Amazing Spider-Man’s finale event barrels frustratingly to a non-conclusion in Sinister War #4. Written by Nick Spencer & Ed Brisson; Drawn by Mark Bagley, Dio Neves, and Marcelo Ferreira; Inked by Andrew Hennessy, Andy Owens, Dio Neves, and Marcelo Ferreira; Colored by Brian Reber with Andrew Crossley; Lettered by Joe Caramagna.
Sinister War #4 feels like half of a story. Honestly, it doesn’t even feel like that much. It feels like 1/3 of a story, making it a rather frustrating “conclusion” issue. But despite it having a stamp declaring it as such on it’s credits page, that honor seems to be reserved for the incoming Amazing Spider-Man #73, ultimately making the action and plotting of Sinister War #4 feel inconsequential. And making me feel like a total sap for following all this and 70+ issues of ASM.
Starting with what works, however, Sinister War #4 once again has a fun drive to it. At least, at first it does. Faced once more with Six Sinister Sixes (well, FIVE Sinister Sixes and one Wild Pack technically), Peter Parker is injured, scared, and running his spider-ass off. Attempting to break free of the melee and save Mary Jane. Who is still in the centipede-ic clutches of Kindred; now fully revealed as a grim chimera of Harry Osborn, created in a deal between Norman and Mephisto (another reveal that only came to people who read both Sinister War AND Amazing Spider-Man in tandem).
The pure kinetic fun of seeing Spider-Man face down a gauntlet of goons is still very much at play here. That fun is even further honed by the game trio of pencilers Dio Neves, Mark Bagley, and Marcelo Ferreira. All of whom really lean into the splashy, double-page heavy visuals, aided by some keen inks and rich colors from the supporting artists.
The issue’s “high profile” death also managed to surprise me into feeling something. I am not sure if this is the choice of Spencer or Brisson, though the choice of character eating it suggests the former, as he’s made them basically a co-lead of the title from the opening arcs to now. But the turn actually did get me, jolting a bit of real-deal consequences and heart into the finale event, and spurring Spider-Man into another dynamic “last stand”. Which is once again powerfully rendered by the class art teams at work here.
Unfortunately, said sequence is then promptly undercut by the issue’s “denouement” dealing with Kindred’s control over all the Sinisters. The actual turn is too flippant and dumb to explicitly speak about here, but trust me when I say, it’s not at all a satisfying turn. And doesn’t even really have anything to do with Kindred to boot! Aside from establishing that his “control centipedes” apparently are not magic or demonic in nature, but instead just normal centipedes I guess Kindred has…talked into hanging out with him and carrying out his dark bidding? Instead, the scene just momentarily incapacitates the Sinisters (save for one obvious one, who here recently broke the internet with his reappearance on the silver screen). Allowing Spider-Man to swing to the real ending, in a whole other goddamn book. It’s a half-hearted ending for not even half of a story.
But then again, that seemed to be largely the move for the Nick Spencer Era of Amazing Spider-Man didn’t it? He might have dressed them up as “point” issues or tie-ins for crossovers, but Sinister War #4 just finally reveals what that all really was. Him trying to spread too little narrative over too many issues of comics.
I went into this thinking I would get a fun, frothy comic book event. One that mixed up Spidey and some of his greatest hit villains and left me feeling at least a little more sunny than usual. Instead Sinister War just frustrated me and told me barely 25% of the story. [Ed. Note: We’ve lost eight percentage points of content since the first paragraph of this review. Typical Nick Spencer.]
Sure it had some good artwork and occasionally fun Spider-themed action. But that never made up for how insubstantial each issue felt and how hollow it consistently rang as a curtain call for this volume. Spider-Man (and Ed Brisson) and the readers deserved better.
Zachary Jenkins runs ComicsXF and is a co-host on the podcast “Battle of the Atom.” Shocking everyone, he has a full and vibrant life outside of all this.
