Written by Zeb Wells

Art by Leinil Francis Yu, Gerry Alanguilan, Sunny Gho

Letters by VC’s Joe Caramagna

Release Date: March 28th, 2012

Avenging Spider-Man was well established from issue one to be some what of a team-up book without being your average “Spider-Man Team-Up” title. It may not be a title that holds an overarching story, but at it’s core, it’s exactly what the title says, Avenging Spider-Man. It’s been a while in recent years, but yes the wall-crawling science genius was once an Avenger. And these are his stories.

Zeb Wells just knows how to add heart in these stories, as Avenging Spider-Man #5 deals with the relationship between Spider-Man and Captain America. Captain America, Steve Rogers, the super solider out of time. A legend. And then there’s Spider-Man, Peter Parker, the science geek, it’s hard to think these two have anything in common. Wells takes this concept and does something very, Spider-Man. Even before his wall-crawling days Peter knew and gawked over the achievements of that of Reed Richards, and Tony Stark, and even before he was completely evil, Dr. Otto Octavius. So just imagine his state of mind when realizing Captain America may have a creative side.

The art team is very familiar with Captain America, Leinil Francis Yu and Sunny Gho did a tremendous job on this issue. In all honesty there’s really only one nitpick with the art from the entire issue, at one point in the middle of a fight Captain America’s eye are completely shut, and with the context of the panel, there’s really no reason for them to be. To the fight scene’s or just the “hanging out” scenery in this issue was great. When they needed to focus on detail, they focused on detail. When there was a lot going on in panels, I didn’t get lost.

The overall lesson in this issue is a bit, “afternoon special” but afternoon specials, when done correctly can make for great character building. It’s hard to not make these kinds of stories a bit cheesy, but it works in Spider-Man’s favor due to his character. Bumbling on and on seemingly like a child, it’s not something Captain America is completely used to, and Wells does a great job at organically bringing the issue up while also moving the story forward. Of course, every story needs it’s conflict and unfortunately that conflict is initiated by Cap’s “annoyance” with Peter. The conflict does end on a good note, bringing light to who Peter is as a person, and who Cap eventually wants to be.

Final Thoughts: This was a fun issue, which I think a majority of Spider-Man comics should be, a nice blend of fun, with good “feels”, and character development. I would like to see if any book after this made anything of Captain America’s artistic side.

8.0/10