Written by Dan Slott
Illustrated by Stefano Caselli“All You Love Will Die”
The SPIDER-SLAYER’S assault escalates as his INSECT ARMY descends on Manhattan! No one in Spidey’s life is safe–from the offices of the Daily Bugle to the Mayor’s staff at City Hall! It’s way more than our wall-crawler can handle. Good thing he’s also a member of the NEW AVENGERS! Guest-starring LUKE CAGE, JESSICA JONES, MS. MARVEL, MOCKINGBIRD, IRON FIST… and a few surprises.
In very short order, Dan Slott has made his solo-reign on everyone’s favorite wallcrawler completely bulletproof and a must read for me (and, as I am lead to believe, one or two others or so.) Click before for thoughts galore on this Spider-Slayery chapter!
Every so often, it becomes really really obvious that a writer is not only a complete, life-long fan of the character they happen to be writing, but are having an immense about of sheer fun writing that character as well. That kind of love becomes infectious for all readers with souls and, I gotta tell you, the love Dan Slott has for Spider-Man bleeds from these pages. It’s obvious that he is 100% invested in the story, and that makes it pretty damn hard to not become invested in it as well.
As the last few issues introduced us to the new Spider-Slayers, this issue continues to paint a clearer picture of who they are, why they’re up to this particular brand of anti-good and, in so doing, kinda justifies why they need to exist. Despite appearances, there is a compelling story here that draws from and expands on the origin of the Spider-Slayers, the Scorpion and the Smythe family in a logical and provoking way. It’s almost a cop-out when Spidey’s adversaries are just random red shirts, but just like last arc with the Hobgoblin, Slott’s work making us CARE for and legitimately feel threatened by these new/old villains is just masterful work.
After calling on his New Avengers pals to lend a hand against the Spider-Slayer swarm, a surprising turn of events leads to the day being saved (albeit momentarily) by an unexpected new player to this chapter that I couldn’t possibly reveal. However, Smythe and his team of bug-themed no-goodnics have a few more tricks up their sleeves in this current bid for revenge against J. Jonah Jameson. Tricks that do not bode well for everyone’s favorite Nephew of May Parker. However, despite the imminent danger being faced by his family and closest friends, issue’s end throws yet another wrench into Peter’s gears as it seems Peter’s new boss may have been more perceptive that Peter initially believed, guaranteeing not only high action for next issue, but a fair bit of psychological wrangling.
On the art side, I have been a huge fan of Caselli’s work since Avengers: The Initiative and it’s obvious to me that every new project he finds himself attached to helps him expand and better define his style, making it even more unique and impeccably composed that it has been in the past. He manages to take a distinct slant with his mostly clean pencil work that at BEST can be compared to Adrian Alphona’s work, but is still largely unique to Casseli himself. The distinct European influence on his work, being from Italy, is also apparent in his work and I absolutely can’t wait to see how he progresses on, arguably, his biggest gig to date. Of course, there really isn’t a lot of visual continuity between his work and the artist that preceded him (Humberto Ramos) OR the artist set to take over next arc (Marcos Martin), but when the work is this good, I can forgive a jarring shift in style or three.
Overall, despite my displeasure in having to pay $3.99 twice a month, this book has been fantastic since the beginning of Big Time. I became pretty bored with One More Day after a while, but if Slott continues his extreme respect and admiration for the past while at the same time taking those old story beats and redefining them as logical and respectful way as he has (and keeps up the top quality Spidey-banter), this might be the run that finally gets me to stick with the book…and from my jaded perspective, thats just about the highest praise a book can get.
Final Verdict: 9.5 – Buy
