Thursday, September 16, 2010

Astonishing Spider-Man and Wolverine #3 (of 6)

Fan Fiction (FanFic) can be fun, because the stories have a kid of freedom that most comic books can't emulate. Anything can happen to the characters, where in regular continuity the story has to maintain a status quo to keep the "never ending" story going.

Too much change (like, say, Spider-Man revealing his secret identity) and you've done serious damage to the franchise.

I say this because Astonishing Spider-Man & Wolverine feels like FanFic. The series started with the two heroes being sent into prehistoric times, then returned to a present radically changed by their activities in the past.

They've made such a hash of reality that it's difficult to see how they can correct it all without resorting to a completely improbable ending.

The running gag in the series is that the two heroes can't stand each other, so they're constantly bickering. The solutions created for their problems are beyond absurd - when a living planet calling itself Doom attacks, Spider-Man devises a bullet that is powered by the Phoenix force. When things get more dire, he creates a cosmic cube. Honest!

The story by Jason Aaron may be shaky, but there's no complaints about the artwork. Adam Kubert and Mark Roslan provide stunning visuals (including an impressive tri-fold page) of strange worlds and intense battles.

So buy it for the art, but steel yourself for a story that barely makes sense and seems to continue spinning out of control. That Cosmic Cube is going to have to work overtime to clean up this confusion.

Grade: B+

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