Amazing Spider-Man 38
PLOT: Aunt May confronts Peter about her discovery that he is Spider-Man.
LIKES: This issue strikes all the right chords. The sequence of Peter imagining the different possibilities of what May wants to talk about is great. Their talk, which takes up practically the whole issue, is a classic. It rings true emotionally. May’s focusing more on the fact that Peter has lied to her over a long period of time than on the fact of him being Spider-Man forces him to come clean. Her show of strenght also allows Peter to admit the truth. Their swapping stories about Uncle Ben’s murder is particularly powerful. In this one issue JMS has made May a more substantial and rounded character than at any time in the nearly 40 years of Spider-Man.
DISLIKES: Although it does get a slight mention I think Spider-Man’s bad reputation and May’s life long fear of him should have been a bigger point of eontention during their talk. Is JMS relying on an origin other than Lee and Ditko’s? In Spider-Man Vol. 1, No. 1(not Amazing Fantasy 15, I checked) Ben is clearly shot in the house in view of May. Here May says he went for a walk and was killed.
RATING: 4 of 5 webheads: 1 point is lost for glossing over Spider-Man’s image as a quasi-criminal and for the twist from the original origin. Otherwise a very strong issue.
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on Craig’s Critique: Amazing Spider-Man #1000 (Non-Legacy #36): “Ravaged” or “Well, At Least We Have These Backups”: “@Paul Penna: “My guess, is that Cormac accidentally used his powers on his mother, accidentally erasing her memories when his…” Oct 7, 11:04- on Spider-Variants of the Week 10/7/26: “This thing may have more variants than ASM #1000.” Oct 6, 18:48
- on Craig’s Critique: Amazing Spider-Man #1000 (Non-Legacy #36): “Ravaged” or “Well, At Least We Have These Backups”: “My guess, is that Cormac accidentally used his powers on his mother, accidentally erasing her memories when his powers first…” Oct 6, 11:27
- on Craig’s Critique: Amazing Spider-Man #1000 (Non-Legacy #36): “Ravaged” or “Well, At Least We Have These Backups”: “@Paul Penna: I wouldn’t say I was liking Cormac before the Ravage reveal but his character was … “ok”. I…” Oct 4, 08:59
- on Craig’s Critique: Amazing Spider-Man #1000 (Non-Legacy #36): “Ravaged” or “Well, At Least We Have These Backups”: “I’m surprised by how much I enjoyed Cormac Crane/Ravage. The story is well written, his powers are interesting and he…” Oct 3, 16:27
- on Craig’s Critique: Amazing Spider-Man #1000 (Non-Legacy #36): “Ravaged” or “Well, At Least We Have These Backups”: “@Big John: Yeah, an annual is a good comparison. Annuals used to have one big story and 1-2 backups, and…” Oct 2, 22:20
- on Craig’s Critique: Amazing Spider-Man #1000 (Non-Legacy #36): “Ravaged” or “Well, At Least We Have These Backups”: “This was a glorified Annual with A-List talent on the back-ups. And you know, if it was “only” an Annual,…” Oct 2, 18:09
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