Amazing Spider-Man #18 (2014) + Series Review
The Amazing Spider-Man has one more comic before Secret Wars potentially renders it all moot! Is this the end of Parker Industries? Here’s my review of the Issue #18!
The comic opens with Sanjani getting what she deserved for being a back-stabber, only for Peter to save her in the end. She still whines, and he blames himself for it, so nice to see these staples are still in play even with the upcoming reboot. Still, it’s probably why I liked Otto as much as I did, he didn’t take the blame when it wasn’t his fault.
Anna continues to be best girl by gearing up alongside the former criminal the Peter hired, determined not to be useless like so many other love interests and reaffirming my belief that she was easily the best thing out of the Superior Spider-Man. Again folks, even if there is a reboot, she must make it!
Meanwhile, Peter is talking smack to Ghost about how he’s weak in a fair fight and the moment he turns solid he’s in for a world of hurt. Ghost agrees, so he decides to blow up the building now and ends up burying Peter under some rubble and a steel beam that by all rights he should be able to bench press. Hence the cavalry arrives and nails the douchebag with sonic and fire webbing. Thus the day is saved, and Anna Marie covers his escape by tossing him a bag with civilian clothes.
In the aftermath, they figure out he was hired to do it and guess it was Alchemax, but you can’t exactly prove it now can you? Sanjani continues to be a hypocrite about him keeping secrets, so Anna comes out that they were still working on the nanotech research. He tries to be nice, she’s still a bitch, and the building finishes collapsing and sets them back to before day one.
The comic, at least the part I care about, ends, with Peter trying to cover his ass about how this won’t happen again.
Okay, review time…
Now, I’m not sure if this is the end of the series, but I feel that if it is then this ending is rather placid and not nearly decent enough. It has Peter floundering around, Sanjani is a horrible character and a hypocrite, and the Black Cat interludes are a waste of panels that could have been condensed to a single filler issue. From what I can tell, Peter is back in top form, but I hopped on the spider-train during the Superior and Scarlet Spiders stories and so far they’ve had more interesting tales—granted, they had more issues and more fillers.
The issue as a whole will get a 3 out of 5, but the series did keep me entertained and never pissed me off to the extent of Uncanny X-Men or All-New Ultimates, so the series gets a 3.5 out of 5. It’s worth a read, but if Secret Wars ruins everything then we’ve all been wasting our time.
Amazing Spider-Man #17 Review
Amazing Spider-Man #17 is out now! Here’s my review and recap as we see once more why Anna Marie is best girl!
Okay, it opens with Anna Marie and Peter at Aunt May’s for dinner. She’s still unaware that Doc Ock was riding in his body for a few months, so she believes they’re still together. Peter is once again being flaky on how to broach the topic, so Anna does it for him by saying they’ve split due to work but it’s rather amicable—which is the truth, more-or-less. She then points out that they can get back to their workplace faster by web-swinging and no one would blink an eye since Spider-Man has saved her twice. I like how she cuts through the neurosis and gets to the point.
Meanwhile, Sanjay is once again bitching about how Parker’s project has little profit rather than being a good thing for the city, which Clayton promptly calls her out on. He earns points in my book there. But sadly she goes back to the whining when Anna reveals that he has a secret entrance for his meetings with Spider-Man and they broke up.
At the same time, Ghost is screwing with their security system, kills a guard, and turns their testing equipment on them. Peter, through a combination of Spider-Sense, Anna being best girl and covering for him, and the Living Brain being a shield, he manages get them out and shift into costume. But not before Sanjay tries to take matters into her own hands and fails to reason with the guy sabotaging the place since he isn’t doing it for profit, but because he wants to.
The comic ends with Peter arriving just in time to see her get stabbed. There was also something with Black Cat, but all you need to know is she plans on robbing Aunt May next issue.
Okay, review time…
Yes, I’m bias in thinking Anna Marie is best girl. She was the one thing Otto did that stayed good in the end. Also, Sanjay lost me when she sold out Parker Industries by telling Black Cat how to sabotage the machine with Electro, which could have potentially killed them all or ruined the company. She did so intentionally, just now too, thinking that she’s the only one who can do something—only this time it bit her in the ass.
I don’t even mind the secret project, because I can see where they’re both coming from. Anna Marie still respects and honors Otto’s legacy and work, so she wants to continue. If she talked to Peter, I’m sure he’d agree. Sanjay… well, she only cares about the bottom-line and would be better off working at Alchemax.
5 out of 5.
Amazing Spider-Man #16 Review
Spider-Verse is over, so it’s back to the daily grind for Peter Parker in Amazing Spider-Man #16. Here’s my review of how things are going for the original web-slinger.
The comic opens at the zoo, with a villain known as Iguana commanding a bunch of reptiles to jump Spider-Man. Normally he wouldn’t be struggling so much against a C-lister, but he’s still aching from having his life-force drained and, on top of that, he has a big presentation today. Though it was funny the villain was offended that he was talking on the phone while fighting.
Anna Marie calls and tells him he needs to get there, but Sanjay hijacks the phone and calls him out on not being there for his project and she won’t do the presentation since she doesn’t believe in it (which was made abundantly clear when she helped Black Cat sabotage it in the first place.) To this, Peter goes on a long rant on how these people need the prison.
He goes on about how most people with powers are driven by pain and rage at not being able to control it, and even the worst that are monsters by choice would be so much less dangerous without their powers. They need compassion, understanding, and help. He says all this while kicking the crap out of Iguana, by the way, and tells her he’s on his way now the moment she lets it slip that Alchemax is in line next to get the job. Nobody wants that with how many shady figures are around there.
Liz Allen presents her brother as an example of reformed prisoner, with him cured of his power and now having a steady job, and the guys admit that Ty Stone’s project looks the most promising. Peter shows up just as they finish. He and Liz Allen are fairly friendly compared to their employees.
