The week in comics 09/01/13

Please note that SPOILERS may be present in this article

When Miles Morales took up the webs in the pages of Ultimate Spider-Man, readers breathed a sigh of relief. Peter Parker may have been killed, but he lived on in the spirit of this new hero, a hero that managed to recapture the magic of a young, inexperienced vigilante that dealt with relatable issues like self-doubt, family troubles, and the internal struggle to do the right thing. It didn’t take long for fans to accept the newest member of Spider-family.

The Superior Spider-Man – now replacing the real Peter Parker - is not going to be as easy to welcome in.

But there’s a different kind of magic at play with Dan Slott’s new series - a darker, more unnerving sorcery that one would usually seek in Marvel’s more mature books. This isn’t a book that wants you to accept its new status-quo with ease; it wants to make both you and its new character work for that approval.

Gone are the home comforts of Peter Parker’s light-hearted narration, steering us through every fight and quip. Instead we’re forced to deal with a much colder, forceful voice, one that claims to be superior but clearly struggles far more with the responsibility of being Spider-Man than his predecessor. Spider-Man is no longer defined by the ‘Parker Luck’, rather efficient calculations and an overriding sense of logic over humanity. A completely new take on ‘great power, greater responsibility’ has arisen from these pages.

Where Slott lets himself down just a little is the cave-in ending, which confirms Superior’s status as a mini-series more than anything else. It’s that much harder to applaud this bold new direction when we’re teased with a light at the end in the very first issue. Surely we could have seen just a few more issues go past before the game was given up? What’s the point in investing in a character that we now know won’t be sticking around for more than a year or so?

Issue 1 also invites Ryan Stegman to show off his artistry, and he does so with ease. This issue is gritty, sketchy and utterly fantastic to look at.

This is a promising if slightly uneventful start to a new era of Spider-Man, and I’m looking forward to seeing where the book is taken in the next few months.

Which doesn’t leave us with much space for Thor: God of Thunder #4. Fortunately, little more needs to be said other than this issue stays in line with the quality of its predecessors. Thor has enjoyed a great deal of accessibility in the past few years thanks to hit movies and quality storytelling, and writer Jason Aaron is staying that path with God of Thunder. The God Butcher storyline is a fast-paced mix of heavy-weight action and intriguing mystery that invites readers back each month with perfectly placed cliff-hangers and gorgeous artwork worthy of Asgard itself.