Monday, July 4, 2011

Amazing Spider-Man; Return of the Black Cat TPB


This trade, like many of the recent Brand New Day collections, is actually a compilation of a few different Spidey stories. Not surprisingly, the quality and my enjoyment varies wildly depending on the creators and characters involved.

The first story is the best, featuring the Black Cat slinking back into Spidey's life. She's a sexy flirt, and poor Spidey can't get anything done when she's around. Her bad luck powers are bad enough, but she won't let him concentrate on anything but her! It is quite fun seeing some things work out OK for the web-slinger, and Joe Kelly and Mike McKone do a great job giving villain Diablo enough to do while still keeping the focus on the Black Cat.

The second story left me a bit cold. The concept was strong, and Marc Guggenheim brings back his Raptor the dinosaur man character from a few issues ago. Kaine plays a big role too, since the whole story hinges on a misunderstanding from Ben Reilly's actions in the past. The problem is that I certainly wasn't clamoring for more details on Reilly's employment while he hid out and lived the life of a clone on the run. If anything, I would have liked more Scarlet Spider goodness. The whole exercise just seemed a bit pointless, especially considering where Raptor ends up. Marc Checchetto's art is pretty, though.

The last story is a one-off featuring Deadpool. I'm so over-saturated on the character, not even Joe Kelly's return to his pet character can help me. The "yo Momma" climax is original, I'll say that, but, jeez, I just can't take any more Deadpool!

Fair

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