Civil War II: Amazing-Spider Man #2

by Héctor A on September 18, 2016

Writer: Christos Gage
Artist: Travel Foreman
Color Artist: Rain Beredo
Letterer: Joe Caramagna
Publisher: Marvel

As most Civil War II tie-ins, Ulysses and predictive justice are only used to light the plot's fuse, instead the book focused on the relationship between Peter Parker and former villain turned-employee turned-villain, Clayton Cowles aka Clash. Christos Gage's story was captivating. Clayton has always been written as a tragic character but Gage's approach to the story kept me pulling for him to have a happy ending.

 

Foreman's version of Clash is fantastic. The re-design of his costume is stunning, and the way his powers are shown in-page is very effective, particularly when contrasted with Spider-Man's physicality. Further contributing to the dynamism on the action scenes in first half of the issue, Caramagna uses FX cleverly, as one should with a villain that relies on sound like Clash. There are some bshrakk's, some rattattat's and even a brrrmm. We get all the good stuff.

 

While Rain Beredo's coloring is solid on its own, it doesn't mesh too well with Foreman's lines. The 3D shading that they give certain faces doesn't work for me at all. Captain Marvel's brief appearance here feels really rushed, every artist pretty much draws her differently but this version just looks off. It doesn't help that the whole scene with Carol asking Peter to join her side in Civil War II feels like filler. Foreman doesn't use McFarlane's intricate style for Spidey's webs which can work just fine but combined with the uneven renderingin the latter half of this issue makes the book feel lifeless. While the scenes that pit Clash and Spider-Man against each other are very good, the rest of the book feels like an afterthought.

 

The amount of attention that has been placed on Clash is very strange for a new supporting character, he's gotten 2 books dedicated to him with really good creators on them. Perez and Herring's work for Learning to Crawl was probably the best art that we've seen in a Spidey book and while Civil War II: Amazing Spider-Man doesn't quite reach those heights but this made for a solid mini-series.

Our Score:

8/10

A Look Inside