Renew Your Vows #2 Comic Recap/Review

Renew Your Vows #2 Recap/Review – Because We Said So, That’s Why

 

Renew Your Vows #2 Comic Recap

Peter finds himself in an inferno.  He can’t help but feel that he has been here before.  He wants to save Eddie Brock, but his old enemy taunts him.  That’s not what happened.  Eddie was left to die.  Venom taunts his foe, declaring that at the end of the day, when it really counted, Peter proved himself to be no better than Eddie.

[Related: Marvel’s Secret Wars 2015 Complete Reading Order Checklist]

Parker wakes up from the dream screaming, and his Spider-Sense tells him that something is wrong.  He and MJ find their daughter once again sleeping on the ceiling.  It seems that Annie has inherited her father’s superpowers.  She broke her inhibitor bracelet, and does not seem to recognize the danger of doing so.  Having powers in the Regency is dangerous, as the city is regularly scanned for those with superhuman abilities.  Annie is defensive, saying that it was an accident.  She thought she saw Venom, and clearly is still upset by the night that Eddie attacked the Parker family.

The next day, the Parkers walk Annie to school.  However, when some police cars fly by, Peter takes off to get some photos of the emergency.  As he hails a cab, Annie says goodbye to her father.  She says that MJ does not need to walk her to school, but her mother insists on doing so.  Mary Jane  takes some time to remind her daughter the importance of blending in with all the other children.  Even if Annie sees somebody being bullied or in trouble, she must not use her powers, even if it feels like the right thing to do.  Things may seem alright in the Regency, but for those who are special, the world can become a dark place very fast.  Annie feels sad, wondering if she isn’t special without her powers, so MJ tells her that Annie May Parker is one of the most special people in the world.  Annie asks if it’s the red hair that makes her so important, and MJ confirms that is absolutely the case.  After all, she gets that from her mother.

Elsewhere, Peter is taking photos of a confrontation. Boomerang, Rhino, and the Shocker are fighting the obscure hero known as D-Man.  The fight is also observed by the Prowler and Mockingbird, who are working for an unseen figure.  They ask if they should intervene, and the commander gives them a flat no.  He will not risk two of the Underground’s best assets on somebody dumb enough to expose himself in broad daylight.  So D-Man quickly falls to the villains, who take him to the Regent.

The Baron of this domain is dismissive of the hero, who he says is beneath him.  Nevertheless, he congratulates Shocker on a job well done, and has D-Man taken away for dissection, on the off chance that the hero’s physiology contains something useful.  The Regent is then informed by the Beetle that they have detected a child at one of the city’s public schools.  The Baron is pleased at this news, and orders his lackeys to bring him the child.

[Related: Marvel’s Secret Wars 2015 Complete Reading Order Checklist]

Over at the Daily Bugle, Peter comes by to turn in some photos.  Parker lives in a strange world these days, where he is paid quite well by a reluctant Jameson to have his pictures kept secret by the Bugle to avoid upsetting the Regency.  One of the journalists tells Jonah that an assault team is heading towards a public school, and hearing this, Peter disappears.  Recognizing the school as the one that Annie goes to,  Parker is forced to abandon his usual discretion and use his powers once more, racing across the city.  MJ hears the same news, and does the same.

At the school, we learn that Annie is actually doing a great job at not using her powers.  Coincidentally, all five of the Powers children go to the same school, and they have just been discovered.  Annie doesn’t know what to do, until her father arrives.  Peter tells the children to run away, while Peter easily handles his old enemies.  Mary Jane grabs her daughter and runs, while the former Spider-Man orders the Powers kids to do the same before reinforcements arrive.  With the children out of the picture, the villains easily fall to Peter.

They have difficulty explaining this to the Regent, who dismisses them all as incompetent.  The discovery of Spider-Man will require experts… the best men the Baron has at his disposal.  He summons the Sinister Six, now bolstered by the newly promoted Shocker, and the villainous team is eager to take on the task.

Back at the Parker home, the family reels from the days events.  Peter wants to flee, but Mary Jane knows that will just draw more attention to the family.  Running from the Regent is not an option, so MJ insists it is time to unpack.  She takes out a Spider-Man suit, which she has been saving for a rainy day.  Today was an all out storm.  Peter will have to be smart.  He needs to stick to the shadows.  So he won’t be wearing his usual red and blue.  Annie is shocked to see that MJ is holding a costume that has been haunting her dreams for years, but Peter calms her down.  It looks similar, but that monster is gone.  He got rid of it years ago.  That’s what good fathers do, and though Peter swore he would never be Spider-Man again, he will do anything to protect his family.  Anything.

