As I mentioned in my review of "Amazing Spider-Man" #1, Slott really seizes the opportunity that this "Year One" story presents him. One of the best moments of this issue is when Peter's agent wants to capitalize on his arrest of the thief who killed Uncle Ben, and Peter angrily refuses, saying that he's no hero and that he won't profit from his actions. Slott uses this interlude to show us that Peter just views himself as a performer at this point, not a hero. As Peter departs his agent's office, he contemplates a lifetime of acting like a dancing bear in the live Spider-Man performances to pay his family's bills. We often think of Peter immediately becoming a hero after capturing Uncle Ben's killer, but Slott actually shows that it wasn't that simple. At this point, Peter is just trying to cover the debts that Uncle Ben left. The original stories also stressed Peter's need for cash, but Slott fleshes out the emotional impact that this desperation has on Peter, particularly as he's already grappling with his guilt over Uncle Ben's death. In that way, Slott makes it clear that he really doesn't intend on re-telling Spidey's origin; he's just filling in some details.
For example, Slott doesn't just use Peter's money troubles as a way to show his focus on performing in those first few days, but also to clarify Peter's relationship with Aunt May. At Ben's wake, Peter feels frustrated when he learned how generous his uncle had been to other people, particularly given his discovery that the Parkers were actually in dire financial straights. Reading the original stories, I was always surprised by how quickly May let a 15-year-old Peter become the man of the house. However, Slott makes May a little less helpless here. First, we learn that May thought that anonymous donors were helping them (after Peter pays for the funeral as one), explaining why she was less worried about money than Peter was. But, also, she sent Peter to counseling. This latest revelation is a nice touch on Slott's part. If his first goal is to flesh out Peter's origin story, then his second one is to modernize it, as we saw in "Amazing Spider-Man" #1 with the smartphones and YouTube. Whereas grief counseling wasn't something that Stan Lee was going to have Peter attend in 1962, it is something that Aunt May would have him attend in 2001.
Finally, Slott uses the counselor to underline the pressure that Peter feels, with the counselor asking him what he could've done to save Uncle Ben as a 15-year-old boy. Peter and we know the answer to that question, and it reminds us of the guilt that Peter carries to this day about his failure to save Ben, something that he can't share with anyone. It's why he doesn't feel like a hero, keeping him focused on racking up as many live performances as he can. Again, Slott doesn't change anything here. He simply adds some color to these first few days after Ben's death, helping us understand how dark Peter's life was at the time. It's going to make his heroic turn all the more powerful, since it reminds us just how much guilt, pressure, and stress that he had to overcome.
Moreover, we get some more information on Clayton here. Not only is he clearly pushed by his parents into a lifetime of achieving, but he's also a loner. He calls a friend from computer camp who advertised on a message board that he can get tickets to sold-out shows, and we learn that they called him "creepy" Clayton all summer, since he kept to himself. In this way, Slott seems to be setting up Clayton as a "through the glass, darkly" version of Peter. He's inspired to build his sonic blasters (I'm assuming, based on his science project) after discovering on Ed Sullivan that Spidey invented his own Web-Shooters. He's clearly going to be a reminder, again, of how special Peter is by rising to the challenge, since people with similar gifts, like Clayton, do not.
All in all, it's a strong start to an update that, with it now happening, I'm stunned hadn't happened earlier.
*** (three of five stars)
No comments:
Post a Comment