Well well well. I maintain that One More Day was a terrible move, terribly executed, and the issues of Amazing Spider-Man since then have been either boring or infuriating (infuriating because they reminded me of One More Day). I even stopped buying Spider-man for a month, because of it. But someone talked me into trying it out again, and here I am. This story arc is awesome, and I mostly think that’s due to the art of Chris Bachalo and Antonio Fabela. I can’t remember if I’ve ever had strong feelings about these guys before, but wow I love their work here. There was a lot that I liked about this issue, but none of it would have mattered if it hadn’t been executed so beautifully by the artists. The jury is still out on Brand New Day for me, but they’ve given me an issue that I just can’t argue with. I will now at least keep reading and see how the rest goes.

I’m hoping things start to get better for Daredevil soon. I understand that constant punishment is one of the hallmarks of his history, but there’s only so much depression and despair a reader can take before tuning out. Naturally tragedies occur, and life can be awful and dramatic, but eventually we come out the other side, deal with our pain, and move on to better things. This issue was nice because there were no secret villains or mysterious growing plots. It was just about Matt and his friends trying and failing to deal with all that’s happened. For one, that makes it feel more like a story about real people and their lives, and two, it gives me hope that Matt’s life will eventually take an upturn. The writing was great. I didn’t like the art as much as I usually do. Lark seems to build faces out of a bunch of straight or slightly curved lines, which makes everyone look sort of cartoony, but that might just be my opinion. Over all, a great issue and a breath of fresh air after the convoluted Mr. Fear stuff.