This review contains some spoilers for The Amazing Spider-Man #56, on sale now, from Marvel Comics
As we all know, legacy numbering is weird. I don't think it's a BAD THING, but it's obviously a weird thing, and with the exception of Ultimate Spider-Man and Incredible Hulk using some rough math to arrive at their respective legacy numbering, the weirdest legacy numbering situation in comics today is definitely The Amazing Spider-ManYou see, when Dan Slott finished his run on The Amazing Spider-Manhe hasn't finished The Amazing Spider-Man #800, did an EXTRA issue, so when the series relaunched in 2018, issue #1 was now one off from the legacy numbering (#1 was the legacy #802), so The Amazing Spider-Man (Vol.5) #49 was the 850th issue of The Amazing Spider-Man (and so yes, THAT DID, in effect, mean that they did an “anniversary” issue in consecutive issues.) That volume then ended at #93, so now that means the numbering is EVEN MORE unbalanced, and as a result, the current series has done “anniversary” issues for #25, #50, but also #6 (legacy issue #900), #31 (legacy issue #925), and now #56 (legacy issue #950).
So, in case you were wondering why a 56th issue of a series is a big “anniversary” issue, here's why! Anyway, at least this is a Well “anniversary” issue, as it kicks off the latest storyline from Zeb Wells, John Romita Jr., Scott Hanna, Marcio Menyz and Joe Caramagna with a clever final showdown between Tombstone and Spider-Man (which clearly isn't as “final” as Spider-Man would have preferred)!
How did the final story arc of Amazing Spider-Man with Zeb Wells and John Romita Jr. begin?
Longtime supervillain Tombstone (Lonnie Lincoln) has been a major character in the current volume of The Amazing Spider-Manas Zeb Wells has revived a storyline introduced during the previous Nick Spencer series in which Randy Robertson (son of Daily Trumpet Editor-in-Chief Robbie Robertson) and Janice Lincoln (the supervillain known as Beetle) began dating despite their fathers hating each other since they were little. In this volume, Randy and Janice even made it to the altar, but the wedding was interrupted by an assassination attempt on Tombstone's life. This led to a city-wide gang war that saw Janice “break the ice” to take over her father's territory while he remained in the hospital following the assassination attempt. Once released from the hospital, Tombstone agreed to work with Spider-Man to help keep the gang war in check, in part to protect his daughter.
Eventually, however, Tombstone betrayed both Spider-Man and Janice, stepping in after they had defeated Janice's main rival, Madame Masque, and taking control of ALL of New York City's criminal underworld. The problem is, he had just allied himself with Spider-Man, and that's not much of a supervillain. Spider-Man, for his part, has been attacking Tombstone's criminal enterprises by pretending that he and Tombstone ARE working together. Of course, this is driving Tombstone insane, but it's also weakening his grip on the criminal underworld. So, in this issue, Tombstone chooses to go against Spider-Man by killing one of Spider-Man's friends… PETER PARKER!
It's a very clever setup, as Peter has to defend himself from Tombstone, but to do so without revealing that he is, well, you know, Spider-Man! Spider-Man has fortunately come up with a plan involving She-Hulk and another major superhero, and they step in to save Peter's life from Tombstone. The biggest twist, though, is that Janice has agreed to testify against her father in court. Tombstone, however, is clearly not resigned to losing at this point, and obviously has another trick up his sleeve, and finding out what it is will be the rest of this arc that will put Wells off the show.
Wells leans heavily on the character work he and Spencer have put into these characters to make the big plot twists feel like they have real MEANING behind them (the preview shows Tombstone looking back on a strange time he spent working as Wilson Fisk's bodyguard when he was younger). There's a compelling reason here why this final plot has a major effect on the lives of Peter and his friends. It's all very “earned” drama. John Romita Jr. continues to be a terrific fight “choreographer” and Hanna obviously pairs well with Romita's pencils (as she has for decades now). Menyz and Caramagna are the glue that holds The Amazing Spider-Man feel like The Amazing Spider-Man even when there are guest artists (and since it's one of Marvel's best-selling series, and therefore comes out more frequently, that consistency is very important). Menyz has a particularly strong issue, as there are many “atmospheric” scenes in the issue (think Janice walking down dark streets lit from above by only a streetlight, or a big fight in the rain) that he absolutely nails.
What happened in the issue's backup stories?
There are three backup stories in the issue. The first is a nice story by Wells, Andrés Genolet, Rachelle Rosenberg and Caramagna that both sets up the twist in the main story (allowing Wells to explain how it was handled without having to dump a bunch of explanations in the middle of the story) AND picks up a recurring subplot involving Ned Leeds being framed as the Hobgoblin, and Ned's anger at Peter for what Ned sees as a problem with Peter…
This allows Wells to pick up subplots without having to distract from the main plot. It's a smart idea. Genolet and Rosenberg did a great job with the illustrations.
The next backup story highlights Mary Jane's boyfriend, Paul Rabin, who is a major new character in the Spider-Man universe introduced in this series. Paul is from another universe, where his father has become a supervillain. Here, we see Paul trying to deal with the pain his father has caused in PAUL's universe by reaching out to the people his father has hurt in THIS universe and helping them.
This was drawn by Ramon Rosanas, Rosenberg, and Caramgana. I can't say I was crying out for a solo Paul story, but it was well told and the art by Rosanas and Rosenberg was excellent. Some REALLY delightfully creepy panels.
Finally, Lee Gatlin wrote a delightful one-page joke story about Kraven the Hunter who needs Spider-Man's help to find some surprising prey.
The Amazing Spider-Man Issue 56 is now on sale.
Source: Marvel