Before I start this, I have to say that I'm continually impressed by the quality of Spider-Man stories being released recently. I'll jump straight to the point.

The Story.
It all starts with a bloody Harry Osborn, still alive despite being shot. It remains a mystery why he was not shot in the head, but he was apparently shot in the shoulder. Anyway, as Gabriel Stacy is standing in the shop with the gun in his hand, the American Son appears and and stops Gabriel, who flees the building. Harry is then taken to the hospital by the American Son.

From some short conversation between the American Son and Gabriel, it is implied that they knew one another. At the hospital however, the American Son states that he did not see the shooter. With Harry shot, every paper in NY is dying for a story. Norah Winters disguises as a nurse to get alone with Harry in the hospital.

Seeing Norah there, knowing fully well her intentions, Harry takes her to see his father in prison. Up to this point, Harry has told the press and everyone else that he is unable to remember who shot him. Anyway, he goes to his father to find answers about Gabriel Stacy.

At the prison, Norman behaving extremely insane does not help to give Harry any answers, apart from admitting that Gabriel is indeed his son. While tagging along with Harry, Norah notices that the medicine Harry has been taken is dated from before his gun shot, implying that the medicine is not to help him recover.

In a different scene, Gabriel is seen shouting at an empty American Son suit, complaining that he was not allowed to kill Harry. The scene ends with Norah showing Ben Urich her story, with Harry Osborn beside her as the source for her story about the other Osborn son.


Thoughts
As soon as I finished reading this issue, my mind immediately started wondering who the American Son is and what connection he has to Gabriel.

We know that the American Son costume can only be worn by someone with Osborn blood. Up to this point there is only Norman, Harry, Gabriel and Gabriel's sister (Sarah) who can wield the costume. The last time Sarah was seen, she was pretty much a good person. It's unlikely she would be working with her brother.

Gabriel seems to have a mental problem as well, talking to an empty costume. Could it be that there is a Norman Osborn clone running around the city? Or a Gabriel Stacy clone? One good, one bad? Or could Sarah be using the costume?

This issue was pretty good, yet the outcome of the first story was totally unexpected. In general however, I believe that I will be enjoying this story. The story takes place after Siege, i.e. after Norman Osborn has been taken out. Sometime during Dark Reign, Norman recruited his son to wield the American Son armor. Harry used it to challenge his own father, while saving Spider-Man's life. See Dark Reign: American Son 

The Story
It all starts the night after Norman is taken out. A man in a hood approaches a truck carrying the American Son armor. He pays the truck driver off and takes the armor. At this point, its pretty obvious that it has to be Harry. The next day, Harry is seen at the Coffee Bean outlet he owns. Harry has been having financial problems. The coffee shop is not doing so well either.

The next scene shows some thug threatening innocents in the bus. Soon after, someone in the American Son costume appears and saves the day. The whole scene appears on TV and Norah, the flirtatious girl who was investigating Norman's case during Dark Reign, seems a little confused by it all.

She is next seen at the Harry's Coffee shop. At first Harry is suspicious and tells her to get out. Norah explains that she just wants a cup of coffee and is not here for an interview. All the while, Norah is observing Harry's actions. She concludes that he does not look well enough to be a superhero.

Harry is later seen taking some pills at the back of his shop. Being the son of Norman Osborn, and the only person who can wear the American Son armor, he is being stalked by everyone, everywhere he goes. Harry, goes home to Mary Jane's apartment. MJ herself is getting a little worried about her friend who has been behaving strangely recently.

She then calls Peter and tries to get him to talk to Harry. Peter agrees to do it the next morning. Meanwhile, Harry lies in bed, taking more pills. He congratulates himself saying that he did a good job helping people today.

The next morning an agent in a suit appears. He explains how his partner was mutated into a monster by Norman. This monster was taken out and killed by the American Son in Age of Heroes # 2. Harry denies being a hero. The agent then states that he was not here to talk about his partner's death, but about a theft of three hundred thousand dollars worth of diamonds, which could only be stolen by the American Son.