However, once Liz mentions Peter has a habit of snatching victory from impossible odds, Ty and her brother decided to make arrangements to prevent that. They go to Black Cat’s parlor, her being the new Kingpin and all, and arrange for some guy named Ghost to try and put the company out of business permanently as the comic ends….
Oh, and there’s also a thing with Black Cat wanting back everything she stole and her good luck powers only working when she’s a selfish bitch.
Okay, review time…
Not bad for an introduction to a new arc, but the solicitations lied to me again and that’s annoying. The cover art would have been better saved until the actual infiltration, but what can you do.
3 out of 5.
Amazing Spider-Man #15 (Spider-Verse) Review
The epilogue of Spider-Verse can be found in Amazing Spider-Man #15! How does it end? Read my review and recap!
The story starts with the various spiders going to their home dimensions, the most notable being Mayday. She returns to find out that both her mother and boyfriend didn’t die because her father held out long enough, meaning that she hasn’t lost everything. Even better, he left his outfit behind for her so that she’s now the new Spider-Woman rather that Spider-Girl.
Back at the Master Weaver’s domain, Otto starts cutting away at the Web of Destiny and threatens to unravel all of creation like a madman, though he claims he’s freeing them from destiny. Spider-Gwen and Miguel leave for their own time and dimensions, while the remaining 616-spiders take him down, but not before Otto has a failsafe in place so that even after his memories get scrambled once he goes back to the past and he returns the body to Peter, he’ll be back.
With that out of the way, someone has to replace the Master Weaver. Karn removes the Master Weaver’s helmet to reveal it is an older version of him, meaning that this was destiny. He sets out to repair the web, but can’t send Spider-UK back to his dimension because the incursions ended up destroying it. So he and Anya stay behind to do some good, while Peter goes back feeling like he can be a successful company owner and Kaine ends up hatching from the corpse of his Other form as the comic ends.
Okay, review time.
There isn’t much to say other than it’s a great send off for Spider-Verse. We see everyone home to where they belong, except a few living spiders and the rest who were dead, and the Inheritors are dealt with. Otto and Kaine have set the grounds for their return, and Mayday got her happy ending. It was easily the best crossover I’ve read and I can safely say it was a great story and great read.
5 out of 5 for both the issue, and the crossover. X-Men could learn a thing or two from this.
The Amazing Spider-Man #14 (Spider-Verse Tie-In) Review
This is the climax of Spider-Verse! Read my review on Amazing Spider-Man #14 as we draw this crossover to a close.
It picks up on the streets of Loomworld, where Spider-Woman and Spider-Gwen have to deal with a plethora of goblins from across dimensions. Peter’s group arrives as they wrap things up, but it turns out that the Inheritors made off with Silk, meaning they have all three and can begin the ritual.
With the life-eaters, they are having a moment of bitter sadness as they mourn the death of their father, especially that asshole Daemos. Never thought him to be such a daddy’s boy, but he does take comfort in the fact that Jennix has a crystal that has what amounts to his soul so they can resurrect him once everything is done. Morlun then starts the ritual, ordering the others to stop the spiders from getting in.
His cut into Kaine that stains the Great Web with blood ensures that the Other can no longer find a host, though I can’t tell if Kaine is dead, and Morlun drops hints to Silk being special beyond merely being The Bride. Her blood, however, makes it so that no more Spider Totems are born by accident, like Peter getting bitten by chance. Morlun then moves to kill The Scion, which would stop any more from being born completely, but the Spiders intervene.
Peter takes Morlun, Otto gets Daemos and then Mayday gets her turn looking for vengeance. Uncle Ben appears to run away, and then Karn shows up to fight alongside the Spiders and free every world from their grasp. Morlun realizes it’s a distraction too late, as Uncle Ben had taken The Scion with him and left Spider-Ham in his place.
As beatdown continues, Leopardon arrives with Miguel and Lady Spider, Morlun states they have only delayed the inevitable. Otto agrees and decides to take out the one thing that will ensure their survival. By that, I mean he just murders the goddamn Master Weaver to solve that problem… which means he’s just screwed up the entire fabric of space and time to an extent. That won’t end well, at all.
The battle ends at that point with Peter dumping the Inheritors in the toxic world and telling them to get to the shelter, stating that they should make it. The comic ends there abruptly, with the fallout yet to come.
Okay, review time.
Most of it is done now, and it was decent, but there are questions I still have that will have to be answered in the epilogue in two weeks. But seriously, why the hell did they let the Inheritors live? Daemos would have cleared out the Unlimited Spider-Man’s world if Jennix hadn’t shown up, and even he points out that it doesn’t make sense. Leaving them to die a slow and painful death by starvation may be just desserts, but being quicker about it and simply tearing their heads off make more sense so they don’t return by chance after one of them cannibalizes the other.
Anyway, I still have to say that to this point it was a much better crossover than AXIS or Battle of the Atom. My main regret is that once they pull that Secret Wars bullcrap reboot, most of it will be for nothing. Didn’t Marvel learn from DC and the New 52?
5 out of 5.
Amazing Spider-Man #13 (Spider-Verse Part 5) Review
Amazing Spider-Man #13 (Spider-Verse Part 5) review!
Things are reaching the climax in Spider-Verse and they start with the Inheritors announcing their failure to their father. If you read Scarlet Spiders #3 you know they cannot clone themselves into spare bodies, and Silk has discovered the one world they can’t travel in. What this means is that for the first time they have the advantage, but Solus has no fear since he has the Scion and by tonight there won’t be any left once they complete a ritual.
Back with the group of Spiders, Peter is shocked at seeing that his Uncle Ben was a Spider-Man. But he corrects them by explaining he gave up being Spider-Man, which even Otto finds to make no sense with him being the man who teaches nearly every Peter that with great power comes great responsibility. Ben explains that his version of the Green Goblin killed Peter and Aunt May and it broke him.
