The Amazing Spider-Man [2018] #14 - Marvel Comics

THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN No. 14, March 2019

Having been described in its rear-situated Letters Page as a title “worth the money in my wallet” due to ‘Nick Spencer’s run on The Amazing Spider-Man being fantastic’, the former politician’s script for “Family Matters” probably didn’t live up to that particular reader’s expectations. Indeed, this twenty-page periodical’s plot is predominantly packed full of sedentary table-talk and family squabbles, as opposed to anything either sensational or even slightly entertaining; “What did you think would happen? That you could just take advantage of my grief and my financial situation to --”

True, at the very end of this publication Peter Parker’s alter-ego finally starts spinning some webs when he goes toe-to-toe against the Taskmaster and Black Ant in a seemingly upper-market restaurant. But this fracas is so short-lived, courtesy of the Rhino literally crashing the party in time to form an unlikely team-up with the titular character that the mouth-watering confrontation arguably just acts as an enticing appetiser for the ongoing series’ subsequent issue.

Instead, this comic’s audience are left with several snapshots into the domestic life of the ever-villainous Arcade, the poverty-stricken Aunt May, and the Lizard’s scale-covered son, Billy. Such scenes are admittedly quite endearing, especially Curt Connors’ evident concern over his young boy’s behaviour on social media when it threatens to expose the vulnerable child’s whereabouts to the world. However, debatably just one of these dialogue-driven dramas would be quite enough when interspersed between the panels of a dynamically paced narrative. So to have penned four similar conversations condensed within a single instalment badly slows down any sense of speed which this book’s storyline might have.

Luckily though, what this edition lacks in sense-shattering shenanigans it somewhat makes up for with Chris Bachalo’s colours and pencils. The Canadian illustrator does a particularly good job in providing the sewer-dwelling anthropomorphic reptile with plenty of heft and girth to his cold-blooded form, as well imbuing the few punches thrown during Spidey’s altercation with Tony Masters with some incredible bone-crunching impacts. Furthermore, the artist makes good use of some old X-Men artwork when depicting Arcade playing a video game on a big screen, and later likewise incorporates a classic Web-head verses Lizard sketch too.

The regular cover art of "THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN" #14 by Ryan Ottley & Nathan Fairbairn