Sunday, July 2, 2023

After the Gimmick is Done: A Review of The Amazing Spider-Man #27

 written by Zeb Wells

penciled by Ed McGuinness

inked by Mark Farmer

colored by Marcio Menyz


In the wake of Kamala Khan's death last issue, Peter Parker aka Spider-Man and Norman Osborn, aka the Gold Goblin, struggle to move forward with their lives. The threat from Wayep and his emissary Rabin may be gone but there are plenty of threats ahead, including Otto Octavius, whose mechanical arms abandoned him the time he fought Spider-Man, but who has new machinations up his sleeves, with Norman Osborn in his sights.  


With Zeb Wells' big mystery box having been opened, he's gotten back to writing interesting stories again, and as much as I despised "What did Peter do?" I am willing to give Wells the benefit of the doubt on the next few issues. After, all giving that I'm spending on these comics, I'm the only one losing out if I insist on grumbling about his bad story choices.


Setting up Doc Ock against Norman Osborn is something I have not seen nearly often enough since Norman was brought back from the dead in 1996. I've seen Mark Millar and Dan Slott pit them against one another in two stories that were nearly a decade apart, and in both cases Otto came off worse. I could be missing on another story here, but it seems Otto has come to hold a grudge against Osborn over these encounters. This story seems interesting enough, though Wells' last big mega arc has left me wary. Call me cautiously optimistic for now.  


Besides, despite my deep disdain for Wells' gimmicky writing, I persevered to see Ed McGuinness back on art duties, and the man does not disappoint in the least. It grates on me that I have had to wait as long as I have to see this guy draw Spider-Man stories on a semi-regular basis, but, hey, better late than never. I still hope to see Jim Lee illustrate tales of the webhead one day. 


8/10

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