Broken Frontier

While Spider-Man has a whole city going crazy under his watch, he has to turn attention to an old enemy… himself, in an issue that continues the amazing run by Slott and Ramos.

Spider-Island has proven to be a great event for Marvel, and it's due to a number of unique factors. To start, the event centers around Spider-Man (and even has the main storyline in The Amazing Spider-Man, not a limited series), in a time when most events have focused on the big three of Iron Man, Captain America, and Thor. You could even argue that a Wolverine/Spider-Man/Hulk event should be out there to balance off the Avengers Prime, but that's just indicative of the universe as a whole. Dan Slott, easily one of the strongest voices in comics today, is headlining the series, and he's teamed up with Humberto Ramos for the core art. This creative pair is one of the industry's most under-appreciated; Bendis and Bagley do fine together, Lee and Ditko did great years ago, and trios such as Giffen/DeMatteis/Maguire and Gray/Palmiotti/Conner work magic, but these two underdogs have a heart and spirit that is sorely lacking from most comics today.

One can't praise Humberto Ramos' art enough, and it all starts with an appropriately amazing cover. Much like the first appearance of Mary Jane, J. Scott Campbell's drawing of MJ holding coffee while Spidey flies off, and even the statue of Mary Jane finding the Spider-Man outfit in the laundry, this image will go down as one of the iconic pictures of the newly-powered heroine. It's sexy, it's comedic, and even gets the Spider-Man vibe down without Peter Parker even appearing on the cover.

Slott's writing the definitive Spider-Man. He's funny, he can be serious, he's equal parts Peter Parker and Spider-Man. Part of his strong writing ability is that he's focusing on things that are rather, shall we say, unliked from the past, and turning them head over heels and finding what works and discarding what doesn't. The Jackal, the Spider-Queen, and the spider-clone Kaine all have major roles in this arc, and all are working better than they ever have. Slott also just revels in the Marvel Universe as a whole; one page feels like it could be ripped straight out of his The Thing series, if it had continued to this day. The Young Allies of Firestar and Gravity are almost as well-rounded in their two pages in this issue as Mary Jane is. With the revelation that a new Scarlet Spider is coming, a certain contingent of fans were hoping that Mary Jane would somehow retain her spider-powers, and fight crime alongside her ex-fiancee. This issue doesn't discredit it, but raises another character to the likely status.

With this being the penultimate chapter of the storyline, plot points are being appropriately tied up. It may be a race to the finish line in the last issue, but it will be a photo finish. Slott and Ramos combine forces to remind comic readers of a certain fact: comic books should be fun, and event fatigue shouldn't exist. Spider-Island will go down as a crown jewel in both their careers.