AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #6 – MARVEL COMICS – (W) Dan Slott (A) Matteo Buffagni
A couple of my favourite lesser known characters, Cloak and Dagger, make an appearance here, busting Mr Negative out of the slammer, returning him to his normal, nefarious self and returning with him to China. All I really know about Mr Negative is from last year’s Spider-Man mini ‘Spiral’, but this issue does enough of a job giving a basic outline of the character. Fortunately, Peter just so happens to be at Parker Industries Shanghai branch and his ‘personal bodyguard’ is able to step in when Negative floods the streets with his new drug. The best bits of this issue were undoubtedly the ones involving Spider-Man rather than CEO Parker, further highlighting the small gripes I have with the book. Buffagni is a nice change of pace on art, bringing an almost Immonen quality to the illustrations (definitely helped along by Marte Gracia on colours) and anyone who knows me knows of my love for Immonen. There are elements of this book that I like a lot, Zodiac from last arc, Slott still writes great Spider-Man dialogue and he works the villains well, but there’s still a lot that rubs me the wrong way. As always, I’m cautiously optimistic.
