Writers: Nick Spencer & Ed Brisson
Artist: Zé Carlos, Carlos Gómez & Marcelo Ferreira
Inkers: Zé Carlos, Carlos Gómez & Wayne Faucher
Color Artists: Anrew Crossley & Morry Hollowell
Cover Artists: Mark Bailey, John Dell & Brian Reber
Reviewer: StoryBabbler
Spider-Man finds himself entangled in a wide web of mystery and deception, even when he doesn’t realize it. His lab partner has been roped into a heist, one of his old friends has gotten pregnant. And beyond his notice, his sister has a curious encounter with the clandestine Chameleon and The Finisher. Now, Amazing Spider-Man #69 shows just how deeper the conspiracy goes.
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Review:
Previously, I have said that it felt like the Chameleon wasn’t the lead villain, let alone that there was a compelling conspiracy at play here. Well, turns out there might be more to it as the comic delivers a little bit more on this element as it firmly establishes The Finisher and his relation to the Chameleon. However, for every good thing there’s some negative as well. The entire comic spends its time talking around in circles when it comes the issue of Theresa Parker and what actually happened to the Parkers. If you’re looking for any progress on that, you’re out of luck in this comic.
However, the comic makes up for that by continuing the Clairvoyant Heist (that’s my name for this subplot) with Spider-Man swinging right into the middle of trouble as The Foreigner and Chance unleash their henchmen of Jack ‘O Lanterns on him. There’s some fun narration and inner dialogue by Spidey while he’s fighting the villains and it feels very fun. Things spiral out of control and Peter is left trying to figure out the villains’ play here.
After the heist, Nick Spencer and Ed Brisson play their trump card as they manage to make the Clairvoyant Heist and the Betty Brant & Ned storyline converge together with the Chameleon plot as the central point bringing them all together. Granted, it doesn’t make total sense how all of this will work out or how they’re related to each other to begin with. However, now that the conspiratorial element is being pushed to forefront now, we’ll likely get clearer answers in the next issue or two.
Spoilers:
However, the comic does drop a big revelation in the small segment at the end building up to the upcoming Sinister War story arc. It shows Dr. Octopus resurrect Maxwell Dillan aka Electro, the original, back from the dead and in his original costume, too. For those wondering why that’s a big deal, the original Electro was killed by the current female Electro to get his powers back in the Clone Conspiracy storyline.
Final Thoughts:
Amazing Spider-Man #69 continues to build up more of its grand conspiracy all while Spidey tries to deal with a heist. The comic is actually pretty fun for the most part when it has Spider-Man fighting the super-villains, but the weak point is the “conspiracy” part of this story. It feels like the Chameleon and The Finisher are just talking in circles with each other. But the comic does its part to build up the conspiracy as well as it can for the next big issue.