Spider-Man is free of Norman Osborn’s sins. So what’s next? That’s what we find out in Marvel‘s The Amazing Spider-Man #36, written by Zeb Wells with art by Ed McGuinness.
We reviewed the book on the Stack podcast. But in the interest of highlighting more about the title, here’s a summary of the conversation with our thoughts. And if you prefer the longer audio version, that’s below as well!
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The Amazing Spider-Man #36 (2022) Review:
During the Dark Web storyline, Peter Parker met a monstrous demon who was a huge fan of his named Rek-Rap. Now, Rek-Rap is back, and Luke Cage and Spider-Man have to figure out what to do about that with Madelyne Pryor, the leader of the Limbo Embassy. Confusing? Well, wait until you hear about how Silvermane’s head is also back, and ready to take over the Maggia.
Starting on a positive note, the hosts discussed McGuinness’s art, which Pete LePage loved. In particular, LePage thought McGuinness’s Rek_Rap is “in his wheelhouse, he does a great job with bulky, monster-type characters.”
Justin Tyler agreed with this assessment but had bigger issues with the story. “What is going on in this flagship Spider-Man title? This is chaos.”
While LePage liked the “breather” from the regular storyline, Tyler doubled down, saying he would rather deal with the fallout of Spider-Man purging himself of Norman Osborn’s sins than what happens here. “This stuff feels so chaotic, like the last page reveal,” which shows off a strange, masked demon who knows Peter Parker.
Host Alex Zalben thought “Something had to have changed at some point… The synopsis for this issue is [about how] Spider-Man went dark. How is the rest of the world going to feel about that? … Also, the cover has him [with] lightning crashing in the background.” While Zalben liked the idea of what it means for Peter Parker that he did some bad deeds in the last few issues, instead he found this issue didn’t deal with any of the emotional fall-out from the previous arc.
And though he enjoyed the return of villain Silvermane as a goofy, fun sequence, he lamented the overall arc of the series. “This book has forgotten who Peter Parker is, and seems to be moving on from there.”
The Amazing Spider-Man #36 (2022) Official Synopsis:
Spider-Man has never gone this dark. Now the consequences are unraveled. Will New York ever look at him the same way again?
