Jump to ratings and reviews
Rate this book

Alpha: Big Time #1-5

Alpha: Big Time

Rate this book
From the pages of Amazing Spider-Man, get ready for the greatest hero who ever existed...ever! Alpha was having an awesome time of it, till that buzz-kill Spider-Man made him quit being a hero. But that was then ...and this is NOW! Josh Fialkov & Nuno Plati (Amazing Spider -Man) reunite to tell the tale of a hero who's about to hit the big time!
Alpha : Big Time 1-5

112 pages, Paperback

First published August 27, 2013

1 person is currently reading
30 people want to read

About the author

Joshua Hale Fialkov

444 books141 followers
Joshua Hale Fialkov is the creator (or co-creator, depending) of graphic novels, including the Harvey Nominated Elk’s Run, the Harvey and Eisner nominated Tumor, Punks the Comic, and the Harvey Nominated Echoes.

He has written Alibi and Cyblade for Top Cow, Superman/Batman for DC Comics, Rampaging Wolverine for Marvel, and Friday the 13th for Wildstorm. He’s writing the DC relaunch of I,Vampire, as well as debuting the new Marvel character The Monkey King. This fall sees the launch of The Last of the Greats from Image Comics with artist Brent Peeples.

He also served as a writer on the Emmy Award Nominated animated film Afro Samurai: Resurrection, and as Executive Producer of the cult hit LG15: The Resistance web series.

Elk’s Run, Tumor, and Alibi are all currently in development as feature films. He has written comics for companies including Marvel, Wildstorm, IDW, Dark Horse, Image, Tor Books, Seven Seas Entertainment, Del Rey, Random House, Dabel Brothers Productions, and St. Martin’s Press. He has done video game work for THQ, Midway Entertainment, and Gore Verbinski’s Blind Wink Productions. He also wrote a Sci-Fi Channel movie starring Isabella Rossellini and Judd Nelson. Unfortunately, at no point in the film does Judd Nelson punch the sky and freeze frame. Joshua grew up in Pittsburgh, PA, went to college in Boston, where he got a BFA in writing and directing for the stage and screen, and then worked in the New England film industry, until finally deciding to move to Los Angeles to do it properly. He lives with his wife, Christina, daughter, Gable, and their cats, Smokey and the Bandit.

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/joshfialkov

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/joshuahalefia...

Photograph by Heidi Ryder Photography

Ratings & Reviews

What do you think?
Rate this book

Friends & Following

Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!

Community Reviews

5 stars
4 (5%)
4 stars
17 (23%)
3 stars
32 (43%)
2 stars
16 (21%)
1 star
4 (5%)
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
Profile Image for A.J..
603 reviews84 followers
March 6, 2022
“Recorder on. Alpha observation number 92. Alpha’s powers when used in concentrated form cause cancerous tissue to form. This makes transference of his powers to me too complicated. Potentially fatal.” - Superior Spider-Man

Well that does explain why Superior Spider-Man was in this book. Does it give me the time I wasted reading this back? No.

Derivative and cliche, Alpha Big Time is basically everything I dislike about superhero books. Literally the only redeeming factor of this series is the role SpOck plays. This was just dreadful.
1,607 reviews12 followers
February 6, 2020
Reprints Alpha: Big Time #1-5 (April 2013-August 2013). Andy Maguire was one of the biggest superheroes to hit the scene. As Alpha he had unlimited power and abilities…but Andy screwed up. Depowered, Andy is finding being a has-been-hero is almost harder than being a hero. When Peter Parker decides to give him his powers back, Alpha is reborn, but just because Andy has learned responsibility doesn’t mean being Alpha is any easier!

Written by Joshua Hale Fialkov, Alpha: Big Time is a Marvel Comics limited series. The series spins off Dan Slott’s Alpha storyline in Amazing Spider-Man and features art by Nuno Plati. The issues in the collection were also included in Spider-Man: Big Time—The Complete Collection Volume 4.

I didn’t like Alpha and I don’t really know if Slott intended Alpha to be liked. It kind of felt like Slott was setting up Alpha to fail. With that in mind, an Alpha limited series likewise seems like a bad idea…and Alpha: Big Time is a result.

I do like that Alpha just continues to screw up. Like Peter Parker, he’s immediately challenged by his powers by almost killing a mugger. This action leads to a chain of events that has Andy essentially unable to go after the criminals in his new city with a threat of being exposed. It is pretty rotten “superheroing” and the fact that Andy is pretty bad at being a superhero is one of the redeeming factors of the series.

