The Reason I Stayed, Part II: A Review of The Amazing Spider-Man #54

written by Zeb Wells

penciled by Ed McGuinness

inked by Mark Farmer, Wade Von Grawbadger, Mark Morales and McGuinness

colored by Marcio Menyz

This one's for all the marbles: Peter Parker and Norman Osborn are now locked in a dark room under ground with one of the deadliest foes imaginable, the sum total of Osborn's sins, also known as the Green Goblin. This time, the Goblin's playing for keeps, and he wants a new home: Peter Parker himself.  Norman and Peter fight tooth and nail, but even their combined strength may not be enough, but fortunately Peter still has a trick up his sleeve, and an ally he doesn't even realize could help him save the day: the robot form of the Living Brain, of which only the head remains. Will all this be enough to stop the embodiment of evil itself?

When Nick Spencer ended his mammoth 75-issue run on The Amazing Spider-Man in 2021, one of the arguably most interesting story threads he left open for further development was the removal of Norman Osborn's evil side. Along with ridding the world once and for all of the narrative abomination that was Osborn's sexual tryst with teenage Gwen Stacy, the idea of Osborn heading on the path to redemption was a promising one. To Zeb Wells' credit, as angry as much of his writing has made me over the last two years, this one idea he has actually managed to run with quite effectively. Wells actually got me invested in the idea of benevolent Norman, a man struggling with the pain of his sins and now always wanting to do right by the people he has harmed.

Also, stories like Superior Spider-Man  in which Doctor Octopus took up residence in Peter Parker's body for over a year mean that there are actual stakes here, i.e. it's not exactly a given that Peter would come out on top.  So the stage, in short, has been set for a pretty exciting finale.

Of course, it helps that Ed McGuinness, who has the art chores all to himself this time around, has brought his A-game to this rip-roaring final chapter.  There's something really special about this guy's art: it's such simple linework when one looks at it, and it's evocative of some of the all-time greats like Jack Kirby and John Romita, Sr., but it's just gorgeous to look at with its dynamism and expressiveness. Like I said in a prior review, these are the years in which he establishes himself to be one of the best artists ever to draw Spider-Man, and fortunately, this particular story is certainly worthy of his talent. 

10/10 

The Reason I Stayed: A VERY Late Consolidated Review of The Amazing Spider-Man Issues #51 to #53

 written by Zeb Wells

penciled by Ed McGuinness and Todd Nauck

inked by Mark Farmer, Wade Von Grawbadger, and Nauck

colored by Marcio Menyz

Were I not reviewing these issues so egregiously late, I would probably give each of them an individual review, but, well, I am late, and considering that the weekend is basically done and in a few hours I will be putting my nose back to the old grindstone that has kept me from reviewing anything for several months now, I am just going to squeeze three issues into one review.  Fortunately, because there is a bit of story decompression at work here by Zeb Wells, it won't be that hard to capture everything that's important.

Peter Parker aka Spider-Man has discovered the Green Goblin's nefarious plans, and for a change, it doesn't involve Norman Osborn destroying his life, or taking over something or other, nor, for that matter does it involve Norman Osborn at all: the Goblin, having tasted Peter a few issues ago courtesy of having been injected into him through Kraven the Hunter's magic spear, now wants to make Peter Parker his permanent place of residence, and has basically set in motion the process of transferring all of Osborn's assets to Peter.  It doesn't help that, when the Goblin persona, or Osborn's extracted "sins" first took residence in Peter's mind, it left a little bit of itself behind in order to manipulate Peter into doing its will.  Given the challenge he faces, Peter won't be able to handle this alone, but fortunately, he's got quite a few people in his corner, including Ms. Marvel, Curt Connors, Otto Octavius' former arms, the Living Brain, and Rek-Rap, the Spider-Man copycat from Limbo.   Together, will their efforts be enough to stop the Goblin's evil plans, or is Peter Parker doomed to spend his days as a vessel for one of the greatest evils he's ever known?

That's a pretty silly question, of course, the answer to which any fan with half a brain can guess, but really, it's not so much about the destination as it is the journey, and to Zeb Wells' credit, as he guides this particular story to the finish line, he keeps things moving along at a very decent clip, with plenty of thrills in each of these issues. In issue #51, the now Goblin-possessed Peter takes on the Sinister Six and, unburdened by compunction or even a basic sense of humanity, he wipes the floor with them. In issue #52, he takes on Ben Reilly who, due to the brief time he spent using the Winkler device, knows the evil plans the Goblin has for Peter and sincerely wants to stop him, and in issue #53, Peter finds himself confronting the Goblin.

