Amazing Spider-Man: Full Circle

Spider-Man: Miniseries

by Nick Spencer, Jonathan Hickman, Al Ewing

A summons from S.H.I.E.L.D. leads Peter Parker into a globe-spanning adventure that will test him as never before, one in which the future of all mankind lies in his gloved, webbed hands! Who is the mysterious prisoner in the steel box who keeps propelling the wall-crawler onward? Nick Spencer and an all-star team of Marvel's biggest writers and artists take up the challenge to create the wildest, maddest, most unconventional AMAZING SPIDER-MAN story of all! Guest-starring Nick Fury, Wolverine and Peter Porker, the Spectacular Spider-Ham!

AMAZING SPIDER FULL CIRCLE 1, TBC

Genres: Comics, Marvel, Spider Man, Graphic Novels, Superheroes, Comic Book, Fantasy

Paperback

First published April 14, 2020

About the author

Librarian Note:
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name.

Nick Spencer is a comic book writer known for his creator-owned titles at Image Comics (Existence 2.0/3.0, Forgetless, Shuddertown, Morning Glories), his work at DC Comics (Action Comics, T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents), and for his current work at Marvel Comics (Iron Man 2.0, Ultimate Comics: X-Men).

Reviews

[Chad · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a lot of fun. Marvel got 7 different creative teams together of their top creators, each team taking on 10 pages. The trick being each 10 pages ends in a cliffhanger, leaving the next team to carry the story in whatever direction they wanted. No one knew what the story was about until they were handed the baton. It made for some crazy stuff for Spider-Man but I'll leave exactly what happens for you to find out.

[Gianfranco Mancini · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful round-robin experimental tale from Marvel, with seven authors and seven artists writing a drawing a ten pages chapter ending with a cliffhanger, passing the torch to next couple, and gathering minds in a final brainstorming to fix the hilarious mess they made.



Totally enjoyed every part of it, a storytelling experiment similar to musical improvisation, starring Marvel's most loved, famous and iconic character.



Probably Stan Lee would have loved it too.



Excelsior.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

You know that game where you fold up a sheet of paper and each person in the room draws a different part of a person on their section of the paper and you only unfold it after everybody's drawn their part and the results are often hilarious? Well, this graphic novel is the comicbook version of that game.

Marvel got a selection of their current hot creators (and a couple of old hands, too) to each write and draw ten pages each of this eighty page graphic novel, with each writer leaving a cliff-hanger at the end of their section for the next writer to resolve.

Firstly, I must say that the artwork, despite having a rather inevitably jarring effect with all the switch-ups, is of a very high standard. Some is better than others but nobody let the side down.

The story, again almost inevitably, was a kaleidoscope of often conflicting elements and gave me a headache... but in a good way. Based on the bonus feature at the back of the book, in which the writers show us some of the e-mail conversation they all had with editor Tom Brevoort, it had the same affect on them!

The joined-up story was often absolutely hilarious and reminded me of some sessions of the Marvel Super Heroes RPG I've run in the past (and the present, thinking about it). It was a bit of a mess, but endearingly so. Tonally, it reminded me of the first run of 'Excalibur'; particularly 'The Cross-Time Caper'. I'll even forgive it for YET AGAIN falling back on Marvel's current favourite plot-device: sodding TIME TRAVEL!

I'd recommend this one to any comicbook fan who isn't of that morose breed who insist on their comics being grim, gritty and deadly serious.

[AJ Kallas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very fun idea. 7 creative teams, randomly assigned a chapter of a Spider-Man story picking up where the last team left off. This was weird and wild. But I think they made it work. But this comic needs to be read in the context of its unique creation.

[Guilherme Smee · Rating 1 out of 5]

Existe um exercício que é feito nas oficinas literárias, que é o de um participante completar um parágrafo ou um capítulo do outro, serve para treinar o escritor a sair de enrascadas literárias que ele mesmo se coloca. A DC Comics fez algo parecido com isso com a publicação da coletânea O Desafio de Kamandi, em que equipes de escritores e desenhistas precisavam tirar o Kamandi de "enrascadas literárias" edição por edição. Este O Espetacular Homem-Aranha: Corrente tem uma proposta semelhante, com a diferença que as equipes criativas tiveram oito páginas, mas nenhum limite para colocar e tirar o Homem-Aranha de/em enrascadas. O resultado é, me desculpem os fãs da HQ, terrível, sem pé nem cabeça, sem limites e sem noção. Claro que algumas duplas se saem um pouco melhores que as outras, mas parece que faltou coordenação editorial e alguns limites para esta história. Ou alguma coisa que O Desafio de Kamandi teve e Corrente não recebeu o mesmo cuidado... Então, a minha dica para você é que apesar de O Espetacular Homem-Aranha: Corrente contar com os melhores escritores da Marvel no momento, ela não consegue alcançar o seu objetivo, que é o de entregar uma história que faça sentido. Se eu fosse você me manteria longe desta publicação.

