written by Dan Slott and Christos Gage
drawn by Mike Hawthorne (p) Terry Pallot and Cam Smith (i)
colored by Erick Arciniega
"Red Threat" concludes and sets the stage for Dan Slott's farewell arc "Go Down Swinging" as Norman Osborn grapples with the Carnage symbiote for control, while Hobgoblin (Phil Urich) makes a move on Alchemax's store of precious tritium. Fortunately, Peter Parker and his science team for the Daily Bugle happen to be covering the story, and in any case Alchemax boss Liz Osborn has already hired Flash Thompson as security, so Spider-Man and Anti-Venom get to tag team against the Hobgoblin and his gang. Meanwhile, things are looking very grim indeed for Spidey as Norman and the Carnage symbiote look to become something more powerful than anything he's seen before from either of them. Oh, and Peter and MJ hook up.
I get that we're basically just on the countdown to the historic 800th issue of The Amazing Spider-Man. I get that superstar artist Stuart Immonen, who will be back next issue, needed some time off. I get that Dan Slott wants to set up his big throw down.
For all of that, though, this lead up to that climactic story not only feels weak, but redundant as it follows a familiar, Spidey-just-happens-to-be-on-the-scene-when-a-crime-happens formula that Slott's been applying since he gave Peter his new job. I'll grant that if one were to review the over fifty years of Spider-Man comic books that have ever been printed one would probably find a degree of repetitiveness to much of the storytelling, but as a reader of this title for over 30 years I have to say that this story feels distinctly so. Mike Hawthorne's art is even plainer than it was last issue, which at least had Loki to liven things up, and the story just feels so by-the-numbers that part of me wonders if Slott and Gage didn't just dust off an old script and tweak it here or there.
I hope things get better with "Going Down Swinging."
5/10
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