Here is the latest in our year-long look at one cool comic (whether it be a self-contained work, an ongoing comic or a run on a long-running title that featured multiple creative teams on it over the years) a day (in no particular order whatsoever)! Here's the archive of the comics posted so far!
Today we look at a great two-part story by Mark Waid and Marcos Martin in Amazing Spider-Man #578 and 579 titled "Unscheduled Stop"...
Enjoy!
Before I begin, let me note that I think Mark Waid did a really good job both in coming up with an interesting scenario to place Spider-Man into and for aptly demonstrating Spider-Man's personality in his reaction TO the scenario.
Top notch stuff.
I mention this now because I fear I might give Marcos Martin too much of the credit for this story, because Martin is so unbelievably awesome in this two-parter that I might lose track of the great work Waid did.
Okay, on to the story!
The basic concept is set-up nicely at the beginning of the first part...
Once on the subway, Spider-Man learns that the train he is on also holds the jury for a mobster's trial and, well, somebody figures killing the jury might give the bad guy a mistrial...
The surviving passengers are led by Spider-Man until they learn that the person who put them into this predicament is still out there...
What an introduction!!!
So yeah, at the end of the issue, it's your standard "we're trapped in a tunnel that is slowly flooding and there is no way out and there's also a super-villain here who wants to kill us" deal, and Waid makes the most of his classic set-up.
Martin, by the way, has an epic page pretty much every other page - it's remarkable how good he is.
I will try not to spoil much about the second part (I won't even mention what surprising new addition to the Spider-Man supporting cast is a member of the jury), except to offer up this following panel...
Marcos Martin, people, MARCOS MARTIN!!!
This story is available in a couple of different Spider-Man collections (the individual trades are collected into bigger Brand New Day hardcovers), so there's two different ways to get a collection with this story in it! Plus, the issues aren't so old that you can't just go out there and buy them individually. This is a great short story and I'm sure you'll enjoy it (if you like Spider-man stories, that is).