Otto calls him out on being a coward, which led to his world being ruined. Ben explains that his version of Otto held the world hostage with nuclear weapons and thus he ruined the entire dimension when it went off early. Our Otto takes that more than a bit hard, but Peter decides to give the clue that Spider-Woman sent back only for none of them to be able to read it, meaning they lost an important players for nothing according to Otto.
Silk takes this hard since she was the one who lost her device and left Spider-Woman stranded and excuses herself to go rescue her. Spider-Gwen follows her, thinking they can go in and out without anyone noticing. Of course, the Spider-Woman tie-in says otherwise.
Meanwhile, the India Spider-Man is still coming to terms with how he feels like one in a million considering all the similar Spider-Men. Spider-UK assures him that each one of them is unique in their own way, much like the members of his Captain Britain Corps. This brings him some comfort right as Otto loses his patience with the scroll and has his computer scan it for any matching languages.
This act leads to Peter pointing out the resemblance to Anna Maria Marconi, which tells Otto that Peter is from the future. This means that he loses in the end, which doesn’t bode well. Before he can make out anything, Anya explains she can read it because of her power and that it’s a prophecy that says that the spiders will end the Inheritors existence in a thousand years, so the only way to stop it is to perform a ritual with the blood of the Other, the Scion, and the Bride.
Much to their horror, both Silk and Kaine are on Loom World. Silk’s rescue attempt ended up getting their device busted again, which makes for like the third time she’s screwed up in this event. Kaine went there for revenge since the attempt to stop the Inheritor clones succeeded at the cost of Ben Reilly’s life. With both of them on Loom world, the Inheritors can smell them and go off to hunt them.
Anya puts together a team to go and get an advantage they can use from the second scroll, while Kaine hulked out on the Other to go kill some of the bastards. Jessica is stuck on Jennix’s world, but Miles ‘ team will go pick her up, and Miguel is working on something in the old Safe Zone and will be there in five or so minutes, so that leaves the rest to deal with the final battle… except for Ben, who doesn’t have it in him.
Kaine, in the meanwhile kills Solus in a single panel like some mook, despite him supposedly being hopped up on Uni-Force. This drives Morlun to the point of rage and he tears one of Kaine’s limbs off and stabs him through the head with it. Whether or not this kills him is unknown, but either way he’s down for the count. Silk and the other two Spider-Women come under fire by the twins and the beast tamer, who brought a bunch of Green Goblins with her.
With rest of them, Peter tries to get Ben to come. But it’s ultimately Otto who gets him back onto his feet, stating he never gave up no matter how great his mistakes, and an easy victory is never rewarding. Peter and I can’t believe it, especially when you consider this is a villain talking, but it does the job and gets him into action.
Now they’re all heading to the final battle as the comic ends.
Okay, review time….
I loved this issue with a burning passion. Nothing was wrong with it. Even Otto got some decent lines and character development. I honestly wish they’d bring him back once this is over.
Anyway, 5 out of 5.
Amazing Man #12 (Spider-verse) review
The new year is here and so are the comics, here’s my Amazing Spider-Man #12 (Spider-verse) review!
The comic open with Morlun having Benjy, the youngest totem ever in any reality, which makes him The Scion. Otto tells them to jump Solarus as this might be their only chance to get him, but this dude is cranked up on cosmic power so that goes poorly. Mayday tries to get her brother back, but Morlun gets away.
Spider-Man UK calls Peter to tell him to get there, and they bring with them a giant robot! As in Power Rangers Megazord robot. While this dude buys them some time, they retreat while Silk ends up in the radioactive world that is the bane of all Inheritors. The nuclear air is toxic to her, but more so to them and she manages to make a hazmat suit out of webbing before moving on.
Peter’s group lands in a random world, and plans to regroup. Otto calls him out, stating his ineptness cost him his base, his absence got their safe zone taken, and his return cost them a giant robot. Mayday, in grief, calls them all fakes and Peter tries to calm her down when the calls come in.
Jessica Drew states she helped Silk escape but can’t jump herself and is Morlun’s serving girl, thinking this is a little convenient while in the presence of the Master Weaver. Miles is on a recruitment kick and thinks that this is insane (and I’m inclined to agree with him given he’s in a sentient spider-buggy), and 2099 is beginning the dissection. Jennix reveals he can hear everything they’re saying then, because while hearing them chatter is amusing they aren’t going to start letting them plan tactics, and sends his sister to get Peter’s group.
With Jessica, the Master Weaver gets her the brief version that he’s the one spinning the web and can only perform small acts of rebellion to help them. He gives her prophecy scrolls that she passes through her warp device to Peter as Morlun returns with Benjy. Back with Peter, Cindy gives them the location of the world she’s on before Jennix cuts her off and then they jump there.
The air is toxic, as mentioned before, but Cindy drew web arrows to guide them to a new Safe Zone. It turns out to be that universe’s bunker that she had been locked in, which is shielded from the Inheritors. That means not only is their location livable, but they can’t be attacked in that world. And there’s one more surprise waiting for them at the shelter as the comic ends: Uncle Ben, that world’s totem.
Okay, review time…
Right out of the gate, this gets a solid 5 out of 5. The plot continues, leading from the fall of one haven to the rise of another, and we see what everyone else is doing. This was the comic of the week, filed with emotion and sacrifice, and just a bit of comedy.
Amazing Spider-Man #11 (Spider-verse)
It’s time for my admittedly-late review of Amazing Spider-Man #11.
Okay, this entry into the Spider-verse event has Otto trying to take over. He believes that the Peter Parker that’s leading the good guys is a younger version of Peter rather than one after he surrendered, because he can’t imagine a world where he gave up. They fight for a few panels, but Peter uses the fact that Otto can’t kill him (because of the previously established misunderstanding) to knock him down. I’d like to point out that, technically speaking, Otto was leading his team better than Peter when it came to the whole matter of the inheritors though.
