Amazing Spider-Man 648, BIG TIME!
BIG TIME IS HERE! Wooo! I for one have gotten very excited for this for quite some time. Now all of the previews with those same first pages of the Avengers swooping in will stop! But seriously, I've been very excited for Big Time. The idea of actually progressing Peter and making him more of an adult after taking him a step back during Brand New Day is perfect, and I for one am excited to see where Dan Slott takes the character and how long this format for Spidey will last. This could be the start of something beautiful, so let's see why with Amazing Spider-Man 648.
The issue opens with Spider-Man finally getting to yell "Avengers Assemble" as the Avengers fly down into New York city, which is under attack from giant "Octo-bots" controlled by, you guessed it, Doctor Octopus. As the Avengers fight the robots, we see Chameleon infiltrating a military base and Mayor Jameson talking with his wife about repairing their marriage and what they have to do. Cutting to Doc Ock, we learn that the entire attack was an elaborate distraction in order for him to get his Octo-cameras into the military base, with the help of the new Sinister Six. After Spidey saves the day, we move to the next day where Jonah stops by the Front Line offices with a surprise, but Peter has another surprise waiting for him when he gets home, he's getting kicked out! Calling up his friends looking for a new place to stay, Peter eventually crawls back to Aunt May who has Marla Jameson over and surprises Peter with a tour of Horizon labs. But when Peter visits, things turn out differently than he expected and he leaves happier than ever, even with no place to stay for the night. Web-hammock time!
As far as first parts go, this is up there. I mean, this issue literally has everything under the sun in it and it's great. Dan Slott also wrote Amazing Spider-Man 600, which was another giant issue that managed to both start things and tell a self-contained story. Slott IS the right author for Spider-Man, because while he may not always be the funniest to many people, he understands the necessary progression Peters life needs to take in order to make him a real adult. In addition, while the beginning of this issue was a bit overly hectic, once Spider-Man stops the Octo-Bots and we switch focus to Peter, we can see that Slott understands Peter and is being very careful with what he does here, not taking any steps back and keeping things classic Spidey style.
Humberto Ramos is not my top choice for an artist in most cases. I just never really look forward to his work and I've never felt I needed it. The thing is though, once I open a Ramos drawn book I suddenly remember why it is I like his work. While he may not stand out to me as a must have artist, he does possess a quality that makes his work very easy on the eyes in most cases. In particular, when he draws Mary-Jane and Peter laughing, I was shocked to see them drawn like actual people cracking up, with unflattering faces and everything. Maybe it's just because laughter is such a rare things in comics, but this really stood out to me. If he can capture quiet moments as well as he can hilarious, then there will never be any issues with his art on Spidey.
In a little bonus story that serves as a pre-lude to her own book, we see Spider-Girl fighting with Spidey in the city during the Octo-bot attack. Written by Paul Tobin with art by Clayton Henry, this story isn't anything special but it does serve as a nice teaser for her new book coming out as well as an introduction to her character, her mentality, and her freshness. Did we need it? No. But it's really a freebee when you look at the size of the main feature, so it doesn't detract anything even if you find it doesn't add to the story.
Overall, I'd give the start of Big Time a 4.5 out of 5. It's a great start that introduces many plot threads that could pay off big time down the line (See what I did there?) I'm really looking forward to where this book goes from here.
