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| THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN No. 800, July 2018 |
Shifting a staggering 411,480 copies in May 2018, a
particularly impressive feat considering that the book’s cover price was a
whopping $9.99, there can surely be little argument that Dan Slott’s narrative
for Issue Eight Hundred of “The Amazing Spider-Man” helped the eighty-page
periodical sell extraordinarily well. Indeed, according to “Diamond Comic
Distributors”, this publication, alongside reorders of “DC Comics” very
special oversized edition of “Action Comics”, represented an unbelievable “$4
million in comics at full retail shipped to the North American market” during a
single month.
But despite such stunning sales figures, it is debatably
difficult to agree with “Marvel Comics” claim that this final instalment to “Go
Down Swinging” contains a story whose “scope [is] unmatched in comics”,
especially when the over-stretched adventure’s second half seemingly just predominantly
pits the titular character up against his old adversary one-on-one. Of course,
Norman Osborn’s callous consciousness is admittedly merged with the super-powered
Carnage symbiote, as Peter Parker’s alter ego is with Venom, and Flash Thompson
momentarily appears in the guise of Agent Anti-Venom simply to heroically die
in order to thwart perhaps one of the most unconvincing plot-points the Eisner Award-winner's penned
since taking over the writing reins of the New York City-based publisher’s “company
mascot”. Yet when the Red Goblin, despite all his previous prevarication finally
has the wall-crawler’s life in his hands, he stupidly relents so as to strip
himself of Cletus Kasaday’s influence and face his nemesis as “the real me” in
one final fist-fight; “It’s taken everything I’ve had to last this long. I am
not blowing this chance. Here’s whatever I’ve got left…”
Just as disappointing is the American author’s bizarre decision
to have John Jonah Jameson attempt to kill a clearly defeated Osborn simply
because he feels guilty at previously revealing Web-head’s secret identity to the
super-villain. The cigar-chomping journalist has always proved somewhat nefarious
in his Spider-Man smear campaigns. However, it’s hard to ever imagine the
metropolis’ former Mayor gunning down a helpless man in cold blood, even when
his target has attempted to eradicate this series’ entire supporting cast. In
fact, there is disputably little about this comic’s concluding chapters which are
satisfactorily scripted, as Slott first depicts Parker almost re-enacting blow-by-blow the closing sequence from Joel Schumacher’s 1995 American superhero film “Batman
Returns” at the Ravencroft Solitary Confinement Wing, and then has him laughing
as the Bugle reporter changes into his crime-fighting costume whilst still at
Thompson’s funeral..?
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| Writer: Dan Slott, and Artists: Stuart Immonen, Giuseppe Camuncoli and Marcos Martin |
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