The Amazing Spiderman #546: Dan Slott (script), Steve McNiven (art)
Newly single and dressed in a dingy hooded sweatshirt, Peter Parker takes to the streets to find a job, reacquaint himself with an old friend, and complain by way of smarmy narration. Slott delivers the traditional, yet bland wall-crawler Joe Quesada was pining for.
While reading the first issue of Spiderman post “One More Day…” one must keep in mind that the recurring title will be released three times a month and will therefore unfold slowly. The initial story is as hapless as Peter Parker himself giving cursory snippets of characters who could become the new players in the Spiderman continuity. However, Slott has found success before with a sass-mouthed superhero (his terrifically irreverent run on She-Hulk) and therefore should be allowed more than this 28-plus pages to justify wiping out seven years of Stracynski's work.
There is no such deliberation required for McNiven’s pencils which are as crisp and evocative as they were throughout the entirety of Civil War: no one captures the ulcer-inducing anxiety that cripples Peter Parker better. This step forward for Spiderman seems to be a regression in his development as a character, a move that could cost Marvel a few fans… for an issue or two.
Salvation Run #3: Matt Sturges (script), Sean Chen (art)
Courtesy of the Suicide Squad and a stolen Boomtube, the entirety of the DC rogues gallery fights for their lives on a dangerous, faraway planet. Salvation Run provides an enjoyable throwaway miniseries during a stagnant period of the yearly comic book release schedule.
Sturges, Bill Willingham’s frequent collaborator and sidekick, takes the reins of this Hobbesian tale of survival with a villainous twist. The most interesting thing about this book is just how much the social philosophies of Luthor and the Joker mirror their respective arch-enemies, with Lex appeasing his constituents under the guise of the benevolent leviathan and the clown prince reveling in the fear created by the nasty, brutish nature of mankind. So far a number of C-list villains, rendered effectively by Chen, have bit the dust in increasingly humorous and shocking ways, but otherwise this pseudo-event has had little impact on the whole of the DC universe.
As with Gail Simone’s Villains United and Mark Millar’s Wanted, stories involving a villainous character in the role of conflicted protagonist always seem worth a pick-up: Salvation Run is no exception.
The Infinite Horizon #2: Gerry Duggan (script), Phil Noto (art)
A modern day Odysseus known to readers simply as “the Captain” leads a motley crew of American Special Forces home from the war torn Middle East in a graphic update of the classic Greek epic. As the central characters of The Infinite Horizon get farther and farther away from home, the book grows closer and closer to fulfilling its ambitious potential.
Duggan is able to use the well-known story structure of the Odyssey to wonderful effect in transforming a basic wartime adventure into the desperate and emotional journey home of a few tired soldiers. Noto adds to the subdued tone of the book with his washed out painted backgrounds and dour animation-style pencils. The look of every character, from the perma-scowl of the Captain to the hardened smirk of the Captain’s besieged wife, is absolutely dripping with emotion thereby propping up Duggan's otherwise ordinary dialogue.
The Infinite Horizon offers enough political intrigue to satiate Tom Clancy fans and war buffs while at the same time tipping its hat to mythology buffs with both obvious and subtle parallels to the original work. Both camps would do well to pick it up for the duration of its six issue limited run.
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