Annoyed, Harry walks out the shop to the back alley, only to be greeted by Spider-Man. Harry refuses to talk to him as well and goes back into the shop. Sometime later, I assume, a man walks into Harry shop claiming to be Gabriel Stacy - the other son of Norman by Gwen Stacy. He then shoots Harry in the chest.



The second story
The events that take place in this second story occur before the events in the first story. It begins with Spidey wondering to himself how Harry is able to stay so cheerful despite what he has been through. Peter is helping out at the Coffee Bean because it brings back good memories - his days in high school.


Harry has been having problems with paying his rent, along with some other bills. To top it all off, there is a new competitor in town, just across the street. Peter sits with Harry discussing ways to shut their competitor down. Peter comes up with a few ideas which involve some help from their old friends.

Such ideas include:

• Give out flyers at the University
• Get Betty and Norah to write articles about Harry's Coffee Bean shop
• and holding a rally in front of the shop

Of late, characters from the Amazing Spider-Man have been given a chance to run their own mini titles. Some stories so far have been really good - like Anti-Venom for example. While others, in my opinion, aren't that great aka Jackpot.

Regardless, below are two mini stories that I will personally be looking forward to.

In June, we have Amazing Spider-Man Presents: Black Cat


This issue should be really interesting, as I am guessing that Spider-Man and Felicia's fling will more than likely be over by then. Or will it?

With the release of Dark Reign: The List - Amazing Spider-man today, it was only sensible to review the last Norman Osborn/ Spider-man confrontation which took place in Amazing Spider-man 595 - 599 in a series called American Son.

Dark Reign: The list -Spider-man is essentially a spin off from the American Son series. Prior to this series, Harry was dating a girl called Lily, whose father was running for Mayor.

It was later learned that Lily was in fact the unknown goblin resembling villain known as Menace. Peter, already working for the Front Line at the time, wanted to nail Osborn with the press, as will most probably be the plan in The List.








Due to the lack of available legal proof against Osborn, Spider-man resorts to a physical battle and consults Wolverine before doing so. In the meantime, Peter is also having problems with his new 'brother-in-law' to be, Jonah Jameson - the mayor.



Norman Osborn was trying to recruit his son - Harry to join his Dark Avengers. Peter obviously took this opportunity to beat the hell out of Norman, threatening him to leave Harry alone. In the meantime Lily, in her goblin form appears at Harry's apartment and explains that she is pregnant with his son. In order to help find a cure, Harry agrees to join his fathers Avengers.



Without knowledge of Lily being pregnant, Peter approaches his friend trying to convince him not to join the Dark Avengers. Norah, in the meantime has been trying to investigate whatever she can on Norman Osborn and manages to get access to the Avengers tower.

After beating and capturing Mac Gargan, the new venom who has been posing as the Dark Avenger's Spider-man, Spidey uses a special suit designed by the Fantastic Four and guises himself as Venom.

Spider-man learns that Norman plans on making Harry the new Captain America for his Dark Avengers. Eventually Daken smells Spider-man out and the two battle. The fight ends with Harry appearing. Spider-man is then exposed and tortured. Lily in the meantime is permanently turning into the menace, being unable to change back to her normal form, which further stresses Harry.

While Spider-man is not having the best luck, Norah is doing a good job of making her was around the tower.

The Dark Avengers have a hard time getting the costume off of Spider-man - another feature of the suit. However, using some of Tony Stark's technology, Norman was able to solve the problem. At this point, while waiting for the molecules of the suit to 'stabilize,' Norman explains how Lily was pregnant, with his own son. She was simply a tool to get Harry to join the Avengers. At the same time, Harry, who has finally got a cure for Lily, finds out the news himself. (With Norah spying on them).

