Peter ghosts Aunt May! Spidey and Luke Cage work out together! Aunt May tells Peter “You’ll always be my baby”(1). Glitch, Raelith the Wretched, and Symbie still exist! Ghost-Spider goes on a rampage! Damage Control try to take her into custody but Spidey takes responsibility for her! All of this, plus … Aunt May has another brush with death?(2)
(Why is Gwen’s mask black and has one eye showing? She doesn’t wear a jacket or sneakers. Her arms don’t have a webbed pattern. Who is this?)
CREDITS
Writer: Joe Kelly
Artist: Francesco Manna
Color Artist: David Curiel(3)
Letterer: vc’s Joe Caramagna
PREVIOUSLY IN AMAZING SPIDER-MAN …
Peter makes Aunt May burnt wheatcakes while Cousin Cormac sends her flowers. Spidey works with Agent Griffyn and (definitely not evil) Damage Control to fight Electro. Raelith the Wretched seems negatively affected by her encounter with RX (remember that for later). Robbie tells Spidey that Cormac’s ancestors and family were terrible people but Cormac seems to be a saint. Spidey tells Robbie that Cormac is May Parker’s son, and since Robbie is taking stupid pills, he doesn’t put two and two together and realize that Peter is Spider-Man. Peter mopes about how May has a great son now and doesn’t need him.
SUMMARY
Over the past two weeks we see Peter has avoided spending time with May (and Cormac) by helping Agent Griffyn and Damage Control take down criminals (including Slyde).
(Spidey and Agent Griffyn look like BFFs here. I’m sure nothing will happen to change this by the end of the issue.)
At Gracie Mansion, Spidey is helping (Mayor) Luke Cage work out while they discuss Damage Control. Cage decides to increase their budget based on Spidey’s opinion of them.
At Peter’s apartment, Peter is in his costume hanging out with Glitch, Raelith the Wretched, and (yes) Symbie, when Aunt May shows up. Peter is suddenly in civilian clothes in a normal-looking apartment as Aunt May confronts Peter about him pulling away from her. He admits that since Cormac is her real son, “the son she always wanted” he’s just letting him be that for her. Aunt May tells Peter that Cormac could never replace him, and that she’s not going anywhere.
(I’m not crying, you’re crying!)
Aunt May leaves, revealing that Glitch used his abilities (and some holoprojectors) to hide Peter’s costume and all of them from Aunt May. Raelith the Wretched is touched by Aunt May’s sweetness as Peter prepares to go to dinner with Aunt May and Cormac.
While on his way to dinner, Spider-Man is contacted by Agent Griffyn who tells him that someone is causing some destruction. Spidey arrives and is surprised to see it is Ghost-Spider.
(Ghost-Spider’s reaction when she found out her book was cancelled so she could appear in Spider-Versity.)
Ghost-Spider is screaming and mindlessly attacks Spidey, but she comes to her senses, not sure what is going on, and afraid that she caused the destruction around them. As explosions go off, they keep a building from collapsing until everyone can get out. And then Damage Control arrives.
Ghost-Spider is worried that she caused this destruction and doesn’t know how or why. Spidey tells her they’ll figure it out, but Damage Control say they’re taking her into their custody.
(Wait, it turns out they were bad guys all along? I am shocked, shocked!)
Spidey refuses to let Damage Control take Gwen. Miles Morales, Silk and Arana show up, and there is a stand-off. The three of them take Ghost-Spider to see Norman, while Agent Griffyn tells Damage Control to stand down, but that Ghost-Spider is a “unhinged extra-human” on the loose, and this is “strike one” for Spidey.
Spidey keeps getting phone calls from Aunt May during this exchange, which he declines, while trying to convince Agent Griffyn that Ghost-Spider is not a threat. But when the calls don’t stop, Spidey takes the call, thinking it’s Aunt May calling about dinner, but it’s Big Ric saying that May is at the hospital and she’s had a stroke.
(Did Kelly pull this from a hat containing “generic issue-ending plot twists” ideas?)
TO BE CONTINUED!
INITIAL RESPONSE
Well, it’s the penultimate issue right before issue #1000. I don’t know if it’s fair, but it’s hard not to compare these past few issues with the issues right before previous ASM centennial issues. We’ve had ones that have built up a long-running plot culminating in the big issue, and others that have just started a brand new story in the centennial issue (or the last page of the previous issue ). This here seems to be the latter. And unlike previous times when that was done with enough of a cliffhanger(4), this issue is the definition of “underwhelming”. While there’s some nice character stuff here, it’s mostly a lot of unconnected, low-stakes nothing (besides the stroke). *This* is what they choose to give us in the issues leading up to #1000? Who is reading these issues – especially this last page – and saying “Wow, I have no idea what’s going to happen, I *have* to read the next issue!”?
WHAT I LIKED
The Peter/Aunt May scenes are great. Instead of having characters not say what they are actually feeling to create conflict, Peter actually tells her how he’s really feeling with the whole Cormac situation. And Aunt May explains to him how he will always be her son. Characters being honest with each other? Crazy, I know!
(Like Peter, I also have something in my eye.)
It’s nice to see Spidey and Luke Cage hang out, and his decision to increase Damage Control’s funding seems to be (mostly) based on Spidey’s opinion of them, showing how much Cage respects Spidey.
(Do most superheroes lift weights while wearing a collared shirt, vest and pants?)
The art is nice.
Hmm … this section didn’t take as long to write as it normally does.
WHAT I DIDN’T LIKE
He’s not in the issue but I have to (once again) talk about Cormac. Kelly jumped through hoops to introduce this character, and yet he has not appeared for the past two issues. All we have is other characters talking about him, or seeing things that they are doing.
