The Beyond Era Continues: A Review of The Amazing Spider-Man #76

 written by Zeb Wells

drawn by Patrick Gleason

colored by Marcio Menyz

After the U-Foes put Peter Parker in the hospital with radiation poisoning during his team-up with Ben Reilly last issue, a conscience-stricken Ben defies his paymasters at the Beyond Corporation and pays Peter a visit to do the one thing he arguably should have done in the first place; he asks for Peter's blessing to be Spider-man, and not a moment too soon.

After providing a fairly substantial story in the oversized last issue, Marvel disappoints with a story that, as I've just shown, can literally be summed up in one paragraph.  To be fair, Patrick Gleason positively owns this issue with some great linework and character rendering, but Zeb Wells' threadbare script is clearly designed to let on as little as possible about this new status quo and what "Beyond" is really all about. As a result, it left me feeling more like I had just read a five-page bonus story at the back of an anniversary issue than an actual twenty-page story,  This is the difference between someone writing a story for the sake of telling a story and someone writing as part of a bigger committee.  

Although Marvel were always transparent that "Beyond," like Nick Spencer's massive, multi-part storyarcs before it, was going to be one big arc, this never meant that they couldn't do mini-arcs within it. Zeb Wells, when writing back in the 2008 "Brand New Day" era, knew how to tell compact, satisfying stories with A-listers like Chris Bachalo, including a memorable, if slightly disturbing story in which the Lizard ate his own son.   With an artist of Gleason's caliber Wells could definitely come up with some decent stuff if only the "brain trust" would let him off the leash a bit.  He still could, theoretically, if he had one more issue, but in this very issue Marvel has stated that they're already handing off the baton to another creative team in the next issue, which was a big enough pet peeve of mine with rotating artists. Now they have rotating WRITERS before the storyline even ends. 

Bottom line: Wells and Gleason know how tell a decent, satisfying story even with very few pages to do so, which means that the fact that this story has feels like padding has the distinct feel of an editorial mandate. 

6/10

Doctor Strange May Be Dead: But Doctor Strange: Surgeon Supreme is LIFE!

written by Mark Waid

drawn by Kev Walker 

colored by Java Tartaglia

A few years ago, I bought a reprint of the seminal 2006 Doctor Strange story "The Oath" which is so well-regarded that a character introduced in that series actually had a fairly prominent role in the 2016 feature film adaptation. Because it was an old and quite popular story, I decided against reviewing it. 

It did however, inspire me to pick up a few more volumes of Doctor Strange stories, including his team-up with Doctor Doom from the 1990s by comics legends Roger Stern and Mike Mignola, and compilations of much more recent runs by Jason Aaron and Chris Bachalo...and most recently Mark Waid and Jesus Saiz. I'm a little embarrassed to say that, for all of the hundreds of reviews I've posted on this blog, I haven't reviewed any of those volumes, even though most of them were very good reads.

Well, I intend to remedy that now.

In "Surgeon Supreme," Stephen Strange works part time as a surgeon at McCarthy Medical Institute, having regained the use of his hands.  He is only called in for the most complicated of cases, which only he can handle with his surgeon's skills.  His administrator, Doctor Hagen, respects his other duties as Sorceror Supreme, but also requires that Strange keep magic out of the operating theater, an arrangement with which he has no problem.  A serious problem does arise, however, when mysterious attacks start taking place in New York with villains wielding powerful magical weapons which appear eerily familiar to Strange. To get to the bottom of this mystery, Strange may need the help of another of his colleagues at the hospital, Dr. Anthony Ludgate, aka Doctor Druid. 

As someone who grew up reading mostly Spider-Man, Hulk and Daredevil comics, I confess I never really encountered Doctor Strange unless he showed up in any of those books.  He featured quite prominently in J. Michael Straczynski's run on The Amazing Spider-Man, including, most infamously, the hated "One More Day" storyline,  and had, before that, appeared in Kevin Smith's well-regarded "Guardian Devil" storyline in the pages of Daredevil. In both cases, Doctor Strange  was less of a character and more of a plot device, a means for the lead character to access magic that he would need to advance the story.  About the only Dr. Strange-centric story that I read before finally picking up "The Oath" was the Strange miniseries by Straczynski, Samm Barnes and Brandon Peterson, intended as a soft-reboot of his origin, which read like a TV pilot or a bad Matrix knockoff. Whatever the flaws of the 2016 film, at least it avoided the pitfalls of this miniseries, which is best forgotten.

