The Amazing Spider-Man [2018] #22 - Marvel Comics

THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN No. 22, July 2019

It is hard to believe that many of this comic’s 78,102 buyers actually agreed with “Imagine Games Network” when the entertainment media website proudly proclaimed in May 2019 that this book “has a satisfying ending”, considering that having put Peter Parker’s alter-ego through a series of horrific emotional trials and tribulations Nick Spencer nonsensically pens Kraven The Hunter simply letting his arch-nemesis go unmolested. Indeed, the bizarre moment debatably makes a complete mockery of the entire multi-part event and raises numerous questions as to just why Sergei Kravinoff even bothered to fund so elaborate a death-trap as the one in New York City’s Central Park he constructed with the help of fellow super-villain Arcade.

Sure, there’s potentially some dark-seated logic to the storyline’s premise that the jaded, big-game Russian might seek his own death at the hands of his greatest adversary, and resultantly put into place a plan which would cause Spider-Man to lose his temper to the point where he murders Stan Lee's co-creation with his super-strength. But setting up a technologically sophisticated death-zone crammed full of Web-head’s most notorious villains and having society’s bored elite gun them down in cold-blood using heavily armed, remote-controlled robots probably isn’t the first scheme to cause such a loss of self-control which leapt to any bibliophile’s mind; “There will be no more bloodshed in the fields or the ballroom tonight.”

Intriguingly however, Issue Twenty-Two of “The Amazing Spider-Man” does contain a few arguably well-penned moments, most notably that of Kraven’s shocking demise fighting his heir. This misdirection is quite wonderfully delivered due to artist Humberto Ramos’ clever layouts, which strongly suggest the Soviet’s son is stood waiting for a frantic Wall-crawler just beyond Kravinoff’s secret headquarters and not his weary father who is disguised as the black-suited titular character. The ensuing close combat is enthrallingly brutal, and doubtless for a moment many a reader actually thought the High Evolutionary’s clone might actually have achieved what his parent could not.

In addition, the Mexican penciller’s dynamic depiction of Kraven’s Last Son battling both Black Cat and the Lizard is breathtakingly action-packed, with each panel palpably presenting a savage urgency to the events taking place. Furthermore, having established just how mercilessly vicious Curt Conner’s scaly form can be when he successfully dispatches the heavily moustached killer about to slaughter his son, the illustrator quite magically then imbues the former member of the Sinister Six with a wonderfully caring complexion so as to assure an understandably nervous Billy he won’t hurt him.

Writer: Nick Spencer, Penciler: Humberto Ramos & Inkers: Humberto Ramos & Victor Olazaba