Amazing Spider-Man #795
Writers: Dan Slott & Christos Gage
Penciller: Mike Hawthorne
Colorist: Marte Gracia
Letterer: VC’s Joe Caramagna
Price: $3.99
Release Date: 02/07/18
Rating: T
Plot: The Sorcerer Supreme summons Spider-Man to his sanctum. Unfortunately Loki’s the new tenant because he took the job from Doctor Strange. Loki summoned Spidey so he can re-pay a favor owed to the webhead. Meanwhile, Norman Osborn starts seeing red.
Story: Spider-Man and Loki are extremely well-written in this issue. Slott & Gage easily establish how far Spider-Man will go to save someone, especially if he inadvertently caused it. In this issue Loki offer to turn back time for Spidey. He initially refuses until he accidentally frees demon wasps that attack the city and someone dies. Even when Loki offers to go further back, Spider-Man still refuses because he just wants to save one victim. This shows how unselfish Spider-Man is and why he’s one of Marvel’s best characters. Meanwhile, Loki is written as one of Marvel’s best strategists. Toward the end of the issue, it’s implied Loki orchestrated the entire event so Spider-Man would waste his favor. This shows how Loki lives up to his other title, the God of Mischief.
In this issue, Peter Parker finally gets his own apartment but we learn he and Bobbi Morse (a.k.a. Mockingbird) broke up. At lunch with Aunt May, Bobbi explains that on their flight from England (see last issue) the two realized they have nothing in common. I’m glad Peter and Bobbi broke up because it was the one thing about the Parker Industries arc that did not make any sense for me. The reason most fans love Spider-Man is his relate-ability to everyday people and having him date another superhero feels counterproductive to that idea. Also the reason the breakup happened now is so Slott could take care of it before his Amazing Spider-Man run ends.
This issue and the previous one are doing an excellent job building up Slott’s final arc, “Keep on Swinging”. Last issue, Norman Osborn obtains the Carnage symbiote. Now Osborn starts to bond with it, however it becomes too much for the villain. Osborn starts monologuing about defeating Spider-Man and taking over the world, but as the symbiote takes over his words change from domination to mass murder. Spider-Man’s always had a challenge defeating Osborn and Carnage separately, but together this is a whole other game.
Art: The facial expressions are on point for this issue. I enjoyed the panel where it’s just Bobbi saying she and Peter have nothing in common. The emphasis on the words implies that they’re addressing the readers and saying, “it’s over!”. Another good example of facial expressions is Norman Osborn as the Carnage symbiote takes over. The way the symbiote grows over the non-scarred portion of Norman’s face shows how much damage he’s received trying to take down Spider-Man.
Artwise, there were some funny scenes. When Spider-Man sees Loki as the Sorcerer Supreme for the first time, he makes a joke about the clashing colors of Loki’s green outfit with the red cloak of levitation. I’m not the great at color coordination but even I know that red and green only work together during Christmas time. Also it’s funny seeing Spider-Man webslinging with winter wear on. I always enjoy when super heroes have to make alterations to their usual costumes.
Verdict: If this issue’s only goal was to build up the return of Norman Osborn then I would say mission accomplished. Otherwise, this was a pretty okay issue. While it showed how Spider-Man’s a great hero and Loki’s a great antagonist, the story was very one and done. Plus since I dropped Doctor Strange this gave me an opportunity to see Loki as the Sorcerer Supreme. However the breakup of Peter and Bobbi and Norman’s scenes are more rewarding to longterm readers. Overall, this is a pretty average issue of Amazing Spider-Man.
Rating: 3 out of 5