Jose Molina’s latest installment of The Suddenly Atheist Spider-Man was released on May 25, and fans of the wall crawler will be glad to know the he apologized for being “less than respectful” to the Santerians over their religious beliefs. That is, unfortunately, the one bright spot in an issue that is best represented by a car crash scene later in the book.
Here is what you need to know for The Amazing Spider-Man 1.5:
- Spider-Man is still on the hunt for Julio Manuel Rodriguez, the man who mysteriously came back from the dead and performs miracles.
- Writer Jose Molina actually thought it was a good idea to feature Spider-Man as a (female?) horse-drawn carriage driver.
- Don Anselmo is “reborn” as a young man after a ceremony due to his faith. His god tells him Julio is controlled by a “false god.” (Question: Wouldn’t Don Anselmo’s god also be a false god since it isn’t God?)
- Julio causes a car accident and then performs a miracle to resurrect a dead woman.
- Spider-Man and the Santerians apologize to one another and then use Iron Man (shoe-horned into two pages) to locate where the spiritual conduit is that Julio’s host draws power from.
- Iron Man gives the group an an address in Harlem and Spider-Man says “showdown time.”
It is very rare to see a Marvel comic that fails on pretty much every level imaginable. The entire creative team appears to given up all hope for salvaging the book.
- Jose Molina continues to write a sloppy, poorly paced story that reads as if he has the attention span of a squirrel.
- Artists Simone Bianchi and Andrea Broccardo have slapped together one of the ugliest issues of ASM of all time. Marvel would have gotten a better product if they asked a kid on Deviant Art to do them a favor for $100 bucks. Spider-Man wouldn’t look like a marshmallow, police cars wouldn’t look like they came off a Detroit assembly line in 1973, and Peter Parker wouldn’t look like Ace Ventura.
- Editor Nick Lowe, who allowed a writer to have Peter Parker blame God for Uncle Ben’s death, is still M.I.A.
- Question: Is it possible for a letterer to underperform? It seems like even the “AaaaaIIIEEEEEEE!” “KRIIIIII” and “CCRRNNNCHHH” in the crash panel are font failures, if that’s even possible.
In short, Marvel should be ashamed that there is essentially zero quality control for its “point” issues of ASM. There is one remaining issue of “Amazing Grace,” which is fitting because the few readers who are left will be singing the famous hymn after they finish.
Stay far, far away from ASM “point” issues for the foreseeable issue — at least until Mr. Lowe decides to do his job.
