Sunday, April 16, 2023

Running Out of Time: A Review of The Amazing Spider-Man #23

 written by Zeb Wells

penciled by John Romita Jr. 

inked by Scott Hanna

colored by Marcio Menyz


We are now officially two issues away from the issue that Marvel itself  has billed as "the most shocking issue of The Amazing Spider-Man in 50 years" going as far to compare its revelations to the death of Gwen Stacy.  


Having barely escaped from what would have certainly been a fatal encounter in another dimension with Mayan god Wayep, Peter Parker aka Spider-Man is shocked to learn that even though he and Mary Jane Watson spent a week in that other dimension, mere hours have passed in New York.  As a result, he scrambles to get back to her, as she is trapped with a deadly, all-powerful creature bent on destruction.  Every decision he makes at this point is influenced by this sense of panic as he runs afoul of both the Fantastic Four and even Captain America. In the end, he turns to the last person in the world whose help he would want.


While this particular storyline started out with the return of Wayep and his disciple Benjamin Rabin, for this issue writer Zeb Wells and artists John Romita Jr., Scott Hanna and Marcio Menyz go full flashback mode, and to be fair, given the premise of the story it becomes more plausible to see why Peter would make the decisions he made back then, though we still aren't at that point of no return yet, that point where Mary Jane basically walks away from him for the man who, we now know, was a former follower of the maniac who has caused all of this havoc in the first place.  It's hard to read this story separate from the hype machine that Marvel has kicked into high gear, but Wells manages to keep things engaging. 


John Romita, Jr. has been going great guns on this run so far, but this isn't one of his splashier issues, even though the standard of quality remains more or less consistent. 


I continue to wait with bated breath to see what shocking development they've got in store for issue #25.


8/10

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