Amazing Spider-Man: Family Business

I give this comic 3-stars because it didn't 'wow' me or make me feel anything special for this. But with that said, the story is okay, your run-of-the-mill spy thriller with a good mystery, that happens to have Spider-Man/Peter Parker along for the ride. And the artwork is amazingly good! Everything and everyone has this special style to it that makes it feel dirty, yet clean at the same time. The action is okay, though nothing special. The characters are serviceable, though a bit cliched and stereotyped. What ultimately makes me like this comic is that it's pretty much 'Laura Croft meets James Bond meets Spider-Man' and is a fun time to read, though I don't see myself re-reading this anytime soon.My negatives are more towards how short this story feels, the underdeveloped characters and storylines, and the overdone 'deus ex machina' by the end. Plus, (a bit of a SPOILER but the summary gives it away anyway) there is a stupid 'not-going-all-the-way' through with the sister plot device (you'll see what I mean once you've read the comic).Overall, I do recommend this if you're interested.

Kingpin is an iconic villain because he is at his best when he's being bad, and in "Family Business", Mr. Fisk is being a very bad boy, indeed. I rank this in the Top Three Kingpin stories, right next to "Severance Package" by Greg Rucka and Eduardo Risso from Spider-Man Tangled Web #4 and "Daredevil: Love and War" by Frank Miller and Bill Sienkiewicz. This story plays out like the Black Widow movie that Marvel Studios should make with Scarlet Johansson, or the fourth Spider-Man movie they should have made with Tobey Maguire, because it's fresh, it's taut, and it has real emotion grounding several big action scenes. The fully painted artwork by Gabrielle D'Otto is easily his best storytelling yet, while Mark Waid and James Robinson (two dudes with plenty of experience playing well with others) work seamlessly to produce a watertight script. I have ruefully noticed lately that Marvel has replaced her biggest heroes with new fangled civilian identities, and seeing Peter Parker as our friendly neighborhood Spider-Man made me fall in love with this web-slinger all over again!

This graphic novel gives us a great story with Peter Parker suddenly finding himself the target of a massive manhunt for no apparent reason. Rather than save himself, Peter is rescued by a woman claiming to be his sister. Fans of the Parker years (even those years massacred by the reboot of "One More Day") know that Peter never had any siblings, so the premise seems like it might lend itself to some non-canon fantasy tale. Instead, Mark Waid does a great job of letting the characters work together while bringing it all to a satisfying (and somewhat safe) conclusion.Kingpin is here and up to no good. We find out that Peter's secret agent father had a bad habit of cracking jokes during battle, which explains a lot about our web-slinger's own personality quirk. The Parker's secret past is given a little more back story, and Theresa (Peter's sister) is just about as cool a character as any introduced in years. The artwork here is very good, with a painted look a lot like Alex Ross is known for.As a stand alone tale, it's great. It's a very nice visit from Peter while we patiently await his return to the Marvel Universe in his own title soon. Waid perfectly captures Spidey's personality while giving us some great action and a compelling story.

Good story - the art, writing, plot, characterization. But a little overhyped. It’s not “the greatest Spidey story that you MUST read” especially because (SPOILER below)-----the ending kind of leaves everything unchanged.

When they announced they were giving Peter Parker a sister, I was worried. After some of the retcons over the last ten to fifteen years in Spider-Man's history, they've given me little reason to trust them. But I picked this up on a whim because I wanted some actual Spider-Man comics, and I was pleasantly surprised.As I began to read I became more and more into the book, its writing was solid, its action was good, its art was beautiful. I checked my prejudice against the idea at the door and decided to just see if they could make it work. And for a while they nailed it perfectly, delivering an excellent Spider-Man story.Unfortunately, I had to pump the brakes on my hype train after about the halfway point. After a truly great fight scene they start to solve the mystery and it starts to trip up a little bit. It never gets bad, it's always a good solid read, but it can't maintain the awesomeness of the first part.If you like Spider-Man, you should like this. Maybe you'll even love it. But it's a solid read that's great to look at, a worthy addition to any Spider-fan's library.