When Mark Waid took over writing the main Doctor Strange title a few years back I found his take on the character instantly engaging. He struck a fine balance between the supreme self-confidence (often bordering on arrogance) for which Strange is known as well as his extensive experience as one of the Marvel Universe's most enduring characters.  It's easy to see the similarities between this Doctor Strange, and Benedict Cumberbatch's widely-known version from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. I quite enjoyed the first two volumes by Waid, in which he is joined by supremely talented artists like Jesus Saiz and Javier Pina.

In this new volume, I really enjoyed this new milieu for Strange. He's no longer the arrogant surgeon he was before his life-changing accident, but he still has all of the skills his patients desperately need. This is a very nice status quo for the character, though one that's already been upended as of writing with the whole "death of Doctor Strange" storyline. 

In veteran artist Kev Walker, Waid has an extremely capable collaborator quite notably different in art style from Jesus Saiz, but whose art looks astonishing just the same.  His work both manages to both evoke the work of past artists like Kevin Nowlan and Chris Bachalo, even as it stands out on its own merits. It is pure joy to behold, especially since Walker illustrates all six issues.  This is in contrast to his brief stint as one of the rotating artists of The Amazing Spider-Man, for which he could never draw more than a few pages for any given issue.  I'd love to see more of this guy's art.

I don't necessarily buy into the motives of the big baddie who's revealed near the end of the story, but the script seems credible enough and really kept me engaged all the way to the last issue. 

I'll definitely check out and review "The Death of Doctor Strange" once the arc has been completed and collected, but for now, I am extremely satisfied with what Mark Waid and Kev Walker have done. 

9/10

Gleason Unleashed: A Review of The Amazing Spider-Man #75

 written by Zeb Wells

drawn by Patrick Gleason

colored by Marco Menyz

With the conclusion of Nick Spencer's three-year run on Marvel's flagship book, The Amazing Spider-man, a new "brain trust" kicks off the "Beyond" era for the wall-crawler with a visually-striking first issue that, more than almost anything that was produced during Spencer's run, really showcasees Patrick Gleason's artistic chops. 

Following the gut-wrenching conclusion of Peter Parker's confrontation with Kindred, Peter finds himself struggling to deal with the death of Harry Osborn. Wanting to clear his head, he goes out webslinging, only to find another Spider-Man swinging around too. Peter is unable to catch this seeming impostor, but shortly after this encounter, he is approached by an old "frenemy," his clone Ben Reilly, who for the first time since his resurrection a few years back is sporting blond hair and the Spider-Man identity again.  The twist this time, however, is that Ben has adopted the Spider-Man identity as an employee of the Beyond Corporation, a company that has bought the exclusive right to use the identity, along with other assets of Parker Industries, the company that Otto Octavus founded while he was possessing Peter Parker's body, and which Peter has since run into the ground.  Ben then drops a bombshell on Peter: he cannot legally use the Spider-Man identity anymore. When the U-Foes threaten Empire State University, however, Peter suits up, only to find that Ben is already on site. Will the two Spider-Men team up or face off? 

Marvel's been teasing this new status quo for some time with some glorious cover art by the legendary Arthur Adams, and I have to say, it's off to a pretty good start.  The script by Spidey veteran Zeb Wells almost immediately gets right into the meat of what's going on, with a talking-heads scene between Peter and Ben setting the stage for the next big storyline, and there's some pretty glorious webswinging art courtesy of Gleason, who seems to have stepped up his game a bit since working wth Nick Spencer,

 It's fairly obvious right out the gate that Ben Reilly's stint as Spider-Man will be temporary, unlike his ill-fated stint as the wallcrawler in the 90s which was originally intended to be a permanent status quo which Marvel walked back after fan outrage compelled them to do so. I mean, Beyond Corporation (or at least, a company sharing its name) was last seen in the pages of Warren Ellis and Stuart Immonen's Nextwave making evil broccoli men and basically trying to take over the world. Having them manage Spider-Man is unquestionably bad news. I just hope this doesn't end with Ben dying again. 

As single issues go, this one is a strong one, with a tight script and great art, and sets up the storyline pretty effectively, with a heck of a cliffhanger ending the main story. There are a few throwaway stories featuring Misty Knight and Colleen Wing and one featuring Ashley Kafka doing something at Ravencrot, but nothing to really write home about, even though they're meant to somehow justify the six dollar cover price. The main story is good enough, and if the Spider-Man "brain trust" can keep churning out this level of quality week after week, this storyline may yet live up to the hype.  

