All Spiders, All The Time On Marvel Minutiae! Featuring Amazing Spider-Man #41, Gwen Stacy #2, & Peter Porker, The Spectacular Spider-Ham #4

Hello friends and readers and welcome to another week of Marvel Minutiae! We hope you like Spiders and Spider-adjacent folks, because it is all Spidey all the time in this week’s column. Spider Correspondent Tony Thornley spins us a yarn about Spencer and Ottley’s ASM, while Christi Eddleman gives us her thoughts on the high school drama of Gwen Stacy, and our boss Zack Jenkins hams it up with Peter Porker.

Amazing Spider-Man #41

About a month ago I said that Nick Spencer’s Amazing Spider-Man was at its best when it was a superhero sitcom. I was wrong. It’s actually at its best when the superhero sitcom is being drawn by Ryan Ottley and Boomerang is involved.

We finally get to learn exactly what Boomerang is holding over the Kingpin’s head. He has an enchanted map imprinted on his brain that leads him to the pieces of shattered Stan Lee/John Romita mystical MacGuffin (and worst plot device of that era)- the Lifeline Tablet. Peter has reluctantly agreed to help him find it, leading the duo to misadventures all over the city.

Now this plot is a lot of fun, but it also leads headlong into some of the faults of this run. Spencer does seem to kick it up a notch for Ottley every time he rejoins the series, but once again we find the issue playing into the greatest hits of the Amazing Spider-Man. The first half of the issue introduces a fun bit of world building- New York City’s Records Department has a Mystical Artifacts and Treasures office- but that potentially cool plot point is almost immediately thrown away as the object of Wilson Fisk’s desire is revealed to be the tablet. I audibly groaned when I reached the two page spread revealing it.

I mean, when you think of the Lee/Romita era, who doesn’t think about Fisk and Silvermane’s rivalry and the latter being turned into a baby by the Philosopher’s Stone with a less snappy name? Or the incredibly weird adaptation of the story in the 90’s Spider-Man animated series? Exactly. It’s a weird story to build this series-long mystery up to, and even weirder when you realize the story could have been better if the MacGuffin was literally anything else in the Mystical Artifacts office. Or even all of the artifacts in the office.

Don’t get me wrong though- it is a fun issue, one part due to the great interplay between Spidey and Boomerang, and the other due to Ottley’s fantastic art. However, fun doesn’t necessarily mean good or memorable. In the end it turns out to be a forgettable step towards the conclusion of this run, which hopefully is sooner, not later.

But even when Spencer’s story is over, please keep Ottley around. Seriously, his Spider-Man rocks.

Tony Thornley is a geek dad, blogger, Spider-Man and Superman aficionado, X-Men guru, autism daddy, amateur novelist, and all around awesome guy. He’s also very humble.

Gwen Stacy #2

If you’re a Spider-Man fan looking for a pathos-packed issue, Gage delivers in this week’s Gwen Stacy. This issue continues our 616 Gwen Stacy backstory with some details anyone familiar with Amazing Spider-Man #121 will find painful [Ed. Note: OOF]. While the storyline of Gwen hoping to clear her father’s good name while still trying to become student council president is evolving in this issue, it’s clear that Gage’s intent is to set up moments to connect us to existing Spider-Man continuity. Especially poignant in this issue are the interactions between Gwen Stacy and the man who will one day murder her, Norman Osborn. Nauck artfully reminds us of Osborn’s identity as the Green Goblin just in case the reader misses the significance of this interaction.

While Gwen is charming, plucky, and optimistically naive, she is ultimately defined by her relationships: her devotion to her father, her friendship with Harry Osborn, her connection to Norman Osborn, and even defined by the role she has yet to play in Peter Parker’s life. Filling a space in current continuity is a challenge, but what I want Gwen Stacy to be and what it is are two very different things. Gage has done an excellent job building Gwen a story that fits within continuity and enhances any re-reading of issues of Amazing Spider-Man that feature Gwen. However, I find myself still hungry for a Gwen story that makes me fall in love with 616 Gwen Stacy. This Gwen seems like she’d be right at home in the 60s run of Amazing Spider-Man, but her voice as a teen in Marvel’s sliding timescale falls a bit flat.

Gwen Stacy is shaping up to be a delightful read for those looking for the chapter before Gwen meets Peter, but a bit of a disappointment for those hoping that Gwen Stacy from the 616 can be as compelling as the one from Earth-65.

Christi Eddleman is the world’s first Captain Kate Pryde cosplayer and co-host of Chrises On Infinite Earths.

Peter Porker, The Spectacular Spider-Ham #4

By all accounts I should hate Spider-Ham. I’ve got nothing against artist Will Robson and sure I’ve been really enjoying Zeb Well’s Ant-Man but Spider-Ham? He isn’t even in the top 10 best Spider-People who aren’t Peter Parker. He’s a character built on lazy puns designed to appeal to very small children. He’s an artifact, and an oddity, and not much more. So why then, does this book leave me smiling from ear to ear?

I’m guessing it has to do with that underappreciated comedy hero, the straight man. In this book, the straight man takes many forms, be it a convention of Kang The Conqueror’s who do not have time for Kangaroo The Conqueror’s gripes, Spider-Man who was dragged into this misadventure very much against his will, or Ham himself who continues to provide a running commentary on the world. Well’s script gets a massive amount of runway from characters mugging at the audience, as if to say “seriously?”

Still, this is a Spider-Ham comic with all the bad puns and pop culture references I normally hate [Ed. Note: That makes one of us], just somehow elevated by great artistic timing and a little tighter writing. The book walks the line between clever and stupid, and the apperance of Mojo at the end means that it might easily fall off that tightrope in the next issue. But for now, this is a deeply entertaining comedy book that will give readers exactly what they didn’t know they needed.

Zachary Jenkins runs the Xavier Files Media Empire and is a co-host on the podcast “Battle of the Atom.” Shocking everyone, he has a full and vibrant life outside of X-Men.