Review: Amazing Spider-Man #617

Aaaaannnddd we're back...Once again, I'm sorry for the extraordinary delay between posts. I won't waste any time with excuses--Let's get down to business!

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AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #617
WRITER: JOE KELLY
ARTISTS: MAX FIUMARA & JAVIER PULIDO
COLOR ART: FABIO D'AURIA & MATT HOLLINGSWORTH
COVER BY PAOLO RIVERA
MARVEL COMICS $3.99

Peter and his Frontline co-worker Norah are enjoying a night out at a local casino when they bump into Aleksei Sytsevich--The Rhino. But, if the Rhino is in a tuxedo standing next to Pete, who's the guy in the horned battle armor that just busted through the wall?!

I've been about 50/50 on the current "Gauntlet" storyline that's been running through Amazing Spider-Man for the past few months. I just didn't buy the whole "Electro: Man of the People" angle in the Electro story arc, but I really enjoyed the Sandman two-parter. This issue offers two stories featuring one of my favorite Spidey villains, and it's my favorite issue of the "Gauntlet" so far.

The lead story by Joe Kelly, Max Fiumara, and Fabio D'Auria introduces the new Rhino, and he is scary as hell. The new character's design is a cross between the classic Rhino and the all-robot Ultimate version, and I like it a lot! I'm a sucker for a nice "bad guys gone good" story, and this one strikes all the right chords for me. The former Rhino has found love, and is trying to make a serious attempt at staying on the straight and narrow. I'm glad to see Kelly remembered Rhino's past as a Russian agent. Gone is the dimwitted version of the last several years, replaced by an older, more run down man who's realized the futility of his past actions. I love Kelly's characterization of Sytsevich, and I hope to see him return down the road. A character that I'm not 100% sold on, however, is Norah (or "the blond Mary Jane," as I like to call her). Her whimsy is a bit TOO cute, to the point that it takes me out of the story a bit. Her being a comic book character aside, no one acts like that in the face of mortal danger. The scene at the end of the main story, where Sytsevich prepares to do the unthinkable to protect his wife, is wonderful. The dialogue between Spider-Man and Sytsevich is perfect. The scene ended with me rooting for the former super-villain and genuinely believing in his reformation.

The back-up story by Kelly and Javier Pulido sheds more light on Sytsevich's life after his release from prison. It's a great little tale about the character's struggle to make a new life for himself. No one wants to hire him because of his criminal past and the only people that will give him the time of day are criminal scientists and chatty waitresses. The only thing in the story that rings false to me is the little speech Sytsecich's future wife gives him at the diner. She rattles off a really painful bit of dialogue about how ex-cons keep falling in love with her. This is how she talks to customers--customers that have just gotten off the bus from the nearby prison?!

The art in both stories is just phenomenal. Max Fiumara and Javier Pulido are welcome additions to the rotating cast of Spider-Man artists. I'd love to see more of Fiumara's portrayal of Spider-Man in the future. Both Fabio D'Auria and Matt Hollingsworth do an outstanding job coloring their respective stories. D'Auria's work on the main story has an almost painted feel, while Hollingsworth uses a flat color palette to go with Javier Pulido's art style. The shadows and light are conveyed with the inks, not Photoshop trickery, and the combination of Pulido's inks and Hollingsworth's colors combine to create a "simple" style that I love.

With a rotating set of creative teams, Amazing Spider-Man can be pretty hit and miss for me. For every Dan Slott/Marcos Martin gem, there's a Marc Guggenheim story that calls back to the Clone Saga. Thankfully, when it hits, it hits hard. This issue, the previous Sandman issues, and the Slott/Martin Mysterio story currently running are an example of Spidey comics done right.