REVIEW: Amazing Spider-Man #692
Written By: Dan Slott
Price: $5.99
The 50th Anniversary issue of the Amazing Spider-Man! A special over-sized issue harkening back to the legend that started it all! Get ready for an all-new tale about a different kind of power and responsibility…
Right off the bat we meet Andy Maguire, a teenager at Midtown High who gains superpowers after one of Peter’s scientific demonstrations goes awry. Sounds familiar, right? That’s the main problem with this whole cocky sidekick angle. Predictability. Somewhere in the new few issues, something terrible will probably happen to someone Alpha cares about, he’ll learn that “with great power comes great responsibility”, there will be some Spider-Man/Alpha bonding, and then he’ll part ways with Peter and we probably won’t see him again until another big event that calls on every Marvel hero.
And I can’t help but feel the character itself was a missed opportunity to introduce something more… fresh. Did we really need another white, blond-haired, blue-eyed male with generic superpowers? Frankly, I just don’t see Alpha being a “stand-out” character. I mean, even Gravity is cooler and more likable than Alpha at this point. And that’s saying something.
The plot isn’t anything to write home about either. I find it incredibly unlikely that Reed Richards would push this teenager to become a superhero so quickly, even if he was under the tutelage of Spider-Man, though the whole situation was probably just to move the plot forward and push Alpha into the “Wrestler Spider-Man” angle. And his preaching that “there are some [scientific] genies you don’t let out of the bottle” seems a little hypocritical in light of a bunch of things he’s done over the past few years.
One thing Slott did accomplish was making me dislike Alpha a little more every time he came in panel.
Score: 7.0
MARVEL Disassembled 