Superior Spider-Man Issue #1 Reactions

My first review on this blog! I hope you'll forgive me for writing about Spidey twice in a row. Warning, there are scans under the cut.

Like most debut issues, this was a mixture of good and bad for me. I'm optimistic about Superior. It's a foregone conclusion that Peter will be back in the flesh/saddle/Spidey costume one way or another, but hopefully, in the meantime, his universe, and some of the people in it, will change a little bit. I'm looking forward to it. (Anyone else have their fingers crossed that Otto!Spidey gets to rendezvous with the Avengers at some point in the not-too-distant future?)

There's are things to be enjoyed here, if you're willing to put the fannish raaaaaaage aside and give it a chance. Slott's enthusiasm for the direction of Superior is obvious, and a little infectious in the fast-pacing of the issue. Having Otto!Spidey face off against the new, C-list Sinister Six (an organization Otto founded once upon a time) was a nice touch, and having Spidey lose the battle initially was a good call. I don't have deeply analytical reasons for appreciating these things, they were just fun. Slott knows the character and the universe, and he knows how to erect the moving parts into something engaging, and it shows.

I have mixed feelings about the art (scan at the right courtesy of scans_daily). While it's a definite improvement over Humberto Ramos' disastrous pencils from the historic Amazing #700, I can't help but feel this artistic team hasn't quite figured out how to work together yet. Ryan Stegman's pencils are a little disjointed (with selectively accurate anatomy,) and the choreography of the action sequences is a little difficult to follow. The inks (presumably also by Stegman) are solid and nicely detailed in some places, and overly heavy with shadows and color holds in others. As for Edgar Delgado's coloring, the palette of the book seems intentionally restricted throughout, which I'm not sure how to feel about. The colors are certainly modern and serviceable, but there's not a lot of visual contrast, and it feels a little bloodless. I feel like I expected more out of the premiere issue of the brand new Spider-Man series. Delgado has done some lovingly detailed and balanced coloring work elsewhere, so I'm optimistic that the colors will improve over time.

My major criticism of the issue is the portrayal of Mary Jane. Granted, we only see her for three pages, but I'm left asking myself the same question I wondered at the end of Amazing #700: How the hell is it possible that she doesn't know that something really, really weird is going on? It's probable that the big "ah-ha!" moment is coming, but MJ hasn't traditionally struck me as someone who holds her tongue when something's amiss. It's early yet, so I'm hopeful that Slott isn't going to give us more of the MJ who makes vacant blow up doll/Kim Kardashian faces and doesn't catch Otto!Peter not listening to her and blatantly staring at her boobs like a hormonal teenage boy.

What did you think? Are you going to give this title a chance?