Since my comic book/manga reading has increased I’ve decided to create a meme called Comic Book Wednesday. Each Wednesday I will post about a comic book series I’ve read or am reading. It’s generally the same as My Thoughts, but geared towards comics/manga. I hope you enjoy!
Title: Avenging Spider-Man: My Friends Can Beat Up Your Friends
Writer: Zeb Wells
Artist: Joe Madureira, Greg Land, Leinil Francis Yu, and various others
Publisher: Marvel
This trade contains the issues #1-5 for the currently running series, Avenging Spider-Man.
Will most likely contain spoilers.
My Thoughts:
When I was growing up I was never really able to get into the superhero comics, but than this past summer happened. I got together with some friends and we ended up watching Marvel’s 2011 film Captain America: The First Avenger, needless to say, I fell in love. While we were watching the movie I found out The Avengers was also out in theaters, so a couple days later I went to go see that, loved it, and went to see it again. Now, add on the new Amazing Spider-Man movie, a re-watch of some of the older films (Fantastic Four and Spider-Man 1 and 2), and you have a fangirl. So, it was after the viewing of most of these movies that I decided to give the comic book world of heroes another try.
I picked up this trade while out with a friend and, despite my reservations, I was not disappointed. The first three issues are mainly about Spider-Man teaming up with the Red Hulk to free the enslaved mole people under the streets of New York, as well as rescue the captured J. Jonah Jameson (the guy whom gives Spider-Man most of his bad reputation). It was an interesting team-up to say the least. I like how it showed that brute force isn’t always the answer and that you shouldn’t turn your back on someone just because that would be the easy way or because they did something to you in the past. The art in this three part story was top-notch too!
Now, onto issue number four! In this part Spider-Man teams-up with the ever lovable Hawkeye against the Serpent Society. This issue really reminds me of the reasons I love Spider-Man. He is such a great guy who is willing to do things for his teammates so they aren’t hurt physically or emotionally. I liked the art for this issue, but not as much as I liked the art in 1-3.
Lastly, we have issue number five in which we have a team-up with Captain America. Now, this story is rather sweet with a side of action. Peter (Spider-Man) wants Captain America to remember whom he was before the serum and to continue the passion (comic drawing) he had before donning the red, white, and blue costume. When the team goes after Sidewinder, Spider-Man volunteers to go with Captain America in hopes of connecting with him, however, he is sort of pushed aside. Peter, though, still tries to open the other’s eyes that you don’t necessarily have to give up one thing for the other. I felt like this story had more to do about connecting with a teammate than the other 4. (The other four dealt with that a bit, but not as much.) I had similar feelings to the art in this one as I did to issue number four.
What I really like about this trade though was that Spider-Man’s personality stayed consistent (it probably helped that the writer was the same for all five). His humor was like a breath of fresh air from what I am normally used to reading and so was his understanding. I’m really happy that I started my trek into the land of Marvel Heroes with this trade and I’m looking forward to reading more of the Avenging Spider-Man comics in the future. I would recommend this one to people who have at least a little background on the characters because it doesn’t really go into depth about how anyone got their powers or their pasts in general. It’s certainly a good read.
Rating: 4.5 out of 5
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