The Amazing Spider-Man [2015] #23 - Marvel Comics

THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN No. 23, March 2017

Supposedly depicting events which “take place after the revelations of The Clone Conspiracy #4!”, and containing little more than a conversational piece between Peter Parker and the latest clone of his “first love”, this tediously dire publication must surely have bored even the most steadfast of Dan Slott’s supporters in January 2017. It’s certainly hard to imagine any of the comic’s 73,773 readers obtaining any lasting entertainment from a pedantically-paced plot whose foremost highlights consist of the titular character removing his mask to reveal a tear-streaked, stumble-covered face, and Gwen Stacy becoming increasingly cross at the audacity of her former-boyfriend for informing her she’s “not Gwen.”; “How dare you! Who the hell are you to say that? I know what I feel. What I remember. And I remember every part of my life!”

Admittedly, Issue Twenty Three of “The Amazing Spider-Man” was probably viewed by its American author as something of a success, on account of the twenty-page periodical somehow finding itself as that month’s ninth best-selling title. But such a sudden rise in sales could arguably be justified by the book’s misleading Alex Ross cover illustration which implies the Jackal’s clone is about to reveal the costumed crime-fighter’s secret identity against his wishes, rather than as a result of the Berkeley-born author’s attempt to ‘pad out’ an entire comic with a dialogue-heavy argument set within the living room of Captain Stacy’s house.

Equally as disconcerting as the Eisner Award-winner’s insistence on putting words before action, is his frustrating premise to simply repeat many of the self-same events depicted within the “The Clone Conspiracy” mini-series, such as the Lizard harmlessly playing soccer with his young son and wife on a grassy lawn, Ben Reilly providing Peter with a tour of his ‘super-villain paradise’, and Parker finally convincing his cloned captor that he’ll never willing play a part in the Machiavellian manipulator’s great deception. These ‘duplications’, disappointingly two-dimensionally drawn by Giuseppe Camuncoli, make it painfully clear that rather than being a ‘stand-alone’ tale set within the “Dead No More” story-arc, this particular edition is nothing more than a rehash of Slott’s concurrently published Spidey-event and strongly suggests that Dan, despite frequent collaborator Christos Gage’s support, had run out of ideas to progress this particular adventure any further…

Writers: Dan Slott & Christos Gage, Artist: Giuseppe Camuncoli, and Inker: Cam Smith