So basically, "Brand New Day" is a mid-reboot of sorts. Peter Parker is back where most people remember him. He's still a photographer. He's actually funny. He carries the weight of the world. He also has a large cast with lots of friends and foes for the personal life of Peter Parker.
The thing that the Spider-Man titles were begging to lose was the conflict of Pete keeping his life as Peter Parker and his life as Spider-Man separate. With Mary Jane, Aunt May, and everyone on Earth knowing who Spider-Man was, there was no longer that separation that brought about those fun situations where he had to worry about keeping his secret.
There's also the generous deal that Marvel has put forward with Amazing Spider-Man. It's not even $1.50 an issue.
The art is sublime. The artists change often, usually only working on spells of 3 issues at a time, but they often return after a short break. Phil Jimenez is the most notable, having done beautiful work on a little thing known as Infinite Crisis.
The writing...is good. Really good. Far better than it has been during Straczynski run.
Straczynski was creative and wrote Pete and Mary Jane's relationship well, but I still felt he lacked a core understanding of the character. He wrote for six and a half years and it got weird at times. Still, he did write some gems too.
Spider-Man did need a change. He needed to be funny again. He needed a big cast again. So I bet you know what my verdict is, right?
Don't buy this book.
Now there's a curveball. This is a great book by itself but when you put it into context...
They still completely slapped all of their fans in the face. Twenty years worth of stories feel like they don't even matter anymore. This is like the perfect example of how comic book characters can never evolve and become something more.
Joe Quesada is a selfish man. He'd been wanting this change for years. He wanted Peter and Mary Jane to be split up. He wanted the comics to be like they were. He wasn't right. He just happened to cause good stories to happen but it was the entirely wrong path for getting there.
There will be a time when I think people should start buying Amazing Spider-Man. They don't even have to change their retcon. The characters in Spider-Man just need to realize something is wrong. And Peter needs to remember. What has worked over at DC with Infinite Crisis can work here. Let the characters know what he reader knows; things are not the way they should be. There have been hints that this might be the case, even though it looks more like Mary Jane knows and Peter doesn't (which I think should be the other way around). They need to have the characters address the weirdness of this change.
Until that happens, boycott this thing.
