Spider-Man: Origin of the Species

In 2008, Marvel started Brand New Day, setting up Spider-Man's new status in the Marvel universe after One More Day. After nearly three years later, it finally comes to an end. Some fans loved BND, some hated it, while others thought the individual stories in BND were either hit or misses. To me, I loved it, and will miss it. But it did end with good note, even though it's not the 'Best' story in Brand New Day.The premise is this: Norman Osborn's (Green Goblin) and Lily Hollister's (Menace) new baby is born, and many of Spider-Man's villains are trying to get it. That's pretty much it, just Spidey fighting a bunch of his villains, while at the same time trying to protect the baby.The story is fun, showing A LOT of elements from past Brand New Day stories. It brings back new villains that were introduce in past 102 issues of BND, like Freak and the new Vulture. It also brings back Spidey's original rogues gallery, but whom have change during BND, like Doctor Octopus, Electro, and the Rhino. Though it doesn't have anything Jaw-dropping, it does have it's own share of twists and turns.But the story does have it's flaw. Despite I DO LOVE this story, its actually pretty simple (minus the twists I've mention) and straight forward. Also, even though it did have it's moments, the dialogue wasn't anything special for the most part. Even Spider-Man's jokes aren't even that funny for most of the time, and I usually laugh at ANY joke he makes. But overall, the main story is fun and enjoyable, despite it's flaws.An other slight problem I had with the story was the final issue, which wasn't even part of the Origin of The Species story. It acted mostly as an epilogue to that story, and was to give the writers on the book a fond farewell. But the stories that were in it were mostly just decent. The main story of the final issue is just find, no problem with it. But the others ranged from pretty good, to awfully written. The issue was still a pretty decent ending for Brand New Day, it just wasn't as great as previous BND stories.An other thing is the art, which, to my surprise, I really like. But just to clarify, in my head, there's no such thing as a bad artist. So what if certain artists can't be consistent, or can't draw proper anatomy, or show emotion on character's faces. It's still their art style, and if someone doesn't like it, there's probably someone else who does. But MOST of the flaws I mention are not what is wrong with this book, Paul Azaceta (the books artists') did a good job on this book, even though I never really liked his previous work on Spider-Man. But I can tell A LOT of people won't like his work, mostly because, well, its not very attracted art. The main problem is that most of the characters who don't wear custom look ugly, especially the females. But his art is eye-popping, with the fights being well drawn and he is able to draw costume characters better, with the exception of some (the Rhino looks to fat to me).But even if you don't like the art, the story is good enough to distract it. This is good final story to Brand New Day, and it deserves to be a part of any Spider-Man fan's collection.

Origin of the Species was a very interesting read and had a few twists in the story that I honestly didn't see coming. It was a great story and some of the random side comics were interesting as well.

I loved the title story - cool, gritty art that reminded me of an indie comic. I like how Paul Azaceta (and later his partner Matthew Southworth) draws gritty lines and Spidey with small eye-covers (they keep getting bigger and bigger with all these cutesy versions of Spidey), and how they have wicked, edgy cartoon-ey situations. Naturally, we have plenty of Spidey-drama - Peter seems to be between girlfriends at the moment - but at least there's not much of Aunt May, and when we see her she's a party-chick and entertaining wife of J Jonah Jameson's dad, Jay. Weird jokes about Peter wearing an ugly "gag gift" sweater on the hottest day of summer, and the entrance of a pregnant, horned Lili Hollister, giving birth on a cafe floor, wild rooftop chases baby-in-hand (kind of like a Bruce Willis movie), the entrance of Tombstone and Shocker (minor Spidey-villains from ages ago), and then incomes a horribly deformed Doc Ock (so that's what he's like now - I haven't bought a comic in 25 years, good to catch up to what my favorite characters are up to these days… yeesh!!). And then along comes… the Lizard! Really amazing stuff!! I like the scene where he talks down a raging Rhino, and his brief confrontation with Mysterio (props to the authors, who make it brief - Mysterio is a one-trick pony who should not cause Spidey any grief any more at this stage in the game). Cool use of Chameleon, that other one-trick pony who's actually interesting. Love how Spidey soaks down part of a riverfront building in the Hudson River just to apprehend five villains! By the end of the book, Spidey is toying with his opponent, and I love that."Arms against a sea of troubles" tells the story of Doctor Octopus, from the day of his fourth-grade school field trip to the aquarium, when he became fascinated by a real octopus, through his days as a jailbird after being apprehended by a young spider. Not bad, not that great either though… "Another Door" is a little piece of Peter Parker drama, with Vin Gonsales, Carlie the cop, and a menacing Harry Osborn, a misadventure with Overdrive, Peter Parker dressed up as J Jonah Jameson for Hallowe'en. Then there's a silly piece about Spidey running afoul of city by-laws when he wants to tidy up a truck wreck that is blocking traffic (?!?!), and an even sillier one about Norah the reporter, all sassy dialogue and ultra-stylized "art". Next! A few more forgettable short stories, and then a helpful recap of the Spider-man Saga that brings us up to the current story. Not bad. Also a few dossiers of Spider-man characters thrown in. Meh...This edition didn't get high marks by reviewers, probably because the key story didn't strike their fancies, or they resented the inferior quality of the tacked-on stories. I think that the the key story has everything I expect in a great comic, that being fantastic art, a certain level of maturity, a relative lack of cheesy situations, and a few upsets and surprises - as well as a hero who somehow, despite major setbacks, manages to keep it all together.

Comics fans back both themselves and comic writers into a corner with their attitudes sometimes. On the one hand, the fans clamor for new material and complain when things get stale, on the other, change drives them into a frothing frenzy of hatred. Of course, comics aficionados have plenty to be angry about. Constant big loud, complicated events full of meaningless character "deaths" and changes of allegiance that don't really matter have left many readers jaded and untrusting. I'm one of those readers. I hate perpetual crossover events. When Brand New Day first came out, I thought Marvel was making a big mistake. Resetting Peter Parker's life and destroying his marriage seemed almost comically lazy. But Origin of the Species shows how much progress Marvel has made in building Peter's new world and how much potential it has. This is Spiderman the way it used to be. A hapless young man in a delicate situation pursued by deadly freaks and forced to deal with the idea that people's lives get a lot worse when he's around. Character and action are balanced really well and the untraditional more cartoonish art style works well with the story, both modern and a throwback. The extra chapters showing the aftershock in the lives of Peter's friends are all well written and all a good addition to the Spiderman canon. Spiderman is a balance between dark and light, between cartoon, realism and melodrama. It's a tough series to write and Waid did a great job.

Great service and delivery was really quick. But....don't buy this graphic novel...it is truly awful and has the most unbelievably bad artwork in it. My mistake and no criticism of the suppliers who were great.