Unfortunately, the Andy character is missing most of the traits that make Peter Parker likable. This makes it a challenge to get into the character even if he is essentially dealing with many of the same problems Peter had in his early days. He isn’t irredeemable, but it is close.

I do think the relationship between Peter and Andy is interesting especially in this volume. By Alpha: Big Time, Peter has been possessed by Dr. Octopus. Andy doesn’t know this, but Dr. Octopus is playing Andy and he doesn’t know it. I like the idea of a mentor who is secretly working against his student or has a secret goal for his student.

Alpha fortunately hasn’t really done much since Slott ended his short tenure as a sidekick to Peter Parker. This story was a bit of aberration and was kind of surprising in that sense. Whenever Marvel is threatening to do a big “death” that is supposed to be shocking, I always kind of hope it is Alpha. It would be an appropriate end to an irritating character.
Profile Image for Sean.
4,174 reviews25 followers
May 26, 2021
Alpha is back just like no one demanded!!! In all seriousness, Alpha is a good teen book and a character that could do well. He has a hard luck Peter Parker aspect to him that is repetitive but he's likeable now. I thoroughly enjoyed the curveball of having him deal with Otto's Spider-Man as opposed to Peter's. The big drawback for me here was the art by Nuno Plati. It was not for me. Overall, a harmless read that was enjoyable.
Profile Image for Krzysztof Grabowski.
1,877 reviews7 followers
August 19, 2019
Niech o poziomie tego dzieła, świadczy fakt, iż w godzinę po lekturze nie pamiętam jak się nazywa główny bohater poza tym, że jest tytułowym Alfą...

A wszystko to z winy Petera Parkera(częściowej. Tak, widziałem jak jakiś okularnik przekręca wajchę) i otrzymujemy chłopca, który praktycznie potrafi wszystko. Cóż, potrafił, bo odebrano mu te moce(chwilowo) ze względu na młody wiek i lekkomyślność, jako doprowadziła do tragedii.

Nie od wczoraj wiadomo, że i tak w końcu musiał odzyskać swoją moc. Co umie nasz protegowany? Absorbuje ogień? Proszę. Wyczuwa mentalnie z oddali zagrożenie? Nie ma sprawy. O lataniu czy promieniach wystrzeliwanych z rąk już nie wspomnę. No i broi nieźle. Na tyle poważnie, że musi naprawiać to do czego się przyczynił. Tylko czy w takiej sytuacji można go nazywać herosem?

Brakowało mu tylko dobrego przeciwnika, ale takowego nie ma. Na moment w ramach mentora pojawia się ten lepszy Superior Spider-man, który zresztą przyczynia się do tego, że nasz bohater odzyskał cześć mocy, to i tak nie jest w stanie ożywić przedstawianą nam historię. Wiało nudą i utartymi schematami. Jedynym wartym elementem był ten nieszczęsny element romantyczny.

I jeszcze ta nieszczęsna kreska. Alpha: Big Time wypada traktować jaką ciekawostkę. Niby zapewnia jakąś rozrywkę, ale nie jest ona warta zapamiętania.
Profile Image for Shevek.
526 reviews1 follower
December 8, 2020
Una seriecilla de relleno que implica colateralmente al Spiderman Superior. Se deja leer y entretiene, pero no deja de ser una copia burda del Ultimate Spiderman de Bendis y Bagley. Tiene claras sus aspiraciones y se limita a combinar un guion simple y manido con dibujos muy cartoonescos.
Profile Image for Matt.
2,608 reviews27 followers
August 27, 2015
Collects Alpha: Big Time issues #1-5

The character Alpha debuted in Amazing Spider-Man issue #692. Much like Peter Parker, this teenage boy received his powers from a science accident. Spider-Man became a mentor to him, but it appeared that he lost his powers and that his hero's journey had come to an end.

However, it seems that his journey had only just begun because the Superior Spider-Man helps him get his powers back in this volume. Alpha's power-set is huge. Reminiscent of Superman, Alpha can do basically anything. In this volume he starts to make a new life for himself in a new city. Even though this isn't an origin story, it definitely feels like the hero's true beginning.

I liked this collection more than I thought I would. A lot more. I would have liked to have read more in this series, but it was cancelled after only 5 issues.

Final rating = 3.5 stars
Profile Image for Unai.
975 reviews55 followers
January 15, 2014
Bien sin mas como historia de relleno a razón de un numero por mes en la colección de Spiderman Superior.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews

Can't find what you're looking for?

Get help and learn more about the design.