Amazing Spider-Man #605

I think a reviewer mentioned last week that whoever OK's the covers for Amazing Spider-man needs to have a serious rethink about what he green lights. This makes his case for him. This cover does not appeal to me (worse than the man in drag pretending to be MJ? - maybe not).

The last few months this book has been firing on all cylinders (to use a tired expression), and I worry that covers like this will turn people away.

I wonder how many of the characters on the cover make it into the book. MJ, Bobby Car (?), Harry, The White Rabbit, Lilly and Peter? So they all get attacked by that impish looking Spider-thing.

*shudder*

I adore this cover.

Really?

You guys are right, art is personal. So I can't fault you for defending it. It's definatly not my taste.

I buy ASM infrequently at best, and I was tempted to pull this based on the cover alone. To each his own, I guess.

*shrug* looks like I'm the minority. I pull this book every week regardless, lol

I buy Spider-Man religously and a cover will never make me change that.   I think it's funny.  Covers are never a reflection on what's inside, you might as well have a little fun with it.

Definitely a fun cover.  About MJ looking like a man in drag, I thought she looked manish on the cover of 603.  Now that I look at it again she kinda reminds me of Alfred E. Neuman.

@Zeppo, I'm with you man, not digging that cover.

That's a very disturbing cover.

But comparing to the last 3-4 covers, it's 1 million times better then them.

@TNC

Agreed.  It's not a good cover, but I like it because it's the first one that hasn't sucked since 599 

Those fat little Cupid Spider-man legs creep me out way to much.. But its a cover. I like covers to be different, surprising, and sometimes nightmare inducing.

the $3.99 price tag on this isnt going to be the new price of this book from now on is it?

@Patman2: It's 48 pages.

I'm changing to subscription after this issue. It is so much more cost effective on a title that I know I don't plan on dropping within the next year.

I will be behind, but with it coming out 3 times a week, I should always have one arriving.

So people hate cupid depictions, eh? Who knew. I think it is a pretty cute cover.

It's a pretty cool cover. Cute and silly and very Spider-Man.

OMG! ASM is $3.99 now too?!  Jesus Christ.  I'm so tired of this.

@robbydzwonar Please see above posts. It's a 48 page book. You don't get that many pages from a $3.99 New Avengers book.

I want to see a Hawkeye Cupid. Someone has to have done that by now, right?

im done with this title

is it necessary to have a 48 pager for a epilogue though!?!?

@RLPrime: Why not?

wretched cover.

@ everyone who hates the covers -

the ben riley arc comming up has some of the slickest looking covers around, so cheer up lads.

Glad a few more anti-cover comments have popped up, I was feeling like an arse.

@ RLPrime - I heard this was going to be an issue of Extra but they decided to make it into an real issue instead. I've heard there's either two or three different stories in it (like those Extra issues had), they are going to bring us upto date (supposedly) on everything that's happened to MJ since OMD and Peter Parker: Papparazzi.

I don't like that a book that comes out 3-4 times a month needs to increase it's price, but at least they are offering more entertainment for the price increase.

@ Fvckstick - lol - Adi Granov will be an improvement, though I like the next two J Scott Cambell covers as well.

I wish this book would have one writer, and not keep switching around.

I can't wait to read this tomorrow. I'll probably read my two Batman books first, but I'll definitely read this before Batgirl!

@Zeppo - well i suppose im alright with having extras im just bitter over how many titles im reading that have a $3.99

I wish I oculd just buy the MJ story and not pay $4.  :-/.

@Bryce31  -- I think that would be hard to do and still have it come out 3 times a month. . .

The MJ story was awesome! They should give her an ongoing. lol. 

i still cannot get over what they have done to this character. the first comics i ever collected were right around the whole Kaine, Doc OC, right before jackal came out of that canister, so I know bad storytelling. but those sories never happened now. I just can't get over that, and I don't know if I ever will. I feel like Mary Jane is an integral part of spider-man comics and now that dynamic has been ruined. I keep tabs on everything that happens, but it just all feels..well, stupid. I think anti-venom, and the "re-introduction" of all these characters is stupid. Harry osborn is dead. what's wrong with that? i can never read spider-man the same way and I'm bitter. hopefully that will change, but i don't see it happening and that saddens me.

i will admit I bought issue 600 hoping that i could get through it, but it was terrible. i just don't understand how anyone reads this anymore.

Ok correct me if I'm wrong everyone, but its my understanding that pretty much everything that has happened in Spider-man comics has still happened except for Peter and MJ getting married, right?  Granted that would mean certain things would be different but the main stories all pretty much happened right?  Well and I guess Harry never died but thats nothing new to comics.

 Also, @Hexsas, I can't believe you think the current ASM is worse than when you first started collected, ASM #600 was way better than anything that came out during that time, even ASM #400 ended up being pretty much pointless since it wasn't really Aunt May that died.....just my opinion but I've been reading Spider-man comics for a long time and I don't remember a time where I've enjoyed the book this much on a consistant basis since before the Clone Saga.  Hope you stick with it and they can change your mind :)

@Hexas   Yeah @cubman987 is right all the clone saga stuff and everything still happened, just peter and MJ lived together but never got married. I've been reading spider-man since the 80's, he's always been my favorite character, and i love this status quo and i also loved the one that came before it.

