Writer: Dan Slott
Artist: Ryan Stegman
Colorist: Edgar Delgado
Letterer: VC’s Chris Eliopoulos
Editor: Stephen Wacker
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Audience: T+/Teen Plus
Final Score: 8/10
On Sale: January 9, 2013
Price: $3.99
Format: FC
Pages: 32
First I will make a confession… I have never been one to read the various Spider-Man comics. I have nothing against them, I just never had an interest in reading them. That changed today.
For about a month or so I have been seeing an uproar on twitter from fans of Amazing Spider-Man. This isn’t anything new, comic fans have a reputation for being passionate about the characters they love or hate. Known to get vocal when a writer or artist changes something about their character. But this time the uproar was enough to get me to pay attention. The tweets that Dan Slott would retweet had me floored. It showed some of the worst of the fandom with how inappropriate and extreme some of them were. I think Slott handled the situation with grace and dignity though I don’t know how he managed to not to blow a circuit with a few of them.
Then issue 1 of Superior Spider-Man came out this week and the tweets I was seeing were supportive, enthusiastic. Some were even apologetic for being upset with what Slott had done in the final issues of Amazing Spider-Man, admitting that they loved what they saw in this first issue. This peaked my interest even more than the uproar did. Fans acknowledging that they liked a change that was done to a character they love? Not often that we see that.
Today when I stopped in at Superheroes in Training, in Escondido, CA, to pick up my books I decided to see just what was in this issue that would get such a positive change of attitude from fans. Yes, I picked up Superior Spider-Man #1.
From the very first page my interest in the story was peaked. It was an opening that managed to fill in the blanks I had about what the uproar had been about with the ending of Amazing Spider-Man. But it didn’t end with page one. The story kept me engaged and entertained for the entire issue. It had surprises, at least for somebody that is familiar with some of the characters but not the canon of Spider-Man, and has me interested in what Slott has in mind for the future issues of Superior Spider-Man.
It was a fun book to read, and it felt like a great jumping on point for people, who like me, were not readers of Amazing and might have been intimidated about trying to jump into a series that had such a long run.
Final Score: 8/10
