Amazing Spider-Man
#692 Review
Alpha
Part 1: Point Of Origin
Written
by Dan Slott
Pencils
by Humberto Ramos
Inks
by Victor Olazaba
Colours
by Edgar Delgado
Spider-Man
For A Night
Story
and Art by Dean Haspiel
Colours
by Giulia Brusco
Just
Right
Written
by Joshua Hale Fialkov
Art
by Nuno Plati
Point
of Origin
Story:
Peter holds a demonstration of his newly discovered “Parker
Particles” but there's a problem and he accidentally creates a new
superhero
Review:
This story introduces a Midtown high school students named Andy
Maguire who is just your regular, everyday kid. He doesn't put
himself out there or take any risks, he's ignored by his parents, and
is hopelessly in love with a nerdy Asian girl named Chrissy Chen but
she doesn't notice him. He forges his parents signature on a release
form to go to Horizon Labs to see a demonstration by Peter Parker,
where a disgruntled employee turns off the safety on Peter's
experiment which unleashes his “Parker Particles”. While saving
Chrissy Chen, Andy gets his by the particles, turning him into a
superhero. A team of experts consisting of Reed Richards, Beast,
Giant-man, and Tony Stark are called in to examine the boy. It is
found that he has all the usual superhero powers of strength, speed,
energy projection beams (accompanied by Andy saying “Pyoo! Pyoo!
Pyoo!” when he fires them), a force-field, and flight, but he can
only use one at a time. It's also found that his powers are tied to
the universe and will grow with time. Reed Richards tells Parker
that, since he created him, he's his problem and has to train him. He
also has the idea to make Andy (Alpha) a sort of “Spokes-superhero”
for Horizon. Alpha starts getting cocky with his power and Spidey
intervenes, telling him that he's been enlisted in the “Sidekick
program” for the Avengers. Spidey get called away and tells Alpha
to stay put. Alpha sees this as a test and intervenes in a fight
between the Fantastic Four, Spider-man, and Giganto, knocking the
beast out and saying how great it is that the Avengers gave him
Spider-Man as his sidekick. I'm not sure what to think of this story.
To be honest, it sounds a bit standard but I have every confidence
that Dan Slott can turn this into something great. Time will tell.
Spider-Man
For A Night
Story:
A burglar finds Spider-Man's uniform in a trash can (presumably
during the “Spider-Man No More” storyline), and decides to use
the suit to his advantage to steal money for his sick granddaughter
Review:
Again, a pretty standard story where a thief tries to be spider-man
to get money to save his sick granddaughter but discovers that it
takes more than looking like a superhero to be a superhero. However,
although I said it's a pretty standard story, I was nearly in tears
at the end by the exchange between the thief (in the spider-man
outfit) hugging his sick granddaughter. Heart-warming to say the
least.
Just
Right
Story:
Peter sleeps in for his new position as a guest lecturer and despite
all attempts to get to his job, he gets sidetracked by missing the
bus, taxis being claimed by others, getting the wrong end of the
stick in an alley brawl, and helping a kid that is getting bullied.
Review:
I wasn't sure what to think of this story at first, but that was
mainly due to the art style of Nuno Plati. It reminded me a little of
anime and I wasn't too keen on how spindley Peter/Spidey were drawn.
I soon grew on me, however. The story is funny and cracks on at a
good pace. Peter getting confused for the Scarlet Spider was
particularly funny in my view. A guest appearance by The Thing also
had me laughing. The bullied kid provides a good moral of not lying
and the lucky little sod even gets a kiss from She-hulk and Spider
Woman.
Conclusion:
I really liked this issue. It'll be interesting to see where this
Alpha story goes, and the two support stories were just the icing on
an already great cake. A nice tribute for Spider-Man's 50th
