Writer: Justina Ireland
Artist: Gleb Melnikov
Colorist: Marcio Menyz
Letterer: Joe Caramagna
Cover Artists: Ed McGuinness & Marcio Menyz; Rafael Albuquerque; Skottie Young; Lucas Werneck; Francesco D’Ippolito (Disney What If)
Editors: Kaitlyn Lindtvedt, Tom Groneman, Nick Lowe & C B Cebulski
Publisher: Marvel
Price: $4.99
Release Date: December 11, 2024
Since Doctor Doom dubbed him Earth’s Champion, Spider-Man has battled two scions of Cyttorak. Although he has defeated Cyntros and Cyperion, each victory comes at a terrible cost. Armed with the Reeds Of Raggadorr, Peter has met Phil Coulson in a magical place twice, and it wasn't Tahiti. Still, Peter has boned up on magic, thanks to Doctor Strange’s mystic tome. His scientific knowledge is another weapon in his arcane armory. But can Peter combat the Inevitability Of Time? Or will a demon riding a Tuffy bicycle trip him up? Let's thwip into Amazing Spider-Man #63 and find out!
Story
Uncle Ben taught Peter to always believe in himself and never give up. Failure may be inevitable, but success in life comes through helping others. While his loved ones and friends like Ben, Gwen Stacy, and Ms Marvel have died, Peter has helped villains like Norman Osborn embrace positive directions. So when Cyrios observes Peter's failures and consigns him to a stereotype, she misjudges why Peter keeps picking himself up and finding new ways to help others.
While Cyrios nabs the headline in Amazing Spider-Man #63, Justina Ireland continues Peter's struggle to meet everyday demands. Norman Osborn insulated Peter with flexible work hours so he could be Spider-Man. Now that Peter no longer commands a salary, Randy prepares a gallery show to sell his photography. Aunt May wishes the nephew she raised could head a family and hold a steady job. So she tries to give him a new purpose with FEAST, not realizing Peter is already a full-time public servant.
Distraction emerges as a theme and a threat amid this cosmic challenge. Doctor Doom claimed that Spider-Man often lacks focus. Cyttorak’s scions, Callix and Cyra, claim that Doctor Doom is distracted. Aunt May believes Peter lacks the focus to commit to people and employment. While using physical and emotional pain to weaken him, Cyrios claims that Spider-Man should embrace change. Yet Peter’s ability to react to change is likely why Doctor Doom so magnanimously entrusted Spidey with the Earth's future.
Uncle Ben may be gone. But in Amazing Spider-Man #63, Uncle Ben lives on through Peter Parker, who believes in himself and never gives up. Perhaps one day, Aunt May will see that and revise her opinion of her distracted nephew.
Art
After battling a muscular starfish-faced godling and his space beetle brother, Peter meets one of Cyttorak's daughters. Cyrios seeks to put him off guard by appearing as a sweet little devil. After using Peter's spell against him, Cyrios drags him along like a puppy with a glowing green leash through yellow circles bordered by orange. As Gleb Melnikov made adult Cyrios a silhouette while observing Peter’s childhood, her girlish appearance, bicycle, and Peter become silhouettes when they revisit one of Peter's failures. Doom's armor covers Peter like arcane venom when he spies a purple and green villain transporting a blonde damsel through the air with the greatest of ease. A faded Peter fights across the connecting corners of three painful panels before he faces adult Cyrios in a hallway.
Marcio Menyz lavishes a loaded palette on Peter’s battle with Cyrios as she forces him to revisit his nonChristmases Past. But Peter's not the only one who undergoes hardship in Amazing Spider-Man #63. Aunt May looks drawn as she frowns in red, blue, and dark gray. Black Cat struggles to smile in her glossy black catsuit trimmed with white. Shay makes Peter smile, whether gazing wistfully at him in her blue, purple, and dark gray or laying a red, white, and black checked blanket. Darth Maul-like Cyrios smiles the most with her red face adorned with black and framed with red and purple. But Peter banishes her smile by replacing the green tether linking them with a speckled band of red.
Joe Caramagna’s uppercase black lettering in dialogue balloons and narrative boxes grows bold for inflection, swells for increased volume, and never shrinks. Sound effects help us hear Spider-Man hit the wind, a gunshot that haunts him, and Cyrios repeatedly extending Anita Ward’s invitation in Amazing Spider-Man #63. (But will she be happy if he accepts?) Thanks to Marvel for providing a copy for review.
Final Thoughts
Cyrios forces Peter to revisit Yesterday and laments his inability to Let It Be while ignoring that mindfulness and judgmentalism don't Come Together. As Peter struggles to prevent past failures from ruining his present, more scions of Cyttorak study him in Amazing Spider-Man #63. One seeks power, the other freedom, and both have likely watched Bill And Ted's Excellent Adventure.
Rating 9.6/10
To preview interior art see my review at Comic Book Dispatch.
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