What legacy does a father leave for his son. Peter knows very little about his parents, but he did know they were spies. Now he is faced with abductions, assailants and a girl claiming to be his sister. Peter enters the world of espionage like scenarios all while wondering who this girl who claims to be his younger sister leads him on a mission for several truths.Oh yeah... and the Kingpin of Crime is involved too!Great story, brilliant art, and an epilogue few will believe until it is seen.

I enjoyed the story although it was a little short. I'm a casual comic book reader and not someone who understands the nuances of different styles of artwork. I do think that the artwork in this is different than most but I did enjoy it. The best thing about the book is that it's a complete story and not disjointed like some books that pull from multiple issues.

This is the second time I read this book and I'm happy that I got it for my Kindle! Robinson and Waid did a great job putting this story together. The artwork is amazing! It was like I was watching a Spider-Man special while reading it. To my fellow Spidey fans, this is one book I recommend you getting for your Spider-Man collection.

This is the second of the circa 2014 Marvel OGN releases, following the disappointing "Avengers: Endless Wartime" - and it is frankly a much better effort than its predecessor.Although the first run of Superior Spider-Man was being released at around this time, we're dealing here (as far as we can tell) with the 'actual' Peter Parker Spidey, unbothered by Doc Ock's occupying consciousness. The book wastes no time whatsoever: we're straight into the action as Peter is almost kidnapped by mysterious assailants, and is rescued by a woman claiming to be Teresa Parker ... his long-lost sister.At this point in Marvel history we see this a lot - Thor gets a sister in Angela, Iron Man's parentage is retconned, Spidey meets up with Silk. Dan Slott himself writes in the foreword to this edition that it can be tough for writers to find a new spin (sorry) on the wall crawler; rather than re-hash past storylines, writers reach back to try and incorporate themselves into the characters' narratives. Sometimes it's ham-fisted; sometimes it works.This one mostly works. Mark Waid and James Robinson create a Teresa who obviously shares a lot of Parker traits, and it's a believable entry into Peter's life. Given the format of the one-shot, oversized graphic novel, we're still cramming a lot in here - we're asked to accept Teresa; Peter's initial disbelief, then hope, then realisation; and still care about what happens to her and how the story ends. Happily, there is a loose end here which teases more (and is indeed picked up in 2017's Spectacular Spider-Man run); but it does still feel quite compressed.Kingpin and Mentallo are the villains, alongside another hardy perennial from Captain America's past; but almost all characters aside, the real star of this enterprise is Gabriele Dell'Otto. Some of the art here is nothing less than stunning - especially Spidey's confrontation with Cyclone in a casino, with page after page of gloriously painted work which occasionally put me in mind of The Marvels Project. The perspective switches from the terrified onlooker gazing up at the confrontation, to Cyclone himself watching as Spidey swings towards him. It's fabulous. Dell'Otto handles several changes in locale - the casino, an ambush in the snow, Peter's parents' secret bunker, underground Cairo - deftly and beautifully. It climaxes in Peter's confrontation with the aforementioned giant threat from Cap's past, and some art that's so good it's a struggle not to want to frame it.The narrative and dialogue here is whip-sharp and you will speed through this pretty quickly. But it's worth going back and flipping through again just to appreciate the artistry - and for a quick reminder of how you can add fresh layers to a longstanding character's continuity without it grating. Worth a look.

Great read. The art makes it more enjoyable.

A fabulous read from start to finish with amazing art work, highly recommended

The art style is fantastic and the story is captivating. My only complaint is that it isn't longer!!!

wonderful art by Italian artists G. Dell'Otto and W. Dell'Edera. the story arc by Waid is built to help those artists show their skills with huge panels and vivid colors and representations. worth the money!