The Amazing Spider-man 553

Marvel Comics
The Amazing Spider-man 553
By Hervé St-Louis
May 4, 2008 - 07:14

Marvel Comics
Writer(s): Bob Gale
Penciller(s): Phil Jimenez
Inker(s): Andy Lanning
Cover Artist(s): Phil Jimenez
$2.99

Freak Comes back as a rat man after having being shot by the police. Spider-man continues to try to stay out of view of the police because he is wanted for murder. However, he may have to step in the limelight faster than he wanted as Freak, now endowed with a new sense of smell tracks him and threatens to kill mayoral candidate Crowne. Can Spider-man save the day?

This story continues the Spider-man storyline by Bob Gale and Phil Jimenez. Here Spider-man’s alter ego, Peter Parker continues to be out of luck and out of money. A lot happen in this story, showing the trial s of the hero in both in and out of costume. It’s quite entertaining. I like how Gale is capable of finding the most awkward problem for Spider-man at the oddest time. Here, his Web shooters are jammed and he can’t shoot Freak. Instead he has to fight him head on. These touches make Spider-man a hero anyone can relate to.

Jimenez continues his work on this three part story. Although I don’t like the cover, the rest of the work is fine. The cover shows Jimenez weakness when handling characters like Spider-man. Instead of being a sleek figure, Spider-man is a towering muscle machine who still manages to stretch beyond the possible. It makes him look posed and constipated. But as most of this issue is about urban scenes with regular people and Peter Parker, Jimenez shows that he can handle such scenes with delight.