Top of the stack - Feb. 2nd pulls

Since I had very few pulls this week, I had a hard time finding a top of the stack. Irredeemable was o.k. but mostly just because I want to see where this is going. Iron Man 500.1 was kinda boring, we followed Tony's speech at an A.A. meeting and how it related to his past, I guess an o.k. jumping on point for people but it was still vague enough where they won't really know what has come before. With all that said it becomes obvious that my reluctant choice is Amazing Spiderman #653.

ASM #653 is the middle of an arc that brought spider-slayers back into Spidey's life. Smythe, the son of the original spider slayer inventor, is an insect human spider-slayer hybrid who recently broke Mac Gargan/Scorpion out of prison and gave him a new and improved Scorpion/Spider-slayer suit. Since they are both victims of now Mayor J.Jonah Jameson's failed Spider-Slayer program, Smythe and Gargan join together to kill all of J.Jonah Jameson's family and friends to cause him more pain then death. Unfortunately for Smythe Jameson's friends are also Peter Parker's friends, So spidey calls in the Avengers for help.

This was a fun book in the tradition of classic Spidey action books. Dan Slott has been doing a great job with the  Big Time run on this book. I have really enjoyed this book lately, even with the second rate villain Smythe. I am interested in where we are leading. I feel this spider-slayer story is just filler before we see something much bigger in the spidey book. Slott hints at this upcoming story when we jump to an unknown location, revealed as the Sinister Six Headquarters, with Doc Ock intervening in Smythe's plan because it would interfere with what Ock has planned. I really look forward to this because I have always loved the Sinister Six, classic Spidey villains teaming up. love it.

Wasn't Spiderman's Identity a secret again?

The art this issue, by Stefano Caselli, is pretty good. While I really loved Ramos' pencils Caselli to me never seems to have standout panels but I almost don't notice it. In no way do I want it to come across as a negative, doing art that blends so seamlessly with the story that it just flows is nice. His work on Avengers: Initiative felt the same way to me, Good work but nothing to get too excited about.