Meanwhile, of the Inheritors, Karn is still trying to get out of his punishment. His dick of a father has the Master Weaver send him to a harder world while talking with his favored son Morlun. They talk about the three spiders who could get rid of them and decide to go and crush their last hope.
Meanwhile Peter waits until Otto wakes up before telling him that they do need his help because he did hold his own against Morlun and the others. He then does a check up on everyone he can before moving out to make sure that Noir Spider-Man is safe and Spider-Woman sneaks into the Homeworld of the Inheritors while Miles and a younger him go gather more spider-people. That’s when things go bad.
Long story short, Solus and his sons break into Cosmic Spider’s world, kill a few, and only Jennix gets killed (before being respawned). Then Cosmic Spider gets munched on, like we all knew would happen. The comic ends with the fat bastard getting his hands on Mayday’s younger brother, who is The Scion.
Okay, review time…
I found this one to be okay. It moved the story along, Cosmic Spider got munched, like we kind of figured, and we see prompts leading to the tie-in. It was okay, but it could have been better in some ways. 4 out of 5.
Amazing Spider-Man #10 Review (Spiderverse)
Amazing Spider-Man #10 Review (Spiderverse)
Okay, we continue from where we last left off, with Miles Morales being attacked by the crazy lady until Otto shows up with backup and tells them to Spider-Up or die. They follow him, with Miles under the assumption that Otto is Peter since he was wearing the same outfit as the last time he saw him during that colossal failure Cataclysm, but Verna destroys his mother’s grave stone, making it personal for Miles. Him and Mayday have much to discuss.
Meanwhile, at the Safe Zone, British Spider-Man tells him that he’s basically the only one who fought an Inheritor and won. He’s Harry Potter. Silk, on the other hand, is fishing around to see if any of the others give her the warm and tingly feeling like her Peter does, only getting a reaction from Kaine. Anyway, they’ve found where Otto’s group are and jump to them with Silk tagging along after being warned to stay behind. That won’t end well.
They meet up with Peter, Kaine, and Spider-Woman recognizing Otto, while Miguel recognizes that they’re in his timeline. Otto tells them they’ve ruined everything by showing up because the cloaking device he had built couldn’t hide them with both Kaine and Silk there because they give off huge signals. He’s right as Daemos arrives right then looking to go on a feeding frenzy.
They jump him and make him work for it, but Cyborg Spider-Man gets killed. Silk blames herself once they finally take him down, to which Old Man Spider agrees. Otto sees the loss as acceptable since because Kaine did a huge amount of damage and with a stasis charge in his arms he managed to stop the body disintegrating and they can perform science on it. Old Man Spider tells them that he knows what’s going on, but naturally he gets his neck snapped by Daemos as he arrives with his siblings.
Otto is more than a little pissed at losing his kill, but Ben, Kaine, and Jessica realize they can clone themselves to come back as many times as they want and set out to deal with that, Meanwhile Old Man Spider, who is Ezekiel of a different dimension where Morlun killed Peter, reveals that The Scion, The Bride, and The Other are the only spiders that matter and must be protected. My personal thought is Kaine, Miles, and Silk are the three most important totems.
Silk uses this opportunity to take Peter’s teleport device and lure the twins away, with Spider-Woman and Noir following and to be continued in Spider-Woman #1. I’m not covering that, but I’ve read it and to sum it up, Silk’s hero tendencies get Noir taken out of the fight and Spider-Woman’s jaded nature drives her to run away on her own out of guilt again. Miguel and a few others take the corpse to analyze it, with Daemos chasing after them.
With a moment’s reprieve Peter, Otto, and the other survivors return to the Safe Zone and Otto’s decided he’s taking charge with his claws out as the comic ends.
Okay, review time.
Now, this 5 out of 5 right off the bat since everything was great, but reasonably speaking if Otto somehow manages to take out the Peter with the power of a god, asspull.
Amazing Spider-Man #9 (Spider-Verse)
Okay, a lot is going on in Amazing Spider-Man #9 and these are my thoughts on probably the biggest issue yet in the Spider-Verse event.
The comic opens with Peter Parker being called in for work by JJJ, which is the first clue it’s not our Peter. The second is that Morlun gets his hands on him and starts feasting on him while the third is that they live on the moon. We then cut to Morlun’s siblings and the gluttonous one deciding to see what he’s hoarding on the 616-universe.
After that Peter gets woken up by Silk who tells him the solution to their problem when it comes to wanting to make spider-babies is for him to leave since the great web is closing in on him or something cryptic like that. This is further compounded when Mayday, Spider-UK, Anya, Miguel, Jessica Drew (616), and Spider-Ham, show up and tell him the short version that Morlun’s brother it coming. Peter immediately says to get in the damn portal before he shows up.
Kaine is not so lucky as the glutton found him and attacked the New Warriors (they’ll probably make it). He tries to skewer him with his Other powers, but that just makes the glutton want him more until Gwen Stacy, Ben Rilley, and Bruce Banner show up with the Old Man Spider. They get Kaine out but Bruce gets his spine snapped and they have to leave him behind.
All the spiders meet up on Earth-13, a safe zone because the Spider-Man there still has the power of a god and the only reason he hasn’t gone after the Inheritors is because his power is tied to his dimension. Anyway, long story short they need Peter there because he’s supposedly the chosen one. The comic ends in the Ultimate Universe as Jessica Drew (1610) and Miles Morales come under fire by the glutton’s sister.
We then get an epilogue where the head of the Inheritors holds a feast on a number of Spiders, quells his children’s squabbling, and then reveals he knows all connected to the great web after enslaving the Master Weaver before they munch on the collected Spider-Men.
Okay, okay review time.
A lot going on, most of it I like. There are some glaring issues, like the text being wrong and you have to wonder why they would just call out their secret identities in public. But I do like the characterizations of a good number of the spiders and the story is moving.
I give it full marks, 5 out of 5.