8.5/10

Why One Major Retcon Was Undone...But Not Another (MAJOR SPOILERS FOR AMAZING SPIDER MAN #74)

This post talks about developments in The Amazing Spider-Man #74. Anyone who has not read this comic book and plans to do so should stop reading this now.

(SPOILER ALERT)

 And with the conclusion of Nick Spencer's run on The Amazing Spider-Man he has officially excised from canon the 2004 story by J. Michael Stracyznski and Mike Deodato, "Sins Past," which retconned into Spider-Man's history a sexual tryst between Norman Osborn and Peter's then-girlfriend Gwen Stacy, the way a skilled surgeon might extract a tumor.  This risible tale was a story that had stood as part of Spider-Man canon for seventeen years, with editors and writers refusing to touch it because of how intricately the retcon had been woven into the history; apparently people simply lacked the imagination needed to make it work...until Nick Spencer came along.

As gratifying as it was, however,  Spencer stopped short of undoing arguably the one Spider-Man story more widely loathed than "Sins Past," namely the 2007 story "One More Day," in which Peter Parker quite literally sold his marriage to the devil to save Aunt May's life.  It was honestly a crying shame, because Nick Spencer would have gone down in history as a legend.  He had already undone the resurrection of Kraven the Hunter in a misguided but well-intentioned sequel to "Kraven's Last Hunt" and with "Sins Past" he had managed to show just how serious he was about righting wrongs that had been done to Spider-Man's history.  Undoing "One More Day" would have been his crowning achievement, the story that would have sealed his place in the firmament of truly great Spider-Man writers like Stan Lee, Gerry Conway, Roger Stern and J.M. DeMatteis, to name but a few. 

So why didn't he?

It's simple, but worth stating anyway.   "Sins Past" may created a headache that proved too complicated for Marvel editorial to undo for years, but it was also a completely unnecessary evil that touched on a character who had been dead at the time for thirty-one years. There had been no new Gwen Stacy stories from the time she had died in 1973.  Her story had been told and was a cherished part of Spider-Man's history, right up until its bitter ending.  Retconning it with "Sins Past" was completely pointless as it added nothing to the character, or to Peter Parker, and had proved to be far more trouble than whatever "benefits" Marvel editorial imagined they had gained from the brief moment of notoriety.  Marvel didn't see any value in keeping this story canon; the fact that it was ignored by almost every writer after Straczynski showed how deeply they wanted to bury it. A few writers and fans have said Marvel were just better off pretending it never happened, but I beg to disagree.

Fortunately, so did Nick Spencer, who had both the imagination and the balls think of a story that would undo "Sins Past."  Sure, he had to think out of the box, tapping into a storyline that took place at a time when Norman Osborn was supposed to be dead, but he made it work. Bottom line, Spencer did Marvel a huge favor, and it's highly doubtful that any writer or editor would ever want to restore this abomination to canon. Straczynski himself, who has long denounced "Sins Past" as a complete distortion of what he wanted to write, has given his seal of approval. 

Now, "One More Day" was a similarly detestable storyline, but it achieved an important goal for Marvel which they had been working towards for quite some time.

It's no secret that Marvel had been trying to undo Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson's marriage for several years prior to "One More Day." The infamous "Clone Saga" which introduced Ben Reilly and even attempted to retcon him as the "true" Peter Parker was actually Marvel's first high-profile attempt to make Spider-Man single again, which ended in catastrophic failure and Ben Reilly's (ultimately temporary) death, but it would not be the last.  In the early noughties, Marvel made an attempt to kill off Mary Jane that ended up being so half-assed that they coudn't even keep her dead for a year. She and Peter ended up separating, which didn't last very long either.  Then, "One More Day" was hatched, and the rest is history.

Reinstating Gwen Stacy's squeaky clean, all-American girl image was hugely beneficial to Marvel, especially since they're now actively promoting an alt-universe version of her as one of their heroes. In contrast, the benefits of reinstating a married Peter and Mary Jane are debatable at the very least, especially considering the trouble that Marvel's editorial had gone through for years to get to this point. I imagine it's not an ordeal editorial would want to repeat, so even if Spencer had pitched it to them, they must have ultimately said no.