(Just replace “Poochie” with “Cormac” in this image.)
This reminds me of how previous ASM stories jumped through similar hoops to bring characters back from the dead (Kraven, Harry Osborn) and once they were brought back, nothing was done with them. They just disappeared into the background, making all the work to bring them back pointless. Is this happening with Cormac? I assume he’ll have a big presence next issue when May is in the hospital, but it just feels like we went through all this work to introduce and establish this new character to upend the status quo, and once that happened, nothing is being done with them.
(Artist’s rendition of the missing Cormac Crane.)
Big Ric once again establishes that his only point in this book is to not like Peter. Do we know *anything* else about this character? Nathan Lubensky was a previous boyfriend of Aunt May and there were times when he didn’t like Peter, but we knew so much about him. He was an actual character in the book. Big Ric is just … nothing.
(I can’t believe this current run has gotten me to miss Nathan Lubensky.)
Seeing Luke Cage easily lift two cars and Spidey have to struggle – it’s probably to remind us how strong Cage is, but it really just points out that Cage is stronger than Spidey, which has not been true in the past. I remember an ASM annual that said that Spidey could lift 10 tons and only Thor, Hulk and The Thing were physically stronger than him (yes, that was in the 1960s, before Cage had been created). Even Google AI says that Cage could only lift 3-5 tons in the 1970s but modern comics now have him lifting 25 tons.
(I loved when annuals would do stuff like this.)
Glitch, Raelith the Wretched, and Symbie – I have nothing new to say about them here, just repeating that they are a waste of space and completely out of place in this book, adding nothing to the issue.
Actually, I *do* have something new to say about Raelith the Wretched! Remember how she took a hit from RX a couple of issues ago, and last issue she was still affected by that and was doing nothing besides working out for 2 days, barely acknowledging anyone’s presence, especially Peter’s?
(“When a woman says nothing’s wrong, that means everything’s wrong.” – Homer Simpson)
Apparently Kelly doesn’t remember this either, since, with no explanation, she is now back to her “Hey, everything on Earth fascinates me and you are my favorite person, Peter” persona.
(“Hey, I’m a cute alien woman who doesn’t understand normal human things like circuses. Isn’t that adorable?”)
Ghost-Spider running amok – are we supposed to know what’s going on here? I skimmed Spider-Versity and I don’t think this is anything from that book. This feels like it should be part of a story that was setup many issues ago if it’s something that’s going to come to a head in issue #1000. But the way it happens here, it just feels like it comes out of nowhere and has nothing to do with ASM – if you told me this was a side-effect from some event happening in another book, I’d believe that.
Oh, Damage Control, you turned out to be evil after all. Or if not *evil* then *not willing to give the benefit of the doubt to established superheroes”. Who saw this coming? The answer, of course, is everyone (even if you didn’t already see Spider-Man Brand New Day)(5).
Also, Damage Control – especially Agent Griffyn – feels like a completely different group here than from the previous issues where they were friendly with Spidey, working with him, trusted him, appreciated his help, etc. But here it’s like they’re all “We don’t trust you at all, you’re not our friend, we’re locking up superheroes now, get out of our way”.
Aunt May has had a stroke. I said it already, but THIS is they big cliffhanger they decided to go with leading into issue #1000? Seriously? Does anyone really care about this? Is anyone actually worried for Aunt May here? Joe Kelly, you are no J.M. DeMatteis, and issue #1000, you are no issue #400 (I would love to be proven wrong – Marvel, *please* prove me wrong).
And once again, thank you, Hellgate, for continuing to wait and do nothing while your planet is on the brink of being destroyed.
(What Hellgate is doing while his planet is on the brink of destruction.)
WHAT THIS ISSUE MEANT OVERALL
This is not only the penultimate issue before a centennial issue, but it’s the issue right before issue ONE THOUSAND! It’s the last issue with three numbers (at least in Legacy numbering). We should be building to something HUGE here. And yet it feels like these last few issues have just been some random, unconnected stories that aren’t building to *anything*.
It feels like the “big thing” that we should be building towards for issue #1000 already happened in “The Talk” issue where Cormac revealed his origin. That’s what issue #1000 should have been. Instead, it just feels like whatever they do for issue #1000 will feel anti-climatic compared to that. Even the introduction of some new villain (I’ve been hearing “Ravage” for months now for this issue) feels like it would be inconsequential.
Unless they do something really crazy to upset the status quo, like have Cormac take Aunt May to doctors in Europe for her stroke and she decides to stay there forever, or they pull a No Way Home and have Aunt May forget all about Peter, it just doesn’t feel like we’re building to anything here. It feels like something’s going to happen out of nowhere. And for a centennial issue, especially issue #1000, that feels like a failure.
GRADE
C-
The Peter/May stuff was great, but the rest was either not that important, or just annoying. And the cliffhanger both annoyed and bored me, which is not good.
NEXT TIME, IN AN ALL-NEW ISSUE OF AMAZING SPIDER-MAN …
(Which cover will I get? Whichever one the comic shop gives me.)
SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT
Because next issue is #1000, I’ll be doing a review for it along with Marco. There’s no way I’d let issue #1000 go by without giving my 2 cents worth.(6)
FOOTNOTES
(1) Who knew there were so many songs with this title? But this is the one I thought of first.
(3) This was my first review in a long time (possibly ever?) where I had to change the Letterer’s name from the previous review. Marcio Menyz, I hope you’re all right.
(4) Now THIS is how you end a penultimate issue when you’re starting a brand new story for the centennial issue:
(6) Sadly, the Canadian penny was discontinued in 2012.
