Review Roundtable: Amazing Spider-Man #700

With one of comics’ longest-running series coming to a close this week and a new #1 planned for a brand new lead character wearing (a variation on) the hero’s costume, Amazing Spider-Man #700 has been drawing a ton of responses. We wanted to assemble some impressions as a kind of roundtable review, taking a look at this epic issue in its context and evaluating the strength of the story contained between the pages of those many variant covers.Check back throughout the day, as we’ll be updating periodically when new impressions come in.By Martin A. Kinney, Oswego Comic ShopWith today’s Amazing Spider-Man #700 Dan Slott and Humberto Ramos bring us the final issue of Amazing Spider-Man–and what a can of worms they open and hurl at the audience.I had really high hopes for this issue and was rooting for Dan Slott to impress me. To his credit there are several wonderful moments in the story, sadly they pale in comparison to the BIG END.The opening sequence finds Doctor Octopus in Peter’s body trying to have a “romantic moment” with Mary Jane Watson. It is a rather dark and off-putting with the most disturbing “Face it tiger” delivery ever. Thankfully the scene is cut short by a report that Doctor Octopus’s ravaged body (with Peter’s mind trapped in it) has not only survived a brush with death, but has escaped from prison.This begins a race for Peter to evade the police, keep his escape partners in check, hunt down Doc Ock and switch consciences back all before the body he is in dies. Meanwhile, Ock in Peter’s body has set about to prevent Peter from regaining his own body.The action comes to a head at Avengers Tower where Doc Ock Spidey has brought all of Peter’s loved ones to “protect” them. Despite Peter’s best efforts, he fails to switch back to his own body. Luckily, before he dies he convinces Doc Ock to reform and continue on as Spidey.There is a sequence while Peter is at death’s door where he goes to the afterlife and sees all the important people in his life who have passed away. I really liked it, but would have preferred to see it at the end of the story instead. Maybe there is something like this in this week’s issue of Avenging Spider-Man, I don’t know. What I do know is that Peter’s send-off seemed lacking.I also liked seeing the supporting cast from the Brand New Day era. They each got a little moment. I liked J. Jonah Jameson making nice with his father. It is good to see his nice side every once in a while.Sadly, I did not enjoy much else.In the end Peter’s victory rings hollow. A half victory, that could easily be undone the next time someone questions Doc Ock’s ego. I found the “walk a mile in my shoes” examination of Peter’s life by Doc Ock to be a hokey way to get him to reform and pledge to be the best Spider-Man he can be. I loathed the fact that MJ declared her love to Doc Ock instead of Peter. I think it’s the lack of interaction with his loved ones before he dies that doesn’t help me with a sense of closure. It is a bit of a dull thud as far as heroic farewells go.The extended main story is followed by a cover gallery featuring the many variant covers produced for this Mighty Marvel Milestone event. I think I like Marcos Martin’s contribution best. There is a copy of Mayor Bloomberg’s proclamation for New York City’s Spider-Day. J.M. DeMatteis provides a back-up story that is high on sentimentality and maybe a little too long at 16 pages. “A Date Night,” a second back up story from Jen Van Meter and Stephanie Buscema, focuses on Black Cat and is a light and breezy romp. The rest of the page count is devoted to cover galleries, letters pages and previews for rest of the Spider-Family books.When all is said and done I am left hoping that Peter’s statement, “I can never be Spider-Man again”, is false and he does don the red and blue tights again in the near future. Not because Peter is the only person who IS Spider-Man (I love Ben Reilly and have nothing against Miles Morales), but rather because Doc Ock, with his superior attitude, is not a character I feel the desire to follow month in and out.