Finally, someone gives Norman Osborn a little bit of what's coming to him, hopefully causing more than a hiccup in his mostly-unquestioned almost-year as the Man for superpowered beings in the Marvel Universe. Fitting (ever so fitting) that it comes from NYC's friendly neighborhood Spider-Man, who's been a pain in Osborn's side for going on 40 years now.
The Amazing Spider-Man one-shot List issue is, along with the previously-released Punisher issue, probably one of the strongest issues in the series so far. Not only does it manage to advance the story forward, not only does it capture the new (and rather oppressive) vibe in the Marvel U these days, but it's also a good comic book on its own merits, independent of its tie-in status. That is to say, you could easily recommend this issue to a person who simply "likes Spider-Man," and they'd be able to enjoy it.
It seems to me that Dan Slott has written one of the best Spider-Man scripts that Brian Michael Bendis hasn't in quite some time. The back-and-forth between Norman and Peter (both verbal and mental) is the sort that can only go on between such long-time adversaries, and it takes a writer of a more-than-decent stripe to capture that as well as Slott's done here. It's been a good long time since we've had some real and deserved triumph from a proper Marvel hero that the ending of Peter's story is extremely satisfying. Even in the first world, everyday people can repurpose the tools of their oppressors and use them to set themselves free (and it's especially cool how, in a world where a superhero's secret identity is used against them and they're frequently forced to sign up with The Man, Spider-Man's able to do the greatest damage to Osborn's regime while he's not wearing his mask).
I'd be remiss if I didn't mention how well, how naturally the page layouts flow, and that credit should go just as much to Adam Kubert as it might to Dan Slott. A persistent complaint I've made about Bendis' comics - small though it may be - is that I sometimes find myself lost in his panels. I read down when I should've read across, or something, and I'm more than halfway across the page before I figure out that he's not actually experimenting with jumbling the narrative, I just didn't read his intentions correctly (it's as much his fault as it is mine, I contend). This issue doesn't suffer from any panel flow confusion, which is ever so nice.
Kubert's art in this issue (well-supported as it is by Mark Morales and Dean White) is quite fantastic, as well. Capturing Spider-Man's bouncing, Iron Patriot's lumbering, stewing fury, and the final face-off between Osborn (in full armor) and Peter (in t-shirt and jeans) practically hums with energy.
Dark Reign (and all its subsidiaries) seems to be bucking the expectations of soullessness that come with most major crossovers. For all our sakes, I do hope it keeps it up.
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