The Amazing Spider-Man [2015] #27 - Marvel Comics

THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN No. 27, July 2017

Rather less action-orientated than one would perhaps anticipate for a narrative supposedly depicting a countrywide revolution by the “citizens of Symkaria” against the Countess Katarina Karkov, Dan Slott’s script for Issue Twenty Seven of “Amazing Spider-Man” is nonetheless packed full of some scintillating surprises which arguably must have delighted the title’s loyal 51,404 followers in April 2017. Certainly, Bobbi Morse’s ‘betrayal’ of Nick Fury and immediate “resignation from S.H.I.E.L.D.” in order to help the titular character is just one of this tome’s more startling revelations which must have caught the odd flat-footed bibliophile somewhat off-guard; “Well, that was a nice career while it lasted.”

The Berkeley-born writer’s development of Norman Osborn as a cold-hearted, calculating, yet oddly vulnerable, homicidal maniac also proves to be one of this comic’s more enthralling aspects. Grotesquely disfigured by Doctor Dragovic’s operation, Harry’s father both demonstrates his inability to resist being goaded into undergoing a bout of less than successful face-changing surgery simply because Spider-Man had previously rebuked him for fearing to ‘show his own face in public’, as well as his complete coolness when under-fire by calmly cancelling “port and cigars” with the countess when his evening meal is interrupted by Silver Sable’s “assault [occurring] sooner than expected.” Indeed, in many ways the “man who deserves respect at all times” is arguably (and perhaps disconcertingly) penned as being a far more charismatically interesting figure to read about than this book’s “crime-fighting super hero”.

Of course, once Spider-Man “has all the forces and weaponry that Parker Industries can gather” arrive close to Osborn’s “main munitions factory” then the Eisner Award-winner’s character exploration somewhat sadly ceases in favour of pure unadulterated conflict. This significant shift in the storyline’s pace starts with the Wild Pack’s assault upon the armament facility as Arachno-Jets, Spider-Mobiles, the Spider-Cycle and Web-Tanks cataclysmically clash with Kingslayer titans and Goblin Gliders, and doesn't stop even when “a proud daughter of the lands” verbally rallies her people around her in order to “see to it that Symkaria is free again!”

Delightfully, all of this exposition and large-scale warfare is incredibly well-drawn by Stuart Immonen, whose atmospheric pencilling throughout the comic’s twenty-pages makes it clear just why Slott told “ComicBook.com” in an interview that “there are moments where I wrote some scenes for certain characters that just had all this extra chemistry going on because of the magic Stuart was bringing to the mix…”

Writer: Dan Slott, Pencils: Stuart Immnonen, and Inks: Wade von Grawbadger