Amazing Spider-Man #8 (Edge of Spider-Verse Tie-In) Review
Amazing Spider-Man #8 and the next tie-in to Edge of Spider-Verse are bundled together once again. What are my thoughts on the matter? Read my review and find out!
The comic picks up with Ms. Marvel having a fangasm as she gets to perform the slingshot maneuver and knock down the monster woman. It won’t keep her there for long, so they grab the cocoon and split, but it starts hatching. Meanwhile Cindy Moon is learning the hard way that rent in New York is a bitch, but she can’t stay with Peter since they keep acting like horny teenagers and then gets the Spider-Man treatment in the same way the Daily Bugle does him by the Fact News channel.
Anyway, the cocoon hatches into a baby and Ms. Marvel has to take it and run while Peter holds the Kree off. It goes poorly for both, with Ms. Marvel calling them monsters for shooting at her while she was carrying a baby. In all fairness, I think like half of the Marvel Universe would agree there and so does one of the henchmen, which is why he turns on the other two. They put together that Minerva is doing this without the Kree Empire’s permission and she runs off by him claiming to call them. Oh, and Silk does up her new outfit.
This part of the comic ends with Ms. Marvel getting complimented and then rushing back to school, while Peter gives the henchman a job at his company since he feels for him.
The next part has Spider-Girl from her own series running afoul of an inheritor known as Daemos, who intends to eat Peter, Mayday, and her baby brother. Peter, despite the bum leg, and MJ buy the kids some time to get away as more of the dimension traveling Spider-Men come to save them. Mayday wants them to help her parents, but they can only pick up the kids’ signals meaning that they’re dead. As the comic ends Mayday vows to kill the bastard and he states she’s more than welcome to try.
Okay, review time.
Not much to write about on the Amazing Spider-Man part. It was filler, at best. Padding and not relevant to the current story, so 3 out of 5 on that. The other part though, that was messed up. Mayday was a fan-favorite and Marvel just killed off her father and mother. The fan outrage is going to be a firestorm, but 5 out of 5 for such a short tale.
Amazing Spider-Man #7 (Edge of Spider-Man) Review
Okay, the next Edge of Spider-Verse and Amazing Spider-Man are both in one comic, so I can knock out two reviews in one here!
The comic begins with Peter, Cindy, and Anna Marie sitting in a tree—well, apartment room—with the first two K-I-S-S-I-N-G…. I’ll stop now. But anyway, Anna Marie has to play their babysitter until Cindy splits to find some place to live that doesn’t involve humping Peter, while Anna then tells him to ease up on being Spider-Man.
Meanwhile some people are stealing an Inhuman in its cocoon while wearing an original Ms. Marvel suit. Naturally the new Ms. Marvel can’t have that while Anna compares Peter’s method to Otto’s and suggests he leaves small things to the cops. That backfires the moment he gets wind of the incident with the Inhuman and goes after them.
He arrives just after the new Ms. Marvel gets there and stomps on the fake Ms. Marvel before getting a backhand into Peter, who she fangirls over since he dated the current Captain Marvel. Was that information public?
Either way, the mooks get their crap together while dropping hints how one knows Spider-Man and the imposter Ms. Marvel has basically kidnapped the Inhuman because her powers suck compared to the real Ms. Marvel and they’ve reached a creative dead-end, kind of like Marvel. Anyway, since it ends there after she transforms and I have no intention of reading another series for the conclusion, let’s call it a 3 out of 5, avoidable in the grand scheme of things.
As for the Edge of Spider-Verse part, we come across the British Spider-Man in Otherworld, a sort of hub for all space and time. There he’s watching as Morlun and his family kill off the spiders until one manages to spot him with some tech and he cuts the feed, deciding he needs to tell the other members of the Captain Britain Corps.
Naturally of the two women who are in charge, one of them chews him out about the limited scope of his totem being killed off since all of space and time is collapsing with incursions. Yeah, after Wolverine screwed the time-stream over on top of Beast bringing the O5 that reboot is looking more and more realistic in the aftermath of the Heroic Age. Shame DC did it first, but whatever. It would explain some of the bull that they’ve put out lately…
Uh, back to the story, the other lady believes this may be the source of all their problems and gives him the go ahead to play hero along the multi-verse as the comic ends. In all honesty, this should have been separate from the Amazing Spider-Man since both needed more pages that could be used to flesh out their story, like Spider-UK going out to save a few Spiders like Otto and set up the good team or finishing off the team-up.
But as it is relevant to Spider-verse I give it a 4 out of 5.
Amazing Spider-Man # 6 (2014) Review
So, will the world learn of Spider-Man’s secret identity in issue #6 of the new series? Read my review and find out.
Picking up where the comic ended, JJJ once again tries to expose Peter’s identity to the world instead of doing something to stop it, with everyone in a panic that its’ about to happen….except JJJ stood in the dead center of the shot. Contrived, maybe, but no one was fooled into thinking otherwise. Even though Black Cat gets the mask off, Silk manages to wrap his head before they can get a decent shot and splits with him.
Black Cat then goes to a villain bar to get muscle, but no one really sees her as much since she’s working with Electro, who killed basically half of their numbers when he tried to bust into the prison. Meanwhile Silk and Anna are getting Peter onto his feet as Electo asks Sajani if the device can really cure him when Black Cat arrives. Later on they’re getting ready to prep the device when Black Cat and Electro sneak in while Peter and Silk keep making out in the backseat when she senses something wrong because her spider-sense is better and then suit up, while Anna gets a promotion.
Anna goes to shut the project down and clear the area when Black Cat and Electro get to the machine and she uses it to amp up his power as the web-slinging duo arrive. Black Cat decides to turn Electro into a bomb and its killing him, meaning if he’s really Spider-Man and not Otto, he’d save Electro. Yeah, needless to say he gets right into it and she condemns them both to death before Silk saves them.
