Review: ‘Giant-Size Amazing Spider-Man’ #1 Is A Blast
by Tony Thornley
There’s good comics, and then there’s fun comics. They can be both, but sometimes, they don’t need to be. And that’s a good description of what Giant-Size Amazing Spider-Man is like.
This extra-extra sized issue comes from Kevin Smith, Al Ewing, Chip Zdarsky, Giuseppe Cammuncoli, Mark Buckingham, Cafu, Rachelle Rosenberg, David Curiel, Matsuyasu Sakai, Gerardo Sandoval, Israel Silva, Joe Caramagna and Joe Sabino.
Anthology one-shots like this are often hard to judge, but everything in this issue was fun, which is always a win.
Smith and Cammuncoli take a gag idea- what happens when Spider-Man rips his pants- and stretches it exactly to its limit. A joke story can often overstay its welcome, and they know exactly where to end it. Cammuncoli’s always great art is able to balance the action at the beginning of the story, and then sell the comedy throughout (even with Spidey’s mask on).
Smith’s plot is simple but he uses that to pepper the story with strong dialogue throughout. Although I liked it, some of the off color humor (like the euphemisms for nearly-exposed Peter’s genitals) stuck out and distracted from everything else in a negative way.
Ewing and Buckingham go meta, in their very fun short. Ewing plays with continuity to create an out-there threat. His Spidey banter is fantastic, which is often hard, and he captures the voices of the cameos perfectly. Buckingham is able to mix together the grounded and trippy/cosmic visuals to make them work in harmony.
Zdarsky and Cafu’s story is the most traditional of the bunch. Zdarsky goes for his Spider-Man trademark, and hits the emotional beats to make this time travel/super-science story into an emotional punch. Cafu’s art is strong and very traditional house style. It makes the emotional beat work a lot better.
The issue-ending story by Sakai and Sandoval is just setup for a Kid Venom one-shot or limited series. I haven’t read anything with the character others, so it’s fine, but not really anything I personally connected with.
I would take this over any similar annual or special any day. It just worked, and I had a ton of fun.
Giant-Size Amazing Spider-Man is available now from Marvel Comics.
Overview
This is what one of these specials should be though. It was fun, with strong work throughout. It was absolutely worth the time.