[Simone · Rating 4 out of 5]

Era da un po' che la Marvel non faceva la Marvel. Mi sono divertito un cifro

[Kyle Berk]

While it gets very wacky in the middle it comes around and sticks the landing pretty well.

I enjoyed the idea very much and if more of these type of things were made I'd gladly read them.

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good round robin of stories with a strange series of events. The future is great because it is unknown and it is better to focus your time on what matters instead of worrying.

[Jason · Rating 3 out of 5]

Story became a bit of a mess. But I appreciate what the writers were attempting.

[Jason · Rating 5 out of 5]

8 Spider-man writers team up to tell a story, round robin style i.e. no advance planning, just the 1st writer writing the first 10 pages and then handing it off to the next writer and so on. Absolutely delightful and a lot of art aces to boot.

I absolutely loved it with one caveat, I don't think they stuck landing. It was an absolutely bananas crazy story but I think they reached a point where everyone inflated the stakes too high so it wasn't a graceful landing.

But Rachel Stott and Michael Allred and Mark Bagley and Cameron Stewart and Chris Bachalo et al drawing Spidey, sign me up. The art alone is worth the price of admission and despite the ending, this was still a very fun book careening from one crazy plot point to another. A must read for Spidey fans

[Daniel Zielke · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is going to confuse you. It makes it very clear when you read about how it was created. But that should not scare you. Just like jumping into comics for the first time, you’ll feel like maybe you’re missing something. But I loved the crazy adventure the writers took Spidey on, and how they each showed off who Spider-Man is to them in the process. This book is wacky and could never be made into a movie (but maybe a DVD Special Feature!?), but as someone who loves Spider-Man I enjoyed this book immensely.

[Ross · Rating 4 out of 5]

Is this actually an original idea?

7 separate creative teams tell one Spider-Man tale. Think of it as a game of telephone. Each writer has to advance the story, but can only carry over (I think) one thing from the previous author. It's not something I've seen in comics. It's usually a short story creative writing gambit. Definitely a fun time.

[Alex Sarll]

A ridiculous but fun exercise wherein Marvel assembled seven different creative teams and got them to tell a Spidey story as a relay race, each leaving the next lot a cliffhanger to get out of - starting with Spider-Man being thrown out of an airlock in orbit. While some of the creators, such as Zdarsky and Bachalo, have worked on Spider-Man before, few are ones you'd particularly associate with the character, aside from current main series writer Nick Spencer, and Mark Bagley, who draws the final chapter where the writers all get together to make some kind of sense out of it all. Which they do surprisingly well, somehow unearthing a tie to the character's core drives and themes in the preceding welter of werewolves, time travel and distressingly realistic-looking reimaginings of Spider-Ham. Of the writers newish to Spidey, some (Al Ewing) seem much better fits for the character than others (Hickman); art-wise, getting Allred to do a theme park sequence is the obvious masterstroke. Nobody's idea of essential reading, but much better than such a self-indulgent idea has any right to be.

[Trevor · Rating 1 out of 5]

From the first page of the comic:

It was an idea that we had to try.

Seven teams of Marvel’s most creative contributors crafting an all-new adventure of the Amazing Spider-Man in a round-robin style, with each successive creative team picking up the story from where the previous creators left off.

No road map. No contact. No plan. Just a whole lot of prayer. And then everybody scrambling together in the final chapter to try to bring the whole story together successfully….

The order in which the writers were assigned was random. Nobody knew who else was involved until they recieved the instructions for their chapter—and even then, they only knew who had gone before them.

Each creative team was required to get Spidey out of whatever fix their predecessors had left him in, move the events of the story forward, resolve at least one plot element and end their chapter on a cliffhanger that the next guys would have to cope with.

I can see how this is a fun idea for a writing challenge. But the end result was a truly terrible comic.

[Adam Fisher · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting idea from the writers and artists who have worked on Spider-Man in the past. One author and artist starts the story and the next picks up where they left off and so on. So... we get a story that feels slightly disconnected at times, but overall is compelling enough to keep you reading.
Spidey has a very bad day, including a time lapse of two weeks he can't count for. Werewolves, the High Evolutionary, Spider-Ham (in several forms), and a visit from the voice of himself... this story is definitely interesting.
Though... not exactly what I thought it would be.. still good. Recommend, especially if you need something that is just fun and doesn't require you to know tons about the character.