In the aftermath Electro is depowered, Silk goes to work for the news company in order to search for her family, Black Cat is back into good graces with the villains and is intent on copying Catwoman on being a new Kingpin (real subtle Marvel), and Sajani arrives to see Anna getting along with Peter. As the comic ends we see that Sajani actually told Black Cat willingly how to destroy the device because it was a bad business model, which doesn’t paint her in a very good light. Then again, she joined up with Otto’s graces…
Okay, review time.
Well, this first arc has been… interesting. The flaws are they’ve basically killed all the character development Black Cat had and they are pushing Silk like an overeager drug-dealer outside a rehabilitation center with a banner stating the first one’s free. I mean come on, we get she’s new and awesome. I even approve of the whole web-shaping abilities and how she can change them, but being faster and better Spider-Sense?
Bull.
Anyway, still loved the rest of it so…4 out of 5.
Amazing Spider-Man (2014) #5 Review
Okay, after that last issue we have a new character in story who’s serving as the love interest of Spider-Man. Where does it go from here? Read my review of Amazing Spider-Man #5 and find out!
The story picks up with Black Cat crashing a secret gambling parlor, where a villain named Eel is getting ready for a meeting. And she’s brought a friend with her, Electro, to steal his thunder. Even Eel thinks he’s too dangerous, but she’s confident he can’t shock her.
Meanwhile, Peter and Cindy are in the process of doing things in public that are highly illegal and they’ve just met. It takes her revealing she knows who he is to dampen those spider-urges and get the blood flowing back to the head that has a brain in it. They both snap the hell out of it and wonder if it’s some kind of primal connection, but she’s fine with it since it’s the first time in years she’s kissed someone.
At the fact channel they’re waiting to do an interview with Sanjani, but she’s been kidnapped by Black Cat. As far as the kidnappings go, it’s not bad. She’s sipping on champagne and eating caviar as they get information out of her as to how they’re trying to cure and contain Electro. Black Cat then takes a stroll in the bad part of town with a couple of others who were outted by Spider-Man with plans to pay him back big time.
Then we finally see Anna Marconi, Otto’s ex-lover, coming into their apartment to see Peter making out with Cindy on the ceiling. Cindy kinda gets territorial, but she’s not in the mood to argue. Instead she tells Peter Sanjani’s gone missing and he needs to get his butt over to the tv station. There he finds and congratulates JJJ for bouncing on his feet and begins the interview about his plans to cure villains like Electro, who may see their powers as a curse, while said villain shows up with Black Cat, and threatens to kill Peter unless Spider-Man shows up in fifteen minutes.
Since Peter can’t just disappear into a costume without a little help, Cindy suits up and buys him time. He and Black Cat get into it, with him claiming his innocence, while Electro and Cindy duke it out, until a stray electric blast nails him. Black Cat then prepares to reveal his identity to the entire world on camera as the comic ends.
Okay review time….
Well, the story is moving along and the art is nice. I find the whole threatening to reveal his secret identity thing kinda pointless because he can make his mask stick to his face with the stick’em powers he’s got, and he really should have packed an insulated suit the moment he first went after Electro.
Still, 5 out of 5 from me!
Amazing Spider-Man #4 Review
Our story begins at Parker Industries, where they are testing an anti-Electro suit when Peter gets the call from the Avengers. He’s thrilled, since it means he’s not on their shit-list anymore, and runs off to explain he was brain-swapped with Doc Ock while Anna Marie tries to cover for him, but Sanjani is having none of it.
While in the battle he gets hit by a barrage of images that basically tell him that Cindy Moon, Silk, not only got bitten and developed powers, but where she is. He pieces together that she was the replacement for him Madam Webb mentioned, not Kaine. Once close enough to the location he can feel her and realizes Ezekiel kept it from him.
She warns him not to free her, because if he does Morlun will come. Morlun… well, he killed Peter. I’m going to gloss over that when you can go to http://arousinggrammar.com/2012/08/01/spider-man-takes-on-morlun-pt-3/ and read that series of articles for yourself to get a summary of the ass-kicking he gave him multiple times. The dude is a monster and she is right to fear him, but Peter believes he’s dead and rips the metal door off its hinges.
This gives up an ominous shot of a figure far, far away, who can smell her presence and is about ready to begin what he calls the Great Hunt. Considering that Kraven fucked up the Spider-Family the last time someone called open season, that’s bad. In this case, I’m betting Spider-verse.
Anyway, Cindy comes out pissed and has greater spider abilities than him. He calms her down by saying Morlun is dead and she does a complete-180. Then she makes her suit out of webbing and they take a swing through the town.
As they do this, Sanjani is about to quit when Black Cat catches her. After all, she needs someone who knows how everything works to tell her about their plans and gadgets. Really, the timing couldn’t have been better.
Peter, in the meantime, finally catches up with her and she learns that her parents are gone from where they lived. She’s upset, he tries to comfort her and makes it worse by revealing that Morlun’s died twice. Since that means he can come back, all her sacrifices were wasted. Then, after a brief spat, we have kissing as the comic ends.
Apparently spider-sense makes you horny. This can only end badly.
Okay, review time.
I was eager for this issue. I really was. It was a good issue, but Silk screams Mary Sue right out the gate. Better powers, attracted to the main character, a soul-bond of some kind. It’s this type of thing that made his last girlfriend, Carlie, a scrappy character. I’m trying to like her, so don’t fuck it up Marvel.
5 out of 5 is my review. You need this issue.
Amazing Spider-Man #3 Comic Review
Hey folk, it’s time for my review of our friendly neighborhood Spider-Man once more as he picks up the pieces of his shattered life in the wake of Otto taking his place for several months. Here’s my take on Amazing Spider-Man #3.
