The war for the Lifeline Tablet concludes in an oversized issue by Nick Spencer, Roge Antonio, Carlos Gomez, Ze Carlos, Alex Sinclair and Joe Caramagna!
If King’s Ransom has shown readers anything, it’s that sometimes a writer needs to play to his strengths.
Prior to his (rightfully) much-maligned Captain America run, Nick Spencer was best known for Superior Foes of Spider-Man and The Fix (both with Steve Lieber), a pair of madcap ensemble comedies. They showed a talent for not just comedy but basing it on character and plot. They were funny, inventive, and genuinely fun to read.
However, at some point, something shifted. Vishal Gullapalli talked at length about where Spencer’s Captain America went wrong. I’ve talked plenty before about the highs and many, many lows of this series. But Giant-Size Amazing Spider-Man: King’s Ransom was actually… pretty good.
Now, it wasn’t a great issue by any means. The dialogue was overly quippy at some points, even when it wasn’t spoken by Peter Parker, and the resolution of the “Threats and Menaces” plot was sudden and a bit eye-rolling. The art was good throughout, but it was extremely Marvel house style, to the point that I wasn’t sure when the pencils shifted between one of the three pencillers.
However, the issue largely focused on the friendship between Spider-Man and Boomerang, which has far and away been the strongest thing about the past sixty-plus issues of Amazing Spider-Man. These two have grown from rivals to reluctant allies, to even friends. Thanks to that genuine and often funny journey, this issue works- while Spider-Man’s friends and allies prevent a war (and rightfully call him out for his selfishness), Peter teams with Boomerang to finish their journey to reassemble the Lifeline Tablet.
However, there’s a twist, and because of the last three years of build-up, it’s genuinely affecting, unlike the largely hollow Kindred storyline.
What will this issue mean for the Spider-Man world at large? I’m not sure. But I’m glad we got it. It reminded me of the Nick Spencer of old, and even with its faults was a lot of fun to read. Hopefully, the remainder of this run gives readers more of these types of stories, rather than the hollow nostalgia we’ve gotten every time Boomerang hasn’t been involved.
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.
