X-Men and Spider-Man #3 - I am really liking this. It amazes me because I hate Mr. Sinister and the bad guys that cropped up around the same time more than almost anything in comics. I hate everything Spider-Clone related to nearly the same degree. I am not a fan of Venom, and less so of Carnage. Having said that, I must point out that I can handle them all just fine in this context. The art is beautiful, the slices of continuity are extremely well done and fun in my opinion, and it takes a lot of crap I don't care about and turns it into an interesting story I am happy to read. I will say it again for emphasis... Mario Alberti's art is just phenomenal here, and Gage has done a great job writing these pieces so that they seem authentic representations of the time periods they represent.Amazing Spider-Man #583 - This isn't the worst issue I have ever read, but I don't think it's very good. About halfway through the story the art goes blurry. That may just be my copy, but that was a bit annoying. That isn't what makes this issue bad. It's one of those kind of overview stories narrated by a supporting character while we see some different angle on our hero. It's a bit schmaltzy and brings nothing to the table in my opinion. I can live with that. The backup in this is the Obama story that features Spidey and the Chameleon, and as others have pointed out, it reads a lot like a Spidey Super Stories. I think that's not a bad thing when it is a story featuring a president elect. It's cute, I don't love the art, but it isn't bad. Also as I have seen others point out, it is a little strange to take what people had to know was going to be the most hyped single issue in a while, and fill it with a crappy story featuring speed dating and no shortage of drunkenness, etc. This would have been a good issue to really show the appeal of Spider-Man to a non-comic reading audience, and instead it just isn't. My opinion on this issue is that the most awesome part is the giant 5 page ad for Agents of Atlas. If nothing else, I plan to buy it when it is out.
Supergirl: Cosmic Adventures in the 8th Grade #2 - Another good issue. In this one, Linda Lee continues to struggle with fitting in, and the brief glimpse of Supergirl that we see shows us that she is continuing to struggle with controlling her powers. Two additions pop up in this issue that will allow for more plotty fun. Belinda Zee, the opposite of Supergirl comes into existence due to an accident Linda has involving some Kryptonite and an overhead projector. She is everything that Linda isn't, for good and ill. Lena Thorul starts school and takes an instant liking to Linda. Lena likes Linda, but hates Superman as she is Lex Luthor's little sister! This is fun kids stuff done pretty well.
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I, too, was impressed with X-Men and Spider-Man #3. It seems like Christos Gage has an uncanny ability to quickly find characters' voices, even after being dropped into projects with which he has little to no familiarity. Mario Ablerti's art is indeed stunning, and I particularly loved his rendition of Carnage. As a reader who came into ASM during the clone saga, I have an odd mix of nostalgia and trauma for that storyline, but it was definitely great to see ol' webhead running around in his redesigned costume (now nigh-exclusively associated with Spider-Girl.)
I'm far more excited about the Obama-Osborn face-off in Thunderbolts than his meeting with Spider-Man in ASM. It looks to do a much better job of reconciling Dark Reign with the "real world" aspect of the MU.
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