Amazing Spider-Man #554

This was the story arc that had me worried.  The first one and a half issues that Bob Gale wrote were a bit on the too-cutesy side and I knew that there were a lot of people out there just waiting for a reason to start bashing on this book and/or drop it.  There wasn't much to be said against Dan Slott's opening arc and Marc Guggenheim's new media critique in the second arc was equally as good but this one started off shaky.

Things started to turn midway through last week's issue and they ended strongly here.  They created a really interesting and of-the-times villain in the meth head Freak, they brought the J. Jonah Jameson story back around, both plot-wise and visually, and they left Peter on an upswing.  A lot of people have complained that the loser aspect of Peter has been overplayed so far (and they have definitely skirted the line, but I think that's necessary when hammering in a new status quo for a readership that is deeply divided on the issue), but here things work out for him in the end.  He made some good money, he managed to escape the scorn of Harry's girlfriend over the photos he took of her dad, and he's got a lot of romantic possibilities.  I do think they need to be more careful about going to far into Peter the Loser territory in the future but for now it's working.

Phil Jimenez on pencils is so good.  So, so good.  I've missed his art.  His work here is fantastic and his conception of the villain - Freak - is truly scary.  Monsters should be scary and this one is.  When the art is this good it only serves to highlight the terror I have for the next arc when Chris Bachalo comes on to draw the obligatory Wolverine guest appearance.