Amazing Spider-Man 620

There's not a lot that I need to have happen to enjoy a Spider-Man comic. There has to be some point where being Spider-Man causes some drama to arise in peter Parker's life. Spider-Man should have to use his brains in order to outwit his bad guys rather than lean on his powers. In this book Dan Slott does a good job of nailign the first point, and providing enough fun for me to gloss over the second one.

One of the best things about how being Spider-man causes grief in Peter's life is that Peter doesnt whine. We see how being Spider-man has caused his friendship with Carlie to crumble in this book and Slott doesn't spend time dwelling on the aftermath.

Now why doesn't Slott dwell anymore on this? Becuase Slott doesn't brake for emo crap. Slott doesn't brake for red lights, too. For about 5 months Dan Slott has been the most enjoyable writer in comics, to me. I look forward to any book of his because they are packed with energy and action. Plot does not suffer since he seamlessly weaves it into the action going on in the page, and he doesn't need to have characters recite a novel like Claremont does in a fight scene to do it.

Now, to make Spidey use his head, what better choice than to drag Mysterio out of the casket. When your schtick is to cause head games, Spider-man should have to use his noodle to see through the tricks. Instead, the truly memorable parts of the illusions Mysterio creates are used for humor. Which, in this case, amps up the fun value of the book.

The art is fantastic, too. Martin and Pulido have created a style that makes me think I'm reading a Spidey book from the early 70s.

Really, the only story of "The Gauntlet" I haven't enjoyed was the Electro story, but still, for about 2 solid months I've been enticed into reading Spider-Man when I wasn't before by the promise of classic villains and top-nothc writing by the ever expanding Spidey creative team, which numbers probably as more as the number of Duggars. While Mysterio didnt get the power boost treatment that all the other Guantlet villains got, that doesn't mean this story is the slouch of the bunch. If not for Dark X-Men #4, this book would have been my pick of the week.