written by Dan Slott
penciled by Stuart Immonen, Humberto Ramos, Giuseppe Camuncoli, Nick Bradshaw, Marcos Martin and Mike Hawthorne
inked by Wade von Grawbadger, Victor Olazaba, Cam Smith, Nick Bradshaw, Marcos Martin and JP Mayer
colored by Marte Gracia, Edgar Delgado, Java Tartaglia, Muntsa Vicente and Jordie Bellaire
Peter Parker's long-brewing showdown with Norman Osborn finally comes, with the symbiote-enhanced Red Goblin pulling out all the stops, ready to kill everyone who matters in Peter's life, and more than a few people who used to matter to Osborn, too. Peter's at the end of his rope and way out of his depth, but he gets unexpected help from not just one, not just two but even three former nemeses in dealing with the Goblin. At the end of it all, nothing will be the same.
If that sounds like a marketing blurb, it's simply because to go into great detail would lead to spoilers, which I would be loath to do, even if, I must say at the outset, my single most desired outcome from this story did not come to pass. Anyone who has followed this blog knows how desperately I want Marvel to undo the "Sins Past" debacle from over a decade ago in which it was retroactively established that Norman Osborn fathered Gwen Stacy's children. Slott, unfortunately, passed up the chance to do millions of Spider-Man fans a huge favor by undoing that wretched piece of storytelling, which was frustrating because in these pages, Norman made specific reference to Gwen, though only because he had killed her. Oh, and I also wanted Osborn dead, but I won't go into that.
Surprisingly, though, even though Slott essentially left "Sins Past" as canon, however, awkwardly shoved aside it may be, I found myself genuinely satisfied by how this issue played out. There is a bit of a status-quo shakeup that I won't mention, but even without this major change the issue wrapped up all dangling plot threads quite nicely.
I couldn't help but marvel (hehehe) at how tightly this issue was scripted, especially after so many issues in which Slott basically seemed to be treading water. There are 80 pages of story here and every single one of them is filled with either dialogue or action that absolutely propels the story forward. It's like Slott's rediscovered his mojo, or has, perhaps, been saving the very best for last. This was the kind of storytelling that made Superior Spider-Man a must-read comic book for almost the entire duration of its run. This may not be Slott's absolute final issue, but it's definitely one he'll be remembered for fondly.
It also helps immensely that, while the art duties are handled by five different artists, with varying art styles, the art chores are divided among them so strategically that the shift in art style almost never feels jarring and the action flows quite smoothly. Of course, series mainstay Stuart Immonen does the heavy lifting, illustrating more of the 80 pages of story than anyone else, while Slott's regular Spidey collaborators Humberto Ramos and Giuseppe Camuncoli each turn in a substantial chunk of work as well. I've often expressed how I feel about Camuncoli's work, but the pacing is so good I scarcely even notice which pages are his unless I really stop to take a look. Still, I'm glad Immonen handles the most pivotal scenes in the story, as he should. I'm only sorry Jim Cheung, originally slated to contribute some pages to this mammoth issue couldn't join the party, but I take some consolation knowing that Nick Bradshaw was able to turn in some decent pencils that are a vast improvement over the awful work he did on a Guardians of the Galaxy issue I bought some years ago. Marcos Martin beautifully closes out the issue, and while Mike Hawthorne offers a two-page epilogue of sorts, it's Martin's final two-page spread that really matters.
Slott's run has had its ups and downs, and he's still got one issue left to go, but this is one of his strongest efforts over the ten years he's worked on this book, eight of them as its sole writer, and captures so much of what makes Peter Parker Spider-Man. This is a fitting way to end what's been, for the most part, a heck of a ride.
9/10
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