Full of hate, Spider-man breaks loose and starts a fight. Without his energy however, he begins to fade out quickly. Before Norman can remove Spider-man's mask, he is hit hard by what we later find out is Harry, in the Captain America costume.



The entire issue following features the intense battle between the two. Harry ends it, but is convinced by Peter not to kill him. Killing him would result in finally becoming the son that he always wanted.

Norah returns extremely happy and enthusiastic about writing the story. She then receives an email that changes her decision about writing the story.




There has been no mention of Lily in the ASM comics since the American Son series finished. Dark Reign: The list-Spider-man will continue where this left off in the final battle, for now, between Norman Osborn and Spider-man.

In the past, we have seen a number of different suits that Spider-man has worn, other than his classic red and blue costume.

In this entry, I just decided to run through the different Spider-man suit from the 1960's to 2009.

First, we have the original Spider-man suit, with his little webs under his armpit. I suppose this was supposed to help him fly a little? The colors of the suit, in the Spider-man movie were supposed to represent Mary Jane's red hair and blue eyes.

Does anyone know what inspired this weird costume to start with? I am unsure if there was a comic where he designed the costume.

Of course in the comics, we all know that this was not his inspiration for the costume. Even if it were, Mary Jane has green eyes. Eventually, the little spider-webs we're removed as art progressed, although I occasionally still do see some art with it.




This red and blue suit has, and is the most common Spider-man costume, that Peter Parker will most probably always end up using. Even his daughter, Spider-girl, in the alternate universe uses this same costume. Which to me is ridiculous.













The next costume, used by Spider-man is of course the symbiote costume. This was a very cool costume, that not only changed Spider-man's image, but his personality as well. Even after he got rid of the Symbiote, he still made a similar black costume to swing around in. He eventually put the costume away because his wife - Mary Jane, did not like it as it aroused bad memories.




Spider-man did not wear this costume again until after Civil War, in a series called Back in Black, when he was no longer a registered super hero, but a wanted good guy. After Aunt May was shot, he was out to get revenge- even more a reason for the black costume. He began to slip away from his morals in a way due to his mental distraught .









In the recent American Son series, Mr Fantastic made Spider-man a black suit that to guise himself as Venom, who was part of the dark avengers, pretending to be Spider-man. Confusing isn't it? This suit was made of.. something unreal and extra fantastic. Norman Osborn had the hardest time taking Spidey's mask off.

Here Sue is explaining what the suit is made of - smart cloth




Are the words too small to read? Well, Norman's just saying something extremely scientific. Describing what he thinks the suit is made of.





Anyways, before all this, during Civil War, Iron Man made the coolest suit yet. The Iron-Spdiey suit. This suit was fit with a whole lot of new upgrades. Such included some extra poison legs that come out from his back, and the ability to glide. Although made of iron, the suit was light and flexible like. Eventually, it was destroyed as Spider-man was escaping from Iron man and gang. Read Civil war for that.








Another suit, that Spider-man wears in the future in one designed by some guy. I do not remember completely, but I do remember, in one issue where Spider-man visits a costume designer. He designs a costume for Spider-man and gives him his number to call in case he ever wants it. Later on in the comic, Spider-man goes somewhere in the future, when he is old. He sees his future self wearing the costume designed buy the guy earlier. I absolutely love this costume.




I could not find a better image of the costume online. So here it is. Sweet and Simple. Regardless, here is the latest on a real life Spider-man suit being created. Read the abstract below.

A fully-working prototype of a suit that would enable people to climb walls and sling webs like comic book hero Spider-Man could be just ten years away.

Italian researchers say they have developed a new method for creating a surface-gripping material that mimics "spider silk" and imitates carbon nanotubes.

Read more here.
Hope you enjoyed the entry.

*Edit*

I forgot to add the Captain Universe Suit that Spider-Man uses, or becomes when he was Captain Universe here


See Spider-Man Costumes pt 2