Bite Size Reviews: 12 Year Old Edition

The first part of the Brand New Day storyline hit this week, and I got my twelve year-old brother to read it. Does the new status-quo work for a twelve year-old? Is a single Peter Parker what a pre-teen wants to read more about? We've replaced his marriage with a life where he lives with his aunt. Let's see if he notices.
Read on for the rest of the post.
I'll start this post off with a little information. My little brother Freddy is 12 years old, and I imagine that he is the audience that Quesada and co are striving to appeal to. This review is in the form of an interview.

Ron : What is the spider-man that you are used to?

Freddy : "The Spider-Man from the movies, coming to class late, webbing people, and having Harry take Mary Jane from him. I [sic] was also used to a lot more crime fighting."

Ron : Lets talk about that last part a bit more, was there enough action in this issue?

Freddy :"No, the only action was when he was chasing after the mugger, and there was no action in that at all. I think it was stupid, because he should have roughed him up. You know, put up his dukes."

Ron : So, for a Spider-Man comic, would you want more Spider-Man and less Peter Parker?

Freddy : "Yes, because Peter Parker is a social outcast and it's a lot better when Spider-Man is beating up everyone. "

Ron : What did you think about the art?

Freddy : "I thought it was a little too 3-d and a [sic] too many shadows everywhere."

Freddy : "What was with that Negative Man, he came in for like 3 pages."

Ron : So far you've said it needed more action, more Spider-Man, less Peter Parker, what else do you think the comic needed?

Freddy : "More villains. More 'funnies', because there was only like one 'funny'. When Peter picked up the phone and said "Santa"?"

Ron : Okay, we've talked about the action, we've talked about Spider-Man, what do you think of the other characters in the book?

Freddy : "I think Harry Osborn's hair was retarded. Lily and Carlie were pointless people, Lily might have purpose because she's Harry Osborn's girlfriend. I don't really see a point in Carly, even though she probably likes Peter, and Peter probably likes her."

Ron: What do you think about Peter living with Aunt May?

Freddy : "I think that Peter is always gonna live with Aunt May, because he will never be able to find a job, because he always has to be Spider-Man."

Ron : Do you like the fact he lives with his aunt and can't keep a job?

Freddy : "Yeah because it's like, if he [Peter] lives by himself, then who's gonna wake him up in the morning and be like 'Heres your muffin, Peter."

Ron : What if I told you, that before this issue, Peter Parker used to be living in the Avengers Tower with Mary Jane, Aunt May and the rest of the Avengers. That he [Peter] had more powers, and organic webshooters? What would you think of that?"

Freddy : "Holy sh--, that's awesome, what happened? Why is he not still in the Avengers Tower?"

Ron : Would you be interested in reading the next issue?

Freddy : "Yes."

Ron : Does the thrice monthly schedule have you more interested in the book than a monthly schedule?

Freddy : "Yeah, because I'm not gonna have to wait."

Ron : Do you know what happened to Mary Jane?

Freddy : "No."

Ron : She might be Jackpot.

Freddy : "I think that she's gonna be a super hero and get more publicity than Spider-Man ever did. Spider-Man's gonna figure out that it's Mary Jane, and then shit is going to go down."

Ron : So, to wrap things up. Spider-Man : Brand New Day. Good or bad?

Freddy : "On a scale of 1-10, 10 being good, 1 being ass, I give it a 7."

Random comments about the issue;

"cover looks gay" "art tries to be realistic" "i like mr negative" "i like how his sword goes szzz" "liked JJJ's face, thought it was funny""think JJJ should have gotten a heart attack long ago"

"isnt he in spider-man 3?"

Ron : It's not connected to the movies.

"it isn't? it should be"

"i think the spider-mugger has super powers" "i don't like the ART. I DONT LIKE THE ART."