain trust keep it up? Eventually, someone’s bound to slip up, right? Would Gale and Jimenez keep the trend going or would ASM finally suffer it’s first real disappointment? Let’s find out.

While Bob Gale may not have had a tremendous amount of exposure for his work in comics, aside from his run on Daredevil back in 2001, he manages to keep the familiar setting that Dan Slott and Marc Guggenheim began with their stories in the past couple issues. The obvious difference in Gale’s Spider-Man is that he’s much less witty and, when he actually attempts wisecracks, they’re not nearly as funny as usual. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing as the main tone of the issue is somewhat more serious and several events, such as the origin of the newly created Freak villain, just wouldn’t work if it were piled full of one-liners. Overall, Gale manages to keep the Brand New Day going while still adding his own touch to the main story.

While I haven’t been a fan of Phil Jimenez’s work since I read DC’s Infinite Crisis, I really didn’t mind what was offered in ASM #552. As a follow-up to Larroca and McNiven, Jimenez just can’t match them in quality but he does manage to show just how much he’s improved in only a year or so and, to be honest, I can see why he’s so popular among fans. He really is a great artist but only when he’s drawing certain characters. To be honest, I don’t think either of the previous artists could have drawn Freak as well as Jimenez which is probably why he was chosen as the artist for this arc. So, for what he was asked to do by Gale and the brain trust, I’d say Jimenez does a pretty solid job.

Amazing Spider-Man #552 might not be the inevitable failure that most BND haters are waiting for but it is, in my opinion, the weakest issue we’ve seen since the storyline kicked off in January. Is this issue a waste? Not at all. However, it is somewhat of a different story than the previous issues. Freak is a completely different kind of villain similar to Venom or Carnage. If this issue is any indication, this arc will be an interesting one for Amazing Spider-Man.

Amazing Spider-Man #552

8.1/10 (How’d you get that?)

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