I'd argue that Marvel has even come full circle, with Ben Reilly (who got better) about to resume his duties as the main Spider-Man again, though I'm sure this is but a temporary status quo. Rather than regret what they didn't do, though, I prefer to just bask in what they actually did. 

Harry's Redemption: A Review of The Amazing Spider-Man #74 (Mild Spoilers)

 written by Nick Spencer and Christos Gage

drawn by Marcelo Ferreira, Mark Bagley, Ze Carlos, Dio Neves, Carlos Gomez, Ivan Fiorelli and Humberto Ramos

colored by Andrew Crossley, Edgar Delgado, Alex Sinclair

After three years, seventy-five issues, and a whole bunch of somewhat convoluted storylines, Nick Spencer finally brings his run on The Amazing Spider-Man to a close.

To make a long (and it has been VERY long) story short, the saga of Kindred comes to an end. As Spider-Man faces off with Kindred one final time, Mephisto and Doctor Strange engage in a high-stakes game of chance, the prize in the balance being the soul of Harry Osborn himself.  The revelation last issue that Kindred was actually two people, Gabriel and Sarah Stacy, and that the two of them were not actually Norman Osborn's children by Gwen Stacy but were actually just clones that were a part of Harry Osborn's scheme to exact revenge on his father, also seees its ultimate resolution here.  Also, we readers get a glimpse into why Mephisto was so keenly interested on ending Peter Parker's marriage to Mary Jane Watson.

For those that have been following--nay, enduring--Nick Spencer's seemingly endless story in the keen hope, like I have, that his endgame was the undoing of the deplorable plotline "Sins Past," the biggest payoff was last issue, but this issue serves as an effective denouement, and like I said in my review of the last issue (#73) it provided me with a retcon that I never even knew I needed: the redemption of Harry Osborn. 

It's hard to go into detail about what I liked about this issue without spoiling key plot points so I'll end my plot synopsis there, but to be perfectly honest, for an issue that's nearly a hundred pages long, surprisingly little happens, apart from a lot of punching and a little last minute exposition between Mephisto and Doctor Strange. The last issue, for all its flaws, had more going on.  Still, I did appreciate how Spencer wrapped everything up quite neatly, leaving the little mini stories at the end to lay the ground for the "Beyond" era that's set to follow his run.

As is the usual malaise of Spider-Man comics these days, the issue has too many artists to maintain any kind of visual consistency. I understand that with the new status quo they'll go back to single artists being able to illustrate whole story arcs as opposed to this utterly ridiculous "jam" approach to art.  Hell, I'd even take (some) of Humberto Ramos' issues over this unmitigated chaos. The real shame is that some of these artists seem genuinely talented, with Ze Carlos in particular standing out somewhat. I had to Google-search to find out which one he was, incidentally; apart from Mark Bagley and Humberto Ramos, whose styles, for better or worse, are instantly recognizable, it's hard to identify these new artists who have yet to leave their mark on this title, especially since Marvel isn't really giving them the chance to do so.  

It's a shame that Spencer's run, which started out quite strongly with a topnotch creative partner in Ryan Ottley, ended on such a messy, if auspicious note. Had it been better curated, the "Kindred" Saga could have gone down as a genuine epic, a fresh, tall glass of lemonade made from the lemons known as "Sins Past."  As it was, with its battalion of rotating artists and its sprawling, unreasonable length, it became a real chore to sit through.  I'm just glad the story managed to end on a satisfying note, because at one point I would have just been happy to see it end.   

Still, Spencer deserves kudos for having the balls to tell the stories that Dan Slott and the other Spider-Man brain trust from 2008 to 2018 (the post Stracynzki era) couldn't, so I can't be all mad at him.   

6.5/10 (Main story)

I enjoyed the mini stories, from Christos Gage and Todd Nauck's poignant tale in which Peter learns of one more life that his Uncle Ben touched in his life, to the entertaining two-page recap of Spidey's history from Sean Ryan and Gustavo Duarte, to the enticing sneak peek, courtesy of Zeb Wells and Ivan Fiorelli, at the return of Ben Reilly to the Spider-Man mantle, as told from the perspective of Janine Godbe, Ben's brief squeeze in the largely forgotten "Spider-Man: The Lost Years" miniseries from the mid-90s.  It's common practice to tease a new status quo with side-stories in an oversized "conclusion" issue, like how Ben Reilly's new status quo was teased in the epilogue of "The Clone Conspiracy," and as teases go, this was a pretty good one. 

7.5/10 (Extra stories)