[Matt · Rating 3 out of 5]

COLLECTS AMAZING SPIDER MAN: FULL CIRCLE ISSUE #1

I like the idea for this way more than I liked the final product. Seven writers teamed up to tell this story, and here was their process:

First, one writer wrote a short section of the story, and left Spider-Man in a precarious spot. The next writer would continue the story, having to figure out a way to get Spidey out of the situation. This continued with each successive writer until during the eighth section of the story, all seven writers worked together to write a conclusion. Plus, each of those eight sections featured a different artist team.

So basically, this whole story is weird.

[Jonathan · Rating 2 out of 5]

A weird little experiment of a book where 8 teams of writers and artists put together a Spider-Man story like a cadavre exquis. It's like an extreme exaggeration of comics' natural tendency to drop plotlines and come up with rushed retcons to try to make sense of whatever some previous writer was cooking up. The story itself ends up being a completely asinine mess with werewolves and time travel and total nonsense. But the back matter with the email chain of all these writers fucking around trying to make an ending out of all this bullshit is itself pretty funny. They definitely had a lot more fun making this stupid comic than I had reading it, and for that I'm happy for them.

[B · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is like DC's Kammandi Challenge but a lot shorter and seemingly less organized. It's supposed to be a Spider-Man story in which the teams pass off the writing duties. High point is when Peter Parker asks a room full of people if they know they're Wolf Men.

But, at the end of the book, we see the creative teams coordinating. That would take a lot of punch out of the bowl.So, which is it?

Most of the book ultimately becomes a mystery about who is the man in the closet. And it seems like the different creative teams gave different answers.

[Kieran Westphal · Rating 1 out of 5]

An absolute waste of my ten dollars, shelf space, and all these writers and artists' time. The kitsch value of having a bunch of creative teams pass off a Spider-Man story to each other every ten pages wears off almost immediately when its clear the story they're telling is utter nonsense and effectively interchangeable with any other comic book character. Don't let this book become a waste of your time, too.

[Nino · Rating 2 out of 5]

They tried putting several pieces together but it just didn’t work for me. Most of the artwork was to be expected from the artists, but the plan didn’t deliver.

This one’s a miss for me and will try to get rid of my copy as soon as it’s convenient.

Better to place your money on something else.

Best part: Chris Bachalo

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

A story written round-robin style, penned by various very creative comic writers and artists? Starring our favorite webslinger? It sounds insane... and it is insane--in the best possible way! If you're looking for a wacky read that manages to include a nice little moral at the end--plus werewolves!--then this will be a fun choice.

[Lobstermannn · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was weird and confusing but still really fun to read. This story is the result of too many ideas jumbled into one. The story did not fully make sense and there was so much going on it was difficult to understand the reason behind any of it. However the art was cool and Spidey was really fun in this.

[Terrance · Rating 4 out of 5]

A spider-tale written in "Exquisite Corpse" style. It's a weird one, but I love the individual executions and how they all carry the story in unique fashion. The Jason Aaron / Kraven the Spider-Pig story made me laugh out loud.

[Danielle · Rating 2 out of 5]

I liked some parts of this, but finishing it made me realize that I really couldn't sum up what just happened. It gets pretty messy and though there were a few sections that stuck out to me, you can tell each part was written without knowing what was going to happen next.

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

A crazy spinning trip of a story that is picked up and carried along by multiple crews of writers and artists who carry it along without telling one another what comes next. It's funny, well told, and visually creative. Great fun!

[Lillian Francis]

Let's be honest, the idea was interesting but ultimately it was just a mess. Hickman obviously confused Spider-man with Deadpool because that character was not Peter Parker.
Some of the art was great, especially Spidey as a wolf.
Read it in MU like I did otherwise don't waste your money.

[Will Cooper · Rating 3 out of 5]

Yeah, you know what, fun enough. Each creator wrote a few pages based on what the story was so far and then they all had to email each other to figure out how to wrap up the book. It wasn't perfect but there were some fun silly stuff in there.

[RND · Rating 2 out of 5]

More fun than I expected. This "exquisite corpse"-style book could've been a trainwreck, but it holds together and the art is mostly terrific.

[michelle+8 · Rating 2 out of 5]

Just... weird.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kind of a writing stunt, setting up a problem for the next team while resolving the problem of the previous team, a condensed down to a single TPB collecting dozens of talented writers and artists.