I imagine the following is an accurate depiction of how things have unfolded in the Spidey plotting meetings over the past few years.

JOE Q: I hate Mary Jane!  Hate her hate her hate her!  We have to get rid of her!

MARVEL EDITORIAL STAFF: Okay, boss.

*One More Day happens*

JOE Q: Yay!  We got rid of Mary Jane!  Yay!

MARVEL EDITORIAL STAFF: Yay!

JOE Q: Okay, so... now what do we do with Spidey? 

*cricket.  cricket.  cricket.*

 MARVEL EDITORIAL STAFF: Uhhhh... we could bring back Mary Jane?

JOE Q: Brilliant! 

It's not that. it's that i started collecting when I was 10, i'm 25 now, the past 15 years of stories are what got erased. I don't see why Aunt May needs to be around. now she's married to JJ's father, it's just silly. And we already had MJ leave peter after that weird kidnapping situation, and Peter already had to win her back. I feel like all the progresion with peter becoming more spider, all the straczynski stories, IMO, were the peak, the best stories I'd read, and now they never happened. @racemccloud, i think that's what happened. i honestly do.

@Hexsas  But those stories did happen, everything happened, just without rings on peter and MJ's fingers. all the morlun stuff, all the clone stuff, chameleon bringing back peters parents, all of it. just no marriage. i started reading a little before you and i loved all the JMS stuff too but this is like classic spidey, and as much as i loved JMS bringing magic into it with loki and all that, i really dig the soap operaness that was lacking for a long time in spidey.

A lot of people hated the JMS stuff.  I loved it.  Some was hit or miss (the Gwen/Osborn children storyline was a horrible, horrible idea, and even moreso than OMD, or the Spider-Totem, or the Clone Saga, people pretend it never happened.)  But I love that JMS 1.) always took risks, 2.) wrote Peter Parker as well as anyone who has ever done it, 3.) treated Peter and MJ as adults without making them dirt-boring.  The JMS run on ASM deserves to be put up there with all the classic Spidey runs.

I actually liked the last story from Brian Reed the best.

This was AWESOME. AMS really kicked into high gear after #600.  I wasn't high on Slott's main story in #600, which I found rather pedestrian, but every issue since has been terrific.  Both stories in this one were very fun. 

Man this book is fun.... this is what comics should be

JMS: The Spider Totem thing that he did in the first thirty or so issues of his initial run was interesting. It seems like they revisted it towards the end of his run with that crossover. Didn't read it.

Damn, rating this is hard. If I could break it down by story, I'd do that... oh, wait!

1st story: 4*s
I was peeved when I thought MJ was okay daying a drug user, but I guess she didn't notice that obvious syringe. I suppose it was more obvious to the reader though, and of course any fears of her doing that were subsided at the end.
2nd story: 2*s
What the fuck was that? Did he walk onto the stage? Was MJ whipping him? Why would that go over the PA of a fashion show/TV taping?? Was Peter walking in a corridor of extreme gravity after he walks out? Why can't Peter Parker, one of the nicest guys in the Marvel U handle the Michelle thing with any tact? That sucked.
3rd story: 5*s
Now that was awesome! I've been to sites like that (did I just admit to that?!?), Brian Reed must have as well cuz that was pretty dead on. The scene on the rooftop was brilliant; Spidey my fictional friend, I've been there.To top it all off, Harry dozing off and dreaming about being on the Yankees in contrast to Peter being on the Mets? Pure. Fucking. Genius. 

"And sure I talked about Killing Myself after he left me, but I'm sort of over that now and ready to move on, Okay? Oh, and I like to dress up like various pokemons."

Priceless, this alone was worth the purchase. :)

"I'm pida-man" XD

Oooooooooh I feel bad for parker. That scene on the roof =\ tragic. Just tragic.

It's ironic, a year ago, mainstream Parker was better off than Ultimate Universe Parker, and now the tables have turned, go figure.

@Mangaman
True, Ultimate Spidey is a lil' pimp compared to 616. U Pete gets all the rooftop lovin'!

In defense of Joe Q, the Spidey brain trust wanted the retcon to bring Gwen back.  Joe Q wouldn't let them.  Now I'll admit that there maybe more story than fact to that story but at least they decided not to bring her back and that's the important.  Gwen's death is a defining moment in Spidey's life and a change I couldn't accept.

I've been reading Spider-Man comic since before I could read, I just looked at the pictures.  I think what's going on now is fantastic.  Just my two cents.

Also, "Oh, and I like to dress up like various pokemons."
Nothing wrong with that... usually.

That "Various Pokemons" line was awesome.

I really, really loved the first story, and the rest were pretty great too. 4/5.

My opinion about this book's direction remains unchanged, except the fact that people are still complaining about it over a year later depresses me way more now.

This book was just LOL funny! Cover was great too! The whole "I have a bf" rooftop scene was just the icing on the cake. ASM always rises to the top of my stack and dare I say the book has been better since the One More Day reboot!