Peter Parker learns all the world’s a stage in another entry from Nick Spencer, Mark Bagley, John Dell, Andrew Hennessey, Rachelle Rosenberg, and Joe Caramagna.
Look, I think we know the pattern with Amazing Spider-Man at this point.
Something’s going to happen. It’s going to be better than normal. It might even be good. Hell, it’ll probably be fun, and make you think “I’m actually glad I picked up this issue this week!”
Then in the last few pages, something is going to happen that’s going to make you stop. Pause for a good moment or two. Reevaluate your life choices. Then you’ll say “seriously, $%&# that bult$#!%.”
Now that the out of nowhere Kindred reveal has happened, Spencer is doing the work he should have done BEFORE the reveal. Peter is confronting his complicated feelings about his best friend. He’s doing his best to reconcile what’s happened. And even better for him, he has MJ at his side to do it. Sure, the narrative device of Peter Parker performing the Spider Monologues is hokey, but considering the source, it makes sense.
Also, though Bagley does a solid job here, Marvel should not give him issues that are 80% talking heads. The stuff that isn’t Peter monologuing looks solid, but the tight focus on his face just doesn’t land, especially when Bagley does practically nothing to change Peter’s facial expression except moving his head. Also, whichever inker is adding too many lines and shadows? Stop it.
Then we reach the last three pages. And Doctor Strange enters the picture. He angrily marches through a Las Vegas casino. Considering the dialogue and the fact that Nick Spencer hasn’t met an old plot thread that he’s unwilling to beat like a dead horse you know what’s coming. After all, we’ve gotten reminded of “Sins Past” enough the last few months that Spencer has to remind us of the other most hated Spider-story of all time.
Sure enough, Strange is confronting Mephisto. And his question? “What is wrong with Peter Parker’s soul?”
You know? His soul. The thing that One More Day EXPLICITLY avoided Peter Parker selling to the devil, because heaven forbid Spider-Man make a deal with the devil for anything IMPORTANT. But that doesn’t matter because saying “his soul” is much more dramatic here.
Once again, Marvel is teasing undoing One More Day. A decision that is well over a decade old now, a decision made because Joe Quesada didn’t like Spider-Man being married and Dan Slott doesn’t like Mary Jane Watson. So do it, shit or get off the pot. Undo it instead of teasing readers that they might and pulling back.
It’s baffling and just plain dumb, and frankly ruined an issue that I was actually kind of enjoying.
There are going to be some breathless fans/reviewers out there that give this issue a 10/10 review score for that last page. That’s a mistake. This is just eye-rolling fanbait, and readers deserve better.
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.
