Amazing Spider-Man: Worldwide Vol. 1

by Dan Slott

[Quirky Cat]

Amazing Spider-Man (2015) is post Secret Wars, with Peter Parker running a successful conglomerate, Parker Industries. So for anybody that’s tired of seeing Peter get kicked when he’s down, this may be a refreshing change for you. Side note; I would like to take a moment to say that I loved the artwork in this volume. It’s so bright and colorful, but not in a way that makes it feel silly or gimmick-y.



In the comics Peter is called the “poor man’s Tony Stark” more than once, and you know what? That’s actually a pretty accurate description. Sure he’s running a successful business that steadily growing in size – but he’s barely making any profits off of it (he stated that he was one of the lowest CEO’s or something to that effect). If that wasn’t enough of a comparison for you, consider the fact that he took a page from one of Tony’s books: he’s calling Spider-Man his ‘bodygaurd’ (considering Tony has outted himself by now, I’m a bit surprised that worked, though I suppose it explains the extra work Peter has to put into the disguise).
As many fans of Spider-Man will know, Peter Parker is pretty big on second chances (and third, and fourth, etc). That means there’s a ton of cameos from Peter’s past, and while I’m tempted to name them, I’ll leave it a surprise for now.
I like the extra length Park goes through to hide his identity. I mentioned above that he’s calling Spider-Man his bodyguard – probably to help explain the number of times Spider-Man has been spotted near any of his properties. Park increases the illusion by hiring another hero to masquerade as Spider-Man (sometimes in a different country than where he is currently) to help throw people off the trail. I thought this was clever, and actually really liked Hobie Brown (AKA the Prowler). I hope to see more of him next volume (I would have liked to see more of his unique abilities as opposed to those being done to mimic Spider-Man).
I’ll admit I wasn’t super impressed with the villains in the volume; the Zodiac. They felt overhyped but ultimately not that threatening. I may be letting my bias show however – I didn’t like the core concept of the guys and the design of them feels unfinished or rushed. Hopefully volume two will give us bigger and badder villains!
Even though I was a little disappointed by the villains, I think I’ll continue with this series. I like the idea of Peter Parker being successful and not constantly getting emotionally curb stomped. Plus I’m curious to see where things go next.


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