Four Panel Folly Comic museings.

Runner Up!: The Amazing Spider-Man #631

Why is Spider-Man's webs brown? I guess his unemployment is so bad he's using spaghetti these days.

Runner Up! highlights my second favorite issue of the week while discussing it in a less formal tone. Please contribute your thoughts as well!

Why it didn't win:
Too much Kraven-family nonsense in what should be a singular story about Curt Connors.
The issue's ending isn't entirely believable. It might still be undone by the next issue.

I'm a believer that a good comic is not “good writing + good art”. The medium is more than those two things put against each other and a chemical reaction occurring at their touch. No, I think a good comic has the undetectable cohesion of art and writing. The parts are blended together to become one. They are melted and folded into each other to the point where you can't tell where the chocolate ends and peanut butter begins.

Yet more often than not, the Best Comic I Read This Week's and the Runner Up!'s are usually chosen because of their story. WELL, fire up your exception detectors because here comes one barreling down the road.

Amazing Spider-Man #631 is all about Chris Bachalo's art. Personally, I've always had a soft spot for Bachalo. He and Carlos Pacheco were the first artists I noticed and realized I “liked”. You always remember your first!

The beginning of the issue is done by Emma Rios and doesn't feature the Lizard at all. She draws the creepiest Ana Tatiana Kravinoff I've seen though. It's these drawings which give me hope for the character. But once the Lizard shows up in the story, it's Bachalo time! (Pronounced with the explanation point.) Since this is the more abstract, creepier part of the story it makes a lot of sense to put Bachalo's exaggerated forms and loose panel structures to work here. Not that his pencils would have harmed the non-Lizard related first eight pages, but when Bachalo's art pops up, you know the issue's about to kick into overdrive. And his design of the Lizard is most definitely in overdrive.

This lizard is more hulking reptile than scaly human being. Blood and spittle constantly foams from his mouth. He's a scary dude. This is one of my favorites of the many recent Spider-Man villain updates.

The “death” of Curt Connors is functional and works for the story. Though, I am not convinced this death is permanent since what caused it occurs off panel. But the page where the Lizard takes over Connors' mind is clever and creepy.

Dueling captions between the Lizard and Curt Connors could have been cheesy but instead it helps make the Lizard's persona very frightening. Kudos to Zeb Wells for writing such a scary monster.

I'm not normally a fan of the Lizard as a super-villain. The Dr. Jeckle and Mr. Hyde villain is kind of overdone after all. Wells manages to keep the Lizard menacing with this new monstrous twist though. Unfortunately his story is also filled with “The Gauntlet” and “Grim Hunt” nonsense (I've completely lost track of what K raven-family-versus-unknowing-Spider-Man story we're on now).

Kraven the Hunter's family isn't keeping me up at night. They're still all bark and no bite, which is terrible for a family of people who dress like lions. Lions don't bark and lions definitely bite. That's two fouls!

Chris Bachalo's art will always remind me of smelling the sea salt while reading comics at the shore. You should trying making your own memories with his art.