Our comic opens with Cindy, aka Silk, walking on the walls, bored out of her mind as she looks upon a photo of her younger brother, who she hadn’t seen in years. She obviously misses him and wonders just how much of his life she’s missed since she gained her powers. It’s enough to make her break down the steel door of the bunker she’s trapped inside and fish through the keycode combination until an auto-message plays telling her it’s for the best that she remains where she is. Silk concedes for the time being, although she’s clearly not happy being locked in.
Black Cat, on the other hand, is busy reflecting on her circumstances as she robs a penthouse. Thinking about how she lost all the things and respect she had, she muses she needs to make the Spider pay to get them back. Electro, in the meantime, can’t even sleep because his powers have gone out of control and starts a fire in a decrepit apartment complex.
On Peter’s side, his employees are working their asses off to get the Electro-Scanner finished ahead of time because they’ve seen what Otto was like when he was playing the role of Parker and don’t want to be on his bad side. To their confusion, he’s almost chipper and introduces Casual Friday, so they think he’s Bipolar. You can’t blame them.
Sanjay is just as confused, even though she was happy he announced they were done with Spider-Man, as to why they’ve suddenly switched gears. Anna Marie covers for him and decides to help Sanjay finish up Otto’s work because, Super-Villain or not, his brilliance deserves to be passed on. While it is still over her head, she’s got the robot butler of his to help her out.
At the scene of the fire Electro started, MJ’s boyfriend is being a Firefighter and saving lives when Peter arrives. He sends his men to gather data while he dons his costume. Black Cat watches on the News and decides to get on with her revenge while JJ is getting his own T.V. Show.
Peter and MJ’s boyfriend clear the building when Black Cat shows up. He tries to tell her it was Otto, but she doesn’t care. So he takes it a step further by acting like Otto to confuse her until she decides to even the numbers. Peter gets Ollie outside where MJ greets her new boyfriend and Peter states she was right in the best thing he can do is give her a shot at a normal life without him. He then goes back to his men, who Black Cat managed to steal both their wallets and the Electro-Scanner.
As the comic ends she tracks down Electro and decides the two of them need to work together if they’re going to get revenge.
Okay, Review time.
I liked this issue a lot. We got to learn more about Silk, including that she was separated from her family because of her powers. Maybe she was radiated by the spider while Peter wasn’t so they keep her locked up. Or the usual exploitative government thing.
Anna Marie was enthralled with Otto’s brilliance and is intent on seeing it carried on and she’s living up to the promise of helping Peter. I love this woman. Please don’t turn her into the next Doc Ock Marvel.
Anyway, 5 out of 5.
The Amazing Spider-Man #2 Comic Review
Well, the re-launch of Peter Parker’s story has started off strong, but can it keep its momentum? Find out in my review of The Amazing Spider-Man #2!
The comic begins with a young woman in a closed room watching videos of old spider-man fights to study his moves. Since she’s capable of using natural webbing like Ultimate Jessica Drew, it’s safe to assume she’s Silk. She even knows his secret identity, which doesn’t make sense if she was affected by the same spell that put up a psychic blind-spot, but maybe after he broke the spell she recalled someone else being bitten and put two and two together again.
Then we go back to where it left off last issue, with Anna asking why Peter didn’t tell her he was Spider-Man. In what must be the smartest thing that I’ve seen when it comes to secret identities, he comes clean about the situation with Doc Ock. She… takes it better than I expected, mainly by closing up her emotions and diving into cooking to think about everything logically. Peter wonders just how far Otto has screwed up his life once more as he gets a call from the Avengers stating they need to talk.
With Electro, he goes to lay low with a woman who seems infatuated with him. He explains that since he accidentally destroyed the prison while trying to spring the other bad guys none of them want to help him out and that his powers were screwed up. She likes the danger, so she’s probably one of those monster fan-girls you hear about.
At the Avengers Tower Peter explains once more that he was possessed by Otto, who changed his web formula so he has to wear pants out since his webbing underwear still won’t come off and he has to pee. And he brought cookies, which are the best thing they’ve apparently tasted. The medical scan comes clean and things seem to look up until Captain America reveals he knew Flash had Venom, which Peter was offended at finding out last since Flash is someone close to him and Venom is like a jilted ex-girlfriend with yandere tendencies.
As much as I like Captain America getting knocked around he does state that Flash had a secret identity like him and fair is fair. He also states he understands what it’s like to wake up and find the world’s changed so much and he’s trusting Peter to watch over the place while they go deal with the prison break and to get rid of those baggy pants. When he goes back to his lab to do that he finds that their rollout project’s glitch has gotten worse and since he’s not an expert in cybernetics like Otto was he begs for help inside his head.
Cue Anna coming in and making me realize why I like her so much.
She gets some privacy with Peter by lying about being pregnant, at least I’m hoping she was lying, and explains that she understands the cybernetics since Otto explained it to her so many times and can teach him since that was her last job as a T.A. before she left it to work with them. Then, after Electro accidentally kills the girl when she kisses him despite his warnings, she tells him where the dissolvent for the web fluid is and she’d cover for him, as well as getting to be his roommate until she can find a place of her own.
She earned that raise alright. Best character to come out of Superior Spider-Man barring Otto himself.
Peter goes out to confront Electro and learn once more that Otto has screwed him over by experimenting with Electro’s powers. He’s not the only one who’s been screwed over as we learn that the Human Torch is depowered at the moment in the audience and Black Cat is next to him and used her luck powers to stop Electro from being shorted out as repayment for freeing her from the prison.
Peter meets up with Johnny Storm later on and learns that Iron Man spread the word about him being Doc Ock for a time and they make up. Their time together even gives Peter an idea on how to use his newly founded company, namely building a new super-prison and depowering Electro as the comic ends.
Okay, review time.
Well, I liked the issue a lot. While I would prefer Peter ask why the hell it took so long for them to figure out Doc Ock was inside his body, he pretty much got word around to most people in the Avengers line. But he’s still dealing with the fallout in the form of Electro and Black Cat, who probably won’t care. Most of all, I like how Anna is dealing with this rationally despite how damn much it must hurt.