Renew Your Vows #2 Comic Review

Hello and welcome to Comic Island!  My name is Arden, and this is my recap, and review, of The Amazing Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows #2.

And here we are again.  I honestly had no idea what to expect out of issue number two after the first comic’s explosive start, but boy was I pleased by what we got.  See, I was a little worried the story was going to slow down with Peter out of commission, but really, it feels like things kind of picked up here.  I was really impressed by the comic’s art, writing, and pretty much everything else it had to offer.  Filled with great action, character moments, and fun comic book cameos, like various members of the Superior Foes of Spider-Man, this comic really has something to offer to everyone.

I like the environment of the Regency, with futuristic cars and a generally pleasant environment underlying a rather sinister dictatorship.  It works well, and frames the comics jump forward by a good number of years quite nicely.

So yeah, on the whole it is a good comic.  Very good in fact.  I recommend you check it out for yourself.  There’s just one problem, and it’s a big problem.  Sadly, it has very little to do with the comic itself, but I just can’t help but find this comic book frustrating.  Because I know at the end of these five issues lie heartbreak.  Not only is the story heading in that direction, but we also know that there’s no way this is what Spider-Man will be like post-secret wars.

Never mind that this is the most interesting thing to happen to Spider-Man since he was ruined by a story I don’t want to talk about anymore.  Never mind that this would work particularly well after Secret Wars as you will still have a young and single Spider-Man in the form of Miles Morales.  And certainly never mind what the fans want.  We need a Peter Parker that is single and without children.  Because… well, that’s the problem.  They are doing this for a good reason, and that’s accessibility.

See for all my complaints here, I can’t blame Dan Slott for this, because he’s writing Renew Your Vows.  It wouldn’t be right to blame the Marvel Editorial Staff either, who largely work on the whims of executives, who largely serve the shareholders.  It’s a broken, American corporate culture that’s stuck on maximizing short term profits and has very little to do with well, making a good comic.  And nothing sells like hype or fan service.

[Related: Marvel’s Secret Wars 2015 Complete Reading Order Checklist]

How shocking, that a story works much better when it isn’t running exclusively on this nonsense.  And I realize the irony of saying this about a comic that has “Battleworld” on it’s cover.  But you know what?  This works in ways that Big Time, Spider-Island, Superior Spider-Man, Original Sin, Spider-Verse and everything else from the last several years just hasn’t.  Yeah, it’s a tie in for a big event, but unlike all those other stories, it connects with me on an emotional level, and that it so important in a Spider-Man comic.  That’s what worked about the old Spider-Man comics and Ultimate Spider-Man, and it’s what is working working here.  Honestly it’s not rocket science, but this comic really has me convinced that this isn’t Dan Slott’s fault, and it is hard to blame any one person individually, much as we would all like to.  You cannot make a story like Spider-Verse emotionally heavy.  It’s basically light-hearted fun at best, and pure, cynical, empty, emotionless hype at it’s worst.  And that’s okay, once in a while, but I feel that’s all that Marvel let’s Spider-Man be these days.  It’s just annoying when something like this works so much better than the usual, and I don’t think the issue in here is a lack of Mary Jane.

Don’t get me wrong, Mary Jane is like my favourite part in this comic.  She drives most of the story forward, especially near the end, she does as much as a mother as Peter does as a father, and at the end of the day, these two feel like solid partners and parents.  And while it’s great to have her back, I think what works so well in this comic that’s missing from all those other recent Spider-Man stories is this emotional connection.  Taking time with scenes like these two establish the relationships here between mother and daughter, father and daughter, and husband and wife.  It makes you invested in the story.  And while this should seem obvious it is remarkably absent in stories like Spider-Island or Spider-Verse.

How can a comic be so good yet so frustrating?  I can only chalk it up to me having trouble enjoying this in the larger context of what is to come.  This should be what Spider-Man is always like.  Not necessarily married and with children, although this series sure makes that seem like something they should do more of, but something that connects with you as a human being.  So to summarize, I loved this comic but have a feeling I will hate seeing it go after only five issues.  Make of that what you will, because clearly I have mixed feeling overall.  Let me know what you think of all this in the comments section below.  And, as always, don’t forget to like, subscribe, and keep reading comics.