Plot: Kelly Thompson
Script: Jed MacKay
Artists: Fran Galan, Sara Pichelli & Ze Carlos
Color Artist: Brian Reber
Cover Artists: Arthur Adams & Alejandro Sanchez
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Reviewer: StoryBabbler
Peter and Ben are back together and taking on Beyond Corporation as Spider-Men! But they hit a snag. Ben abruptly went off on his own as his mental state deteriorates, but in the process he unlocked the mysterious Door Z. While Ben ran off, Peter, Misty Knight, and Colleen Wing are left to fight this menacing creature in Amazing Spider-Man #92!
Review:
This issue is very underwhelming. In my previous review, I said that there would be some potential in exploring the idea of the creature behind Door Z, aka The Lizard, or Creature Z. Going into this issue, I thought we’d get a cool creature feature as it shows off all the cool new tricks The Lizard has now that he’s been experimented on by the Beyond Corporation. Sadly, I was wrong.
If you’re expecting at least half of the comic to be devoted to the fight with the new Lizard, or Creature Z as I’ll call him for this review, you’d be wrong. In reality, all you get are a handful of pages featuring Creature Z, then it basically becomes Misty Knight and Colleen Wing’s comic book. They quip, they joke, they deliver one-liners, they become the stars of this issue, taking most of the spotlight away from Creature Z, Peter, and Ben. Creature Z doesn’t even have that big of an upgrade from the regular Lizard, other than the wings and new skin tone.
Speaking of Ben, the comic does shift here and there to Ben Reilly’s side of things, continuing to show how his mind is not deteriorating but losing its moral center. These are definitely the more interesting parts of the comic. Previously, Ben was mind-wiped by the Beyond Corporation. Turns out they did too good of a job and erased his memories of the values Uncle Ben instilled in Peter, which carried over into Ben, and his narrations reads like a lethal anti-hero in his bits in the comic.
You can see this in one of the preview images provided in this review below. It’s like he’s becoming a violent sociopath who’s aware he’s losing more of his empathy and heroic values and might not care. But he does regain a bit of his moral composure in a very human way as he continues his way up Beyond’s HQ.
SPOILERS:
Kind of soft spoiler. For those wondering why the Lizard has grey skin tone and wings now, it’s because Beyond mixed in some vampire DNA from Michael Morbius into him. Surprise, Morbius shows up in the comic to help as you see in the preview image in this review. That’s the big secret, which honestly sounds cool, but it’s not remotely as cool as it should be in the comic itself.
Final Thoughts:
Amazing Spider-Man #92 shows off the new form of The Lizard, or Creature Z, and it’s pretty underwhelming. The story barely features this new take on the classic Spider-Man villain and really becomes Misty Knight and Colleen Wing’s comic for the most part. However, when the comic focuses on Ben Reilly, that’s where the writing is at its best and helps set the stage for the next issue in the Beyond saga.