My only major regret regarding these issues is that Ed McGuinness, no doubt having to endure the extreme pressure of putting out so many issues in so short a time, has to share art chores with Todd Nauck, who is an entirely competent artist in his own right, but whose work, next to that of McGuinness, looks quite shockingly ordinary. 

All told, these issues make the anticipation for the final chapter all the more exciting!

8.5/10

Another Day, Another 50th Issue: A VERY Late Review of The Amazing Spider-Man #50

 written by Zeb Wells

penciled by Ed McGuinness (with backup story by Todd Nauck)

inked by Mark Farmer

colored by Marcio Menyz

At the outset I'd like to clarify that I will only be reviewing the main story and its directly-related epilogue at the end of this mammoth-sized 50th issue. I am not a fan of either this "jam" format or the price-tag it entails, but at the very least Marvel have treated us readers to twice the page count of a normal Spider-Man story, with some truly glorious art by Ed McGuiness.

So with nearly all of his major storylines wrapped up, writer Zeb Wells, this time with artist Ed McGuinness, who has been the star of this run, if I'm honest, now tackles what I would argue is probably the most important story of this run: the fate of the Green Goblin. 

The Living Brain, which has been Oscorp's custody since very early into Wells' run, has come alive, and spouts out a cryptic message: Peter Parker is not Spider-Man, a message picked up by Oscorp employees Dr. Curt Connors and his assistant Doug, neither of whom know Peter Parker's secret identity as Spider-Man. Norman Osborn knows, however and has Peter summoned from his day off work as an Oscorp employee, a day he normally spends web-slinging, to look into the mystery. Unfortunately, park of what the Living Brain has generated are a series of seemingly random words, but when Peter speaks them in Norman's presence, he learns to his shock that Norman hasn't been completely honest with him.

If I'm honest, if I really tried to, I could point out how little sense this story actually makes from a continuity perspective since it relies quite heavily on events that have preceded this issue, but in truth I don't really care to do that because not only is Wells moving things along at a nice, brisk pace befitting a climactic story, but Ed McGuinness is absolutely firing on all cylinders here. There is a reason this man has been a fan-favorite artist for nearly three decades, his art is both incredibly stylish and dynamic at the same time and yet ironically his line work is deceptively simple. One won't see the proliferation of cross-hatchings or other attempts at jampacking detail onto a page with his stuff; it's just some of the cleanest, most crisp art I've seen in these pages since John Romita Sr.

The epilogue by Wells and Nauck, which comes after a whole bunch of filler stories I didn't really care for, was also properly intriguing as a come on for what comes next.

As off-putting as I found the cover-price of this issue, in this economy I understand why Marvel did what they did, and I am at least grateful that for all of the superfluous stories crammed into the book, the main event was still worth the effort it took to check the book out. 

8/10 

The Other Spider-Man Zeb Wells Screwed Over: A VERY Late Review of The Amazing Spider-Man #47 and 48

written by Zeb Wells

drawn by Todd Nauck

colored by Sonia Oback

With his tenure (finally) winding down, and with most of his major storylines having drawn to their close, current writer of The Amazing Spider-Man, Zeb Wells, revisits a character that he literally last left in Limbo at the end of the "Dark Web" crossover, Ben Reilly, aka Chasm. 

In this story, the antihero Chasm and his girlfriend and partner-in-crime Janine Godbe aka Hallow's Eve reunite following Ben's escape from government custody, and they have a plan to fix Ben's broken mind once and for all, to use the Winkler device,  a McGuffin which supposedly helps capture and transmit memories, with the help of Ashley Kafka, aka the Goblin Queen.  The only problem is that Peter Parker, aka Spider-Man and his friend Betty Brant are also after that very same device because Betty needs it to prove the innocence of her husband Ned Leeds, who was brainwashed into becoming the Hobgoblin by that very same device.  What Ben doesn't realize is that Kafka has very different plans for him and the device, and the only question is whether Peter will be in time to stop her.

I'm not going to lie; it's been difficult to persevere with this series for a number of reasons, foremost of which has been Zeb Wells' writing. 

I have, however, wanted to know what he had in store for Ben Reilly, and while this brief two-parter is really just a prelude to the grand finale that Wells had lined up for Peter Parker, Norman Osborn and the Green Goblin, it was a fairly satisfying story in its own right, thanks in part to Wells' guest artist, Todd Nauck, probably best known for the five-page story in 2009 in which Spider-Man met Barack Obama. Nauck is a solid if not quite spectacular artist whose clean linework was, if I'm honest, a refreshing break from the last few issues. That said, he's no Ed McGuinness. 

Up next: my thoughts on yet another 50th issue of The Amazing Spider-Man. 

 

7.5/10