Were there enough adjectives in there?

It's always weird when you disagree with a reviewer you have an unhealthy fixation on respect a lot, especially one who is pretty much you has such similar tastes. Such is the case, however, with this comic, and I'm gonna figure out why via blogging, damn it.

So, this her Spider-Man comic, it's not bad. Let's establish that. And hey, if you're the kind of person who enjoys the Andi Watson-esque spare line cartooning of Coleen Coover (I do, with some exceptions I'll get to) , a breezy script from her beau Paul Tobin, and are the kind of person who really wants to still be able to pretend that Peter and MJ's pretend marriage in a pretend history of pretend importance is real, then this is absotively, posolutely the Spider-Man comic this fortnight for you, because that's the lead story right there.

However, I did not love this story, or the issue really. Which jives neither with Sims honoring it with Book of the Week nor with the fact that I like to believe I do have joy in my soul. I mean, c'mon; She-Hulk, a suspisciously animated Starfire esque Scarlet Witch, Clea, and Millie the Model (among others) team up with MJ to take on a bemused Enchantress. That sounds cooler to me than I found the story, which was perfectly fine mind you, but didn't really jazz me up. Coover's squat, totally cartoony Spider-Man, who recaps his origin so close to the bone it draws marrow on the opening page and goes chair shopping with MODOK? That I loved, but not enought overcome how underwhelming the rest of the issue was.

Keith Giffen and Rick Burchett (et al.; there were more names credited, those are just the ones I can be bothered to remember) deliver a solid Spidey/Falcon team up, even if I can't figure out what continuity it could possibly fit in. I mean, in the final analysis I don't care, but I can't remember the Falcon ever capping people with rubber bullets or being such a stern jerk, you know? I missed a lot of his appearances between the Stan Lee era Cap and Brubaker's though. This was perfectly good, too, but was basically an inventory issue of Marvel Team Up.

There's a Chris Giarusso Mini-Marvels Strip to cap the whole thing off. Now, I generally love those, but: 1. I'm sure I've already read this online and 2. These things lose a little charm when they become longer than a page, I think. Also, I just drowned a sack full of puppies taped to kittens reading Peanuts, so maybe I'm just not in the mood for the aesthetic it represents. I am generally happy that Giarusso is filling Fred Hembeck's void so well, though.

So, this fits what I think the general, nebulous definition of what fun comics are on the internet, so by all means pick it up if it sounds like you'd like it more than me. It's just, when I usually blindly buy stuff Sims raves about on his blog, I don't feel betrayed by Judas disappointed in doing so. I think maybe if I'd just grabbed it off the rack, I probably wouldn't have expected it to, I dunno, make TNA Wrestling less dumb or perform instant painless liposuction on me, or whatever it is this perfectly good comic didn't do that made it such a let down to me. Well, beyond cost $4.99.

P.S.- I also picked up the extra priced "Brand New Day/Hey, Spider-Man Comics Don't Suck So Much Now Cash In" hulabaloo when I was at the shop getting this, because holy hell Marcos Martin drew something in it, so we'll see how I like that one. Expect a scathing review if it isn't on the short list of the Nobel Prize for literature. Also, I got that Hack/Slash back issue with Milk and Cheese. I'm sorry if I sounded too ashamed for liking the trade I got at Half Priced Books the other day, guy who created it and anyone else whose opinion on the matter means a whole lot less to me!