5 out of 5 folks. Buy it.
Amazing Spider-Man (2014) #1 Review
After taking his body back from Doc-Ock Peter Parker now has to pick up the pieces of his life in the aftermath of the Superior Spider-Man. Read on about my review of the first issue in the relaunch of the Amazing Spider-Man!
The comic opens to a flash-back of that faithful day when he was bitten by a radioactive spider. Only this time it reveals that before it died it managed to bite someone else. Meaning that all this time there was someone else with Spider-Man’s powers but not active in the series…so we’re just going to pretend they didn’t copy this idea off Miles Morales for Silk, huh?
In the present we have the animal-themed cosplayers stealing jeweled eggs. One of the bystanders who just moved here wonders if it’s an event when he nearly gets pushed over and his baby almost crushed. Luckily he gets a web-line to pull him upright as Peter is on the case, chasing them down while naked with the exception of his mask and webbing-underwear, much to chagrin of everyone (with the exception of one woman who takes a photo for later). How did he end up in this state?
It started four hours ago when he held a press conference announcing that he’ll no longer work for Spider-Man (technically speaking it isn’t a lie since he’ll be making it for himself) and Peter is over his head with all this. He just learned he’s the owner of a company, his aunt doesn’t need some cane to walk again (which he states he’ll owe Doc Ock for), and he’s just unfortunate enough that Anna Maria found the wedding ring and note asking her to marry him. Yeah, this won’t end well.
Technically speaking he’s probably going to run the company into the ground since Otto was a genius in cybernetics and he gets confused looking at their big rollout project. Considering that he has more people who depend on him now, and these poor bastards are terrified of him at that, this a different set of responsibilities to go with his robot butler and doctor degree. He quickly decides to get back to something familiar, namely patrolling New York where he’s hated and feared by many.
It’s here he runs into the rabbit woman and her new flunky, Skein, who can control fabrics and threads. Before she could turn them into some kind of deadly weapon or whatever she was going to say he knocks her out since he’s got a secret identity to protect. Unfortunately he ends up nude and has to cover his privates in webbing in public, meaning this gets put on twitter and everyone sees it.
The Avengers figure he’s back to normal since only this could happen to him, Johnny Storm laughs his ass off, and Mary Jane is probably glad she broke up with him now. The humiliation continues after he rounds up his last bad guy and gets told off by an old lady about public indecency.
He makes his way back home to find Anna Maria there. And guess what, she knows he’s Spider-Man because Otto was getting busy with her while in his body. And the main comic ends there on a damn cliff-hanger.
Following it are a series of short stories involving the Black Cat, Electro. Kaine, and Miguel O’Hara. It shows how they’re going to be involved in the story and what they’ve been up to since Otto’s gone.
Electro was tired of being a joke and decided to try and free the inmates from prison to gain some respect. He lost control and killed a good portion of them before blacking out, due to what he believes is the modifications Otto made to control him in the Superior Spider-Man Team-Up series. Cue revenge planning.
Likewise Felicia Hardy, the Black Cat, was arrested and beaten by Otto. She lost everything because of him and is constantly verbal harassed by an inmate who clearly intends to do her harm. Apparently the lady didn’t also know that her powers involved luck and pissing her off makes you unlucky. She learned this as Electro’s attack fried the power dampeners and then her, while Felicia escapes unharmed and is going to fuck Peter over pretty bad next issue.
Meanwhile Miguel O’Hara, Spider-Man 2099 is making himself home and doing the hero-thing when he comes across a young woman about to get capped. He makes short work of the assailants, but learns that the population of the Marvel universe in this decade is ungrateful as she berates him. Gee, you think she wanted to die (foreshadowing, anyone?) but that’ll have to be picked up in his on ongoing series in two months.
We then go down to Huston Texas, where Peter is searching for his clone brother Kaine. The woman he interviewed describes that he transformed into a spider-monster, which Peter notes is because of The Other. If you read then you know he got killed off by some Werewolves and came back because he made a deal with it….seriously, go read the Scarlet Spider series.
Doctor Meland approaches Peter and pegs him immediately as Kaine’s brother and tells Peter how Kaine was in pain and anger about never stacking up to him and tells him to ask around about him. Peter learned Kaine came down there to get away from the life of a spider, only to fight crime. He wanted the power but none of the responsibility, but he took it on anyway. He had friends, a city that counted on him, and was as much a hero as Peter was. It ends with a shot of Kaine fighting alongside all the other New Warriors against the evolutionaries which hasn’t happened yet in their series.
Then there’s some alternate reality thing that I lost interest in, and thus will gloss over, and the comic ends.
Okay, review time.
Since I really only started reviewing and reading spider-man when Otto took over I find that this relaunch is right up my alley for the most part. It’s picking up right where superior left off, but that also means if someone skipped the series they are going to be confused about what transpired. Peter is realistically screwed over and has so many responsibilities now because he doesn’t have Otto’s level of genius in that particular field and the enemies Otto made.
People seem to notice he’s not the same as he was for the last few months, but it should still be addressed by him telling the Avengers Otto was wearing him as a meat suit for a few months and then asks why it took them that long to put two and two together. I mean, really? Months? As much as I loved the series it shouldn’t have gotten that far if the Idiot Ball wasn’t being passed around.
For the most part my main concern is Anna. The man she loved is gone, and I am fond of her. How is he going to explain all of this without coming off as an asshole (technically he was the victim, but he has a shoddy record when it comes to explanations)? And since she knows his secret identity, will the writers go the route of Carlie and MJ and have her leave the stage or will they pull a Gwen Stacy to make Black Cat unredeemable?
On another note, I can’t wait until Spider-Verse comes into play. Miles Morales in 616, all is right with the world unless Marvel somehow screws it up.
Issue gets a 5 out of 5 and is a must buy.
Twilit Dreams Circle 