Amazing Spider-Man #555-557 Review

Zeb Wells and Chris Bachalo deliver a three-issue Spidey treat.
by Danger

The current Amazing Spider-Man storyline helmed by both Zeb Wells and Chris Bachalo is a continuation of the no-strings-attached, Brand New Day Spider-Man. Sometime in the later half of 2007 Marvel announced that their Amazing Spider-Man title would hit the shelves three times a month. Four different creative teams were brought in with a month each to tell their story. Zeb Wells and Chris Bachalo make up the final team to deliver their take on a post-One More Day Spider-man.



Amazing Spider-Man #555 kicks off the three issue arc and sets the story off strong. New York has been overrun by a freak snow storm, but is it of natural occurrence or is something else working behind the scenes? Can Spidey find out the real reason behind the frostbite-inducing cold that has taken over his city? Will Spider-Man be enough to save the day?

Zeb Wells, known best for his Civil War: Young Avengers/Runaways tie-in, is a writer who understands what Spidey is all about. Wells' Spidey is a loudmouth but easy to relate to, he makes mistakes and shows weakness but is heroic when need be. It appears as if Marvel is breeding Wells to be one of their top new writers and have decided to test his chops with his turn on an A-list character book. I for one, believe that he's done a great job on the book and look forward to seeing a lot more from him.



Canadian artist Chris Bachalo is no stranger to Marvel Comics. After getting his start on DC's The Sandman, followed by some other collaborations with Neil Gaiman, Chris was hired by Marvel. Chris co-created Generation X with Scott Lobdell, later moving on to do a plethora of X-Men books. It's hard to find artists that 'get' Spider-Man but Bachalo knows what he's doing with the character. His expressions are wild and his Spidey is very well defined.

Spider-Man has gone through some tough times over the year. Flip-flopping through two sides of a war, losing friends and allies, and losing the love of his life. Thanks to the controversial One More Day story arc he has a chance to start things fresh. But is this a good or a bad thing for Spider-Man? So far I'm enjoying most of what has come out of it, but I do hope that things do get better for both Peter and the readers.

One Sentence Review: Quite possibly my favourite storyline out of the first four creator groups. | 8.0/10

Larry_Chimp_Man's Second Opinion: The past three issues of Amazing Spider-Man deliver one of the best Spidey arcs within recent memory. Spider-Man should be, above all, about fun and over the past year we've seen all of that stripped out of the character during the Back in Black and One More Day storylines. Brand New Day was a chance to rectify the Wallcrawler and return him to his roots. The first three arcs were hit and miss, unable to bring back the Spidey we all know and love. This fourth arc, however, is right on the money. Zeb Wells writes a Spidey that is witty yet human. Wells shows Spider-Man's vulnerability but doesn't dwell on it, allowing the character to remain light in dark situations. Chris Bachalo is perfect for Spider-Man and his work feels like a taste of a more mature Humberto Ramos. He's characters are very well animated and his panels are extremely detailed yet beautifully composed. One can hope we see Wells and Bachalo back on a Spidey book in the near future as they have found a way out of the mess that is Brand New Day and delivered an excellent Spider-Man arc.

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