Comic Review: Amazing Spider-Man #18

Amazing Spider-Man #18
Written by Dan Slott & Christos Cage
Pencils by Humberto Ramos
Inks by Victor Olazaba
Colors by Edgar DelGado
Letters by Chris Eliopoulos
-The final battle for Parker Industries finally gets settled in this final issue! Spidey battles The Ghost, who's out to destroy Parker Industries and in the meantime he's got to contend with Sajani, Anna Maria, and the rest of the Parker Industries employees. But, turns out, they're pretty well skilled at taking care of themselves.
The Good: Even though Peter's never had his own mega-million dollar science company, this whole situation reminds me of a typical Spider-Man scenario. Spidey's fighting for his life, trying to protect his friends, and meanwhile, there's some heavy stuff happening across home that he doesn't know about that he's gonna need to take care of. This issue is actually almost 2 stories, the first is the third part of "Trade Secrets", while the second one is the final chapter in the Black Cat story "Nothing Left to Loose". Both stories are really solid, but........
The Bad: This doesn't exactly feel like an ending. AT. ALL. The first story is more of a pause in the story than a definite ending, and the end of second story is pretty much a beginning. Seriously. Now, this would be fine if this was a "normal" issue, but it's the final issue of the series. Well, almost. In 2 weeks we get issue 18.1, which is the final part of the Spiral story by Gerry Conway. Anyway, Secret Wars has started, which promises to change EVERYTHING, but this book really feels like it's taking a four month break and then it'll be back, without missing a beat. Bottom line, it would've really been easy to end this story better, and I was a little disappointed that it didn't.
What you should do: I know it sounds like I didn't like this book, but I'm saying buy it. For the most part I did like it, I just think it should've ended differently. Aside from that, it's a really good issue!

Comic Review: Amazing Spider-Man #17

The Amazing Spider-Man #17
Written by Dan Slott & Christos Gage
Art by Humberto Ramos
Inks by Victor Olazaba
Colors by Edgar Delgado
Letters by Chris Eliopoulos
Assistant Editor Devin Lewis
Editor: Nick Lowe
-Things are somewhat back to normal for Peter Parker. Except for the fact that Alchemax has hired The Ghost to break in and destroy Parker Industries. And, his Aunt May still thinks he's dating Anna Maria. And, he's gotta go on the defense to hide his secret identity from Sajani while trying to save her and everyone else that works at Parker Industries' lives. So yeah, for Peter Parker it's back to business as usual.
The Good: SOOOO much! We're back to some classic Spidey stories here, folks. Spider-Man's balancing his civilian life with his superheroics, he's struggling to keep his civilian life intact, unbeknownst to him, he's got both super villains and people in his life plotting against him, and that's just in the first half of the book! Yes, I loved Spider-Verse, but honestly, I never felt danger for the character in that storyline like I did here. In the back of my mind, I knew Spidey was going to make it back to the 616 OK. Here, even though I know Peter's NOT going to die, while reading this book, I really got emotionally invested in whether or not Peter was going to make it out of every cliffhanger that he gets put in or not(and believe me, there's about 3 cliffhangers on every page). I really do think Spider-Man works best as a street level character. Sure, I've enjoyed him in out space adventures and giant crossovers, but my favorite Spidey stories are the ones like this one, where he's fighting for both his lives in good old New York City.
The Bad: While this isn't a complaint about this particular issue, I think I'm ready for a change of status quo for Spider-Man. Or rather, Peter Parker. It's clear that he's in way over his head running his own company and it'll only be a matter of time before the good old "Parker luck" kicks in and something happens to it. Where ever Slott decides to take the character next, I'm all for it. I feel like he's living in the shadow of Doc Ock/Superior Spider-Man, and Peter deserves better.
What you should do: GRAB IT!!! On Wednesday, none of this "waiting for Saturday" crap. Get up, get out and get to your local comic store. Wait. I just realized I never even addressed the Black Cat back-up story. I'll write a separate review after the 2 part story has wrapped up, but here's the verdict: It's awesome.