The Amazing Spider-Man [2015] #28 - Marvel Comics

THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN No. 28, August 2017

Boldly advertised as a climatic confrontation between Peter Parker’s alter-ego and his arch-nemesis Norman Osborn in a “No gadgets. No powers. No holds barred!” fist-fight, Issue Twenty Eight of “Amazing Spider-Man” must have proved something of a bitter disappointment to the majority of its 50,925 readers in June 2017. For starters, at the comic’s conclusion the former “amoral industrialist Head of Oscorp” is physically far from defeated by “the crime-fighting super hero” and simply runs off into the Symkarian snow upon seeing that S.H.I.E.L.D. has arrived to thwart his warmongering, and secondly, despite being outclassed by a woman who has “been trained to be the best swordsman in Europe”, a bloodied Silver Sable supposedly defeats the Countess Karkov by simply causing a slight cut to her face, and subsequently breaking her will to fight..? 

Such major ‘let-downs’ to the culmination of “The Osborn Identity” really ‘smack’ of Dan Slott running out of ideas as to how to satisfactorily conclude his four-parter, and arguably suggest that the Berkeley-born writer disconcertingly tired of “chronicling Spidey’s globe-trotting battle against the former Green Goblin…” Indeed, rather than provide an “epic showdown between the two” as the American author promised fans in a pre-publication interview with “Comic Book Resources”, this twenty-page periodical instead just lazily strips Web-head of his powers through a combination of toxic gases, and then depicts him getting battered by his facially-disfigured foe across numerous panels before Harry’s father (once again) escapes. 

Admittedly, the limits to which Norman has gone to in order to “inhibit” all of the wall-crawler’s different powers is rather impressive, as is his trap to rid Spider-man of “that pathetic spider-armour of yours” using an electro-magnetic pulse. But as Parker himself later states, all Osborn had to do when his spider-senses were down was poison him with another gas and kill him. It makes little sense that one of the cleverest men in the world went to so much trouble simply to “put us on equal footing” and start rolling around with their deadliest enemy in the snow..?

Fortunately, “One-On-One” is undoubtedly saved by the superb fast-paced story-boarding of Stuart Immonen, whose dynamic sketching of both the main event, as well as Sable’s fencing lesson with “the Symkarian Monarch”, is an absolute delight to behold. There’s a real arrogance to the posture and duelling stance of Countess Karkov which speaks a thousand words, and clearly reinforces editor Nick Lowe’s belief that the Canadian artist’s characters “feel real and they feel like there's a life behind those eyes that he draws, and that's so cool to see.”

Writer: Dan Slott, Penciler: Stuart Immnonen, and Inker: Wade von Grawbadger

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

The Amazing Spider-Man [2015] #26 - Marvel Comics

THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN No. 26, June 2017

There can surely be little doubt that, if nothing else, Dan Slott’s script for Issue Twenty Six of “Amazing Spider-Man” is frantically fast-paced, as well as packed with an incredible amount of gun-play and explosions. Indeed, with the exception of an utterly bizarre shareholders conference call disconcertingly crowbarred smack into the middle of Web-head’s confrontation with Norman Osborn, “Fight Or Flight” just doesn’t let up on the action until the comic’s final few pages when Nick Fury dramatically decides that Peter Parker, who “has provided S.H.I.E.L.D. with our current crop of weapons and technology”, is now “no different than A.I.M. or Hydra” simply because the American contractor has decided “to invade the sovereign nation of Symkaria.”   

Whether or not this twenty-page periodical’s 62,515-strong audience actually felt the Berkeley-born writer’s narrative made sense though, is arguably an entirely different matter. To begin with, if this book’s basic premise was for Harry’s father to use the wall-crawler and Silver Sable as advertising guinea pigs for his Kingslayer Mark 1 mechanoid, then the arrogant arms dealer clearly made an uncharacteristically unwise decision. For whilst Stuart Immonen’s marvellously dynamic pencils suggest the killing machine is both toweringly-tall and phenomenally well-armed, the large robot is still rather easily dispatched by the super-heroic pair due to their re-enactment of the final scene in Steven Spielberg’s 1975 thriller film “Jaws”; “Smile, you son of a --”

Similarly nonsensical is the titular character’s decision to “ship millions of dollars of equipment to topple a lawful regime” simply because it’ll supposedly “help spider-man stop a bad guy.” This reckless resolution is entirely based upon the word of a woman who up until a few minutes earlier, Parker had thought dead, and may, at least according to Mockingbird, be one of the Jackal’s clones. Indeed, the “single-minded” Sablinova’s apparent survival from Doctor Octopus's sea fortress (see the 2012 story-arc “Ends of the Earth”) is infuriatingly swept aside by Slott with the single line “it doesn’t matter.” Considering how guilty Peter felt at the time of the mercenary’s “demise”, such a reaction seems wholly unacceptable.

What is clear from this second instalment of “The Osborn Identity” is just why the publication’s American author told ComicBook.com in an interview that "Stuart [Immonen] is fantastic at everything". The Canadian penciller provides Norman Osborn with a real maniacal glint to his eye, and there’s a serious sense of scintillating speed to his scenes involving the Green Goblin’s glide-cycles which is highly reminiscent of the speeder bike chase on Endor in the 1983 science fiction flick “Return of The Jedi”.

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