Review: Shock Value With No Substance In ‘Amazing Spider-Man’ #52

At long last Kindred and Spider-Man are face-to-face. As expected, an all-out war breaks out as the fate of the extended Spider family (and most of the city) hangs in the balance. Peter Parker has to reach down deep and give this fight everything he has if he hopes to save everyone…but will he be able to save himself too?

So much of Amazing Spider-Man has built up to this confrontation. Writer Nick Spencer has been laying the groundwork for this encounter for two years. As powerful as this fight is, it still rings hollow as there is no investment in this. Despite Kindred’s identity being revealed as Harry Osborn (which I still don’t buy), Peter doesn’t know this, nor do we have any idea why he’s doing any of this. He keeps talking about Spider-Man’s guilt, but there are no details to it. It’s all style and no substance.

There is some great style though. Artist Patrick Gleason really shines in these fight scenes. They go all over the page and are truly dynamic. Each page is varied in its layout, adding to the impact of this battle. While the reason for this action isn’t defined, the stakes are made abundantly clear.

There’s a fantastic double page spread where Kindred and the wall-crawler beat the living crap out of each other. Every shot is different, serving as a testament to the spider-like agility our hero possesses, not to mention his spider sense warning him of danger. It culminates in a massive show of power from the web-head which lands well, but is shrugged off by the villain. In wrestling terms, the guy no sells it.

Kindred’s voice is portrayed in scratchy word balloons, like its coming from the bowels of Hell itself. Letterer Joe Caramagna does a great job here, although I wouldn’t have minded seeing a different font to further emphasize the bad guy’s nature.

One thing that’s a little off with this arc is how it’s split up with the extra issues. Half the story (specifically the parts that involve the rest of the Spider family and the supporting characters) have been happening over there so it feels a little disjointed to shoehorn them in here, especially when they play such a major part in the climax of this issue.

Gleason shines here too, turning characters like Spider-Woman and Ghost-Spider into absolute monsters with sharp claws and teeth. They’re laying waste to the city and to each other. Colorist Edgar Delgado frames this chaos in fire and fright with bright yellows and oranges that convey the danger they pose.

While we get some movement and a jaw-dropping cliffhanger, “Last Remains” still feels a little empty. It has shock value, but no investment so seeing the desecrated corpses of Uncle Ben and Gwen Stacy is more disgusting than impactful. I am curious where this could possibly go next, especially with an ending like this.

Amazing Spider-Man #52 from Marvel Comics is currently available at your local comic shop and digitally through ComiXology and Amazon Kindle.