written by Joe Kelly
drawn by Ed McGuinness (pencils) Mark Farmer and Wade Von Grawbadger (inks)
colored by Marcio Menyz
It's been a long, LONG while since my last review of an Amazing Spider-Man comic book. I have not been reading them (or comic books in generally) quite as regularly as I used to; my trips to the comic store in the last few months have been rather seldom for one reason or another. Plus, there was the fact that Spidey got embroiled in that tiresome Venom-centric "Spiral" crossover which I didn't have the patience to review, even though I was glad to learn that in that story, the most hated man in comics, Paul Rabin finally met his gruesome and much-deserved demise.
Well, we're two issues away from the landmark Amazing Spider-Man #1000 and having read what are basically issues #997 and #998 (in terms of "legacy" numbering), I thought I'd finally give a review.
A lot has happened since the last time I reviewed this title; Peter Parker has gone off to space and come back, his job at Rand Industries has been all but ruined by Ben Reilly standing in for him while he was gone and, well, Peter has learned, thanks to the meticulous stalking of the serial killer Torment, that he has a long-lost cousin named Cormac Crane, who was actually Ben and May Parker's biological son who, they had been told, had died at birth. In the meantime, Peter also seems to have picked up a new ally in his crimefighting: the folks at Damage Control, led by ex-S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, Agent Griffyn. (This, of course, lines up with their alliance in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, though given the events in that film one wonders where this particular team-up is headed). Also, Peter's trying to make amends for the turbulence that resulted from his absence while he was off in space, including helping his boss at Rand Industries, Maira Osmani-Milton, especially in the wake of the catastrophic failure of the fungus project that Peter had been working on with his former high school friend Brian.
What weighs heaviest on Peter's mind, though, is whether the sudden appearance of Aunt May's long-lost son means he will lose her, as he has lost many other people in his life.
To be honest, all of the status quo-altering stuff of the last several issues really didn't do anything for me, which was why these two issues, which basically take us inside Peter's head as he grapples with a new problem, were pretty refreshing for me. People had worried that Marvel had dusted off the long-abandoned, poorly-received "Trouble" storyline from the early 2000s to suggest that Aunt May was Peter's son from a fling she had with his actual father, Richard Parker, but that wasn't the case. As obvious a retcon as this is, at least there's a logic to the way it was done; Cormac Crane was the son Aunt May never talked about because she had sincerely believed him to have died. On its face, it might seem petty that Peter would feel threatened by Crane usurping his place in May's heart, but, well, we have to remember that abandonment issues are kind of a big part of Peter's character makeup. Is it a little hamhanded? Maybe, but it still works from a narrative point-of-view.
A little less smoothly done, in my opinion, is Peter's teaming up with Damage Control, which is so blatantly written in to mirror the movie's storyline. While Spider-Man historically does team up with cops, from Jean DeWolff to Lamont Cranston to Neil Garrett to Yuri Watanabe, and he has worked with Damage Control in the past, when their thing was doing post-hero fight cleanup. This new thing of fighting side-by-side with them just feels a bit abrupt and a tad convenient. This is the sort of activity Peter would question, and to Kelly's credit, Peter does this to look out for them more than to actually team up with them.
It's easy to forgive these little contrivances when the overall story works, though, I did enjoy Joe Kelly's scripts for these two issues. This story is less about his adventures with Damage Control and more about how hard he's taking the sudden appearance of a new relative who, to his mind, could gravely compromise the one thing he holds dearer than life itself: his relationship with Aunt May.
It also helps to have Ed McGuinness on art duties. I am a big fan of regular artist Pepe Larraz's stylish artwork, but if he needs a reliever to help him hit his deadlines for those big stories like Spider-Man/Superman or the upcoming Amazing Spider-Man #1000, I can't think of anyone better to pinch-hit for him than McGuinness. I have long been a fan of McGuinness' work so it's a treat to see him pencil two issues in a row.
Two more issues to go till the big 1-0-0-0!
9/10
