Amazing Spider-Man #80

This issue is very different, but that’s what it needs to be. Author Cody Ziglar keeps his story moving in the direction that it needs to go, and I think both he AND artist Michael Dowling had some fun playing around. The story literally has one foot planted on solid ground, with the other foot…kinda floating in space. If you read the last issue, you know that Ben got hit by Kraven the Hunter by some drugged darts, and this issue we get inside Ben’s hallucinating head, and needless to say, it’s pretty weird. Reading the issue I couldn’t help but think “If you have the chance to hit your enemy with darts, why wouldn’t you just use poison darts and be done with it”? But hey, I flunked out of super-villain school, so what do I know? So while that weirdness is going on, we also get to check in on Marcus who’s trying to put out more fires than Smokey the Bear! Marcus has quickly become one of my favorite characters of the Beyond Era, and I hope he sticks around after it ends, he’s a great cast member and I can see many, many different ways that the writers can take his character. This is a very entertaining chapter in the Beyond story, and one that’s going to read great when we have the whole story, but for now, it’s a very entertaining and kinda weird, issue.

Artist Michael Dowling is really good. I mean really good. He goes from art that resembles the Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas movie poster to rich, lush, detailed, illustrations that are what’s going to make him comics next big thing. He’s quickly taking Marvel by storm, it’s only a matter of time before the rest of the industry takes note and snatches him up. As I’ve said before, I hope he gets to do some issues when Peter comes back, he’s too good not to be on a Spider-Man book.