Writer: Kelly Thompson
Artists: Sara Pichelli & Fran Galan
Color Artist: Brian Reber
Cover Artists: Arthur Adams & Alejandro Sanchez
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Reviewer: StoryBabbler
Peter Parker was out of commission, and Ben Reilly took over as Spider-Man with the Beyond Corporation’s backing. But Ben found out they were less than sincere with him, and after the Queen Goblin’s attack, he’s had it. Now, Peter and Ben are together again, and this time the Spider-Men are going to take the fight to Beyond in Amazing Spider-Man #91!
Review:
Now that Peter and Ben are working together, you’d think this would be a cool comic. Not exactly. With Kelly Thompson back on as the writer for the comic, things take a more wacky direction for the story and characters in it. Now, if you’re a fan of Kelly Thompson’s style of writing, than this might be the book for you. But if not, then skip this comic for the next issue, because this style of writing feels tonally jarring coming straight off the last issue as she does everything she can to make the book “quirky”.
By quirky, I mean she tries to have almost every character quip and make ironic jokes and keeps turning otherwise menacing situations into comedic scenes. This bleeds over into Ben’s narration a little bit as he shares his thoughts on his current state of mind throughout the book. It’s not terrible and it does inform readers of his deteriorating mental state due to Beyond’s mind-wipe. However, the quirkiness becomes a major issue when it’s front and center with Peter, Ben, and the enemies they fight in the comic.
The other thing is that the team-up between Peter and Ben is not capitalized on as it should be. You see them watch each other’s back and fight together, you definitely see Peter look out for Ben in his current condition. However, it doesn’t feel half as fun or compelling as it should be, nor does it feel better than when they were fighting separately in previous issues. Weirdly enough, there aren’t as many cool shots of them fighting together except for the one you see in the preview images.
The art in this book by Sara Pichelli and Fran Galan is good, they certainly make the characters look fine and distinctive. But the art is held back by the actual story content in the comic. However, I think half of the blame is Kelly Thompson’s writing, while the other half of the blame is on the Beyond Board for barely coming up with anything to put in this comic. And I’ll get into that in the Spoilers section right now.
SPOILERS:
Essentially, Peter and Ben are at the Beyond Corporation’s Super-villain facility on Staten Island and fight wacky super-villain rejects. That’s it. They’re already there by the time the comic starts as are the villain rejects, and it’s a big letdown. The facility itself looks like a generic abandoned warehouse/factory, except for Door Z but even that doesn’t look half as cool as it does on the cover. The villain rejects the Spider-Men fight are weird and unmemorable except for a couple of robots that look like Spider-Slayer candidates. There’s no real sense of progression to their fight through the facility, heck, they don’t really have much of a goal here – they’re just fighting whatever’s there.
And of course, since Kelly Thompson’s writing this issue and probably the next one, she has her dynamic duo of Misty Knight and Colleen show up out of the blue to help fight and deliver quirky one-liners. However, there is one big surprise in the comic that does have me somewhat excited and that is what’s behind Door Z. But I won’t spoil that for readers, so they can find out for themselves.
Final Thoughts:
Amazing Spider-Man #91 continues the Beyond storyline with Peter Parker and Ben Reilly teaming up against the Beyond Corporation. However, the story and team-up with the two Spider-Men is less thrilling than expected as they face Beyond’s weird villain rejects. While the book is a little more quirky, the secret behind Door Z is a solid surprise that leaves room for better action in the next issue.