Comic Response - The Amazing Spider-Man: The Parker Luck Vol. 5

Amber Hampton

1. The artwork in this volume of Parker Luck is fantastic. It’s tightly done with a lot of detail similarly to that of the Black Panther novel we read for class. There is a lot of dark colors, but light undertones so it doesn't have that Batman feel. I feel that since Spider-Man is almost always working to save his loved ones or keep them out of dangers reach, the serious artwork speaks through that. Love is a serious thing (or at least should always be taken so). Especially if you're a web-spinning superhero who's loved ones always become his downfall. 

2. In this comic book and many others, there are multiple scenes going on at once and it's a lot easier to read two happenstances in 2 pages or less, rather than watch a movie try to do that, I think of one movie (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button) that did this, and even then it took more than five minutes of movie time to show all these things that happened to result in the main incident. Even I had to do some research on this comic, because it's a random volume I had laying around, I do not have the entire series so if you read this stand-alone comic, you'd miss even more. Like this is Volume 5, but in the 4 before that, Doctor Octopus had switched brains with Spider-Man and completely turned his life upside down. (And that is an extremely short version of it). There is just no way to fit all of that information let alone the multiple scenes in this single comic alone. In a comic you get short and sweet scenes if you want them, or long drawn out fights if that's what you need to get the point across. So I feel like for that reason this comic is a comic, a strictly text book would be hard-pressed to explain details as such and it not sound like jibberish. 

3. Well, this comic starts out with Spidey making out with a girl you don't know. So I bet it's not the first thing you think out when you think geeky Spider-Man/Peter Parker. While this heavy make-out session is taking place, Cindy Moon ( AKA, Silk - as you read you learn her name), tries to take off his mask, which he won't allow. Then it's revealed she knows who he is, she knows his real name and she knows they've been bitten by the same spider. Because of them "being bit by the same spider" they apparently have some primal connection and cannot part, and Spider-Man lacks in his Spider-Man duties which isn't normal for him. It takes someone bringing him back down to earth and makes him go to a business meeting where his work ethic of keeping a secret identity and snarky commentary coincide again.

4. As I said before, most of the time Peter Parker's downfalls are the ones he loves. This comic features one of his scorned lovers, Black Cat. The page that turns the story upside down is the fifth page of the last scene (no page numbers). Black Cat with Electro by her side (who's powers are out of control) is hellbent on embarrassing and killing Spider-Man for what happened when he didn't habituate his own body. No one believes his brain-swap story and it was the biggest villain accomplishment in the Spidey world if you ask me. It goes back to ethics, Doc Ock strips it all away and its up to Peter Parker to fix it when he finally gives in. You see him trying to do that in this scene and unfortunately the comic ends, with J. Jonah Jameson nearly unmasking Peter on live television. I definitely want to read the whole graphic novel, but I wasn't able to find it in time for this response. Peter's always strict about his identity, except once again, to the ones he loves. And the one he loved is seemingly about to ruin it all.