“This probably wouldn’t be a 4-star deal, BUT there’s a big extra included in the form of Avenging Spider-Man #11 by Zeb Wells and illustrated by Steve Dillon.
I know I tend to get sensitive around the holiday season, as do most of us. And this is the first time I’ve referred to the Super Bowl as a holiday, let alone a holiday season. But it’s necessary because how else do you explain away a funnybook bringing tears to your eyes no less than three times?
Part of it, I’m sure, is knowing what’s coming down just a few issues after this. But I think it was a well-done issue, and one that I usually don’t like, which is a rehash of the origin in some ways.
How are the ways this goes bad?
Wrong Way The First: Hip Aunt May
They love to do hip Aunt May. An Aunt May who is out partying and getting crazy and basically talking the way people talk in pornographic films during the beginning, really boring part where they are trying to convince each other to have sex even though the fact that the movie is a porno has kind of spoiled the surprise there. Although I WOULD probably get a laugh out of a porno clip where the pizza guy comes over, the woman asks if there’s any other way she can repay him, and he says a respectful “No, thank you” and excuses himself from the situation.
Okay, this issue walks the line there. But it’s brief, and I think it works out okay.
Wrong Way The Second: Revisionist History
What? It turns out that Aunt May ALSO could have stopped that crook? Or Doc Ock could have? There are a lot of ways we can rewrite the origin to add wrinkles without changing the essence. The question there is always, Why? The non-question is Thanks for wasting my money you bastich.
Okay, this issue walks the line there. But it’s small, and I think it works out okay.
Wrong Way The Third: Same Old Shit
Yes, we’ve seen Martha Wayne’s pearls falling into the gutter. Great imagery. But not something I need to see again.
To people who don’t read a ton of comics, this probably sounds like a small gripe. But think about it this way. Even using one page to re-tell the origin, that’s one page out of the 22 you get that month. It sure as hell feels like they ran out of stuff to say.
It’s not wrong, per se. It’s just…well, if you don’t have anything to add, don’t waste our time.
Okay, this issue walks the line there. But it’s quick, and I think it works out okay.
Okay, clearly this issue breaks every rule of origin re-tellings that I can come up with. Or at least the top three. You would think that would be plenty, but that would be before you saw the Punisher come back to life as a ghost zombie for some reason. The rules have to get really specific.
The dialogue in this one is just really…nice. The things that the character’s say about the dead Uncle Ben, they’re the sorts of things that you wish someone had said when somebody important to you died. Or the things you hope people will say when you die. They’re all the right things, but no so right that it’s total cheese. It’s just…nice. And it works great as a eulogy of sorts.
So from now on, a new rule.
Zeb Wells is allowed to redo origins. Until he turns Daredevil into some kind of Frankensteinian ghoul. Then it’s all revoked.”