Writer: Justina Ireland
Artist: Andrea Broccardo
Colorist: Marcio Menyz & Erick Arciniega
Letterer: Joe Caramagna
Cover Artists: Mark Bagley & Richard Isanove; Kaare Andrews; Skottie Young; Chris Samnee & Matthew Wilson; Paco Diaz & Frank D’Armata
Editors: Kaitlyn Lindtvedt, Tom Groneman, Nick Lowe & C B Cebulski
Publisher: Marvel
Price: $4.99
Release Date: January 22, 2025
Callix wants to please his father. His sister, Cyra, wants her life to have meaning. Dr Strange wants Peter Parker to uphold his covenant with Cyttorak. Aunt May wants help running the FEAST Center. Randy Robertson wants Peter’s help to make the gallery show a success. Spider-Boy wants Spider-Man to continue his training. Shay Marken wants her boyfriend to invest in their relationship. And when Black Cat looks back on her relationship with Peter, she wonders why she thought Amelia was an upgrade.
Unlike everyone else, Peter Parker doesn't want anything. Food is the sole reminder of his former joy in life. Death has scarred and changed him. Can Peter remember who he used to be and why he sacrificed everything to be that person? Let's strap on our arcane armor, thwip into Amazing Spider-Man #66, and find out!
Story
Peter Parker cannot please everyone. Spider-Man cannot protect everyone. Peter was already at the breaking point when Doctor Doom lumbered him with another responsibility. Still, Peter defeated gravity-wielding Cyntros and the space beetle Cyperion. Spider-Man didn’t need a TARDIS to take down the time-traveling Cyrios. Nor did Peter need aspirin to tackle pain-inflicting Callix or a chew toy to distract the scion's Crimson Hounds. Spider-Man didn't even drop the ball when tried by the deadly Cyra. But at the end of her test, Peter realizes the truth behind the frustrations he voiced when all this started. “Everything’s so important that nothing matters.”
While Peter has lost hope in Amazing Spider-Man #66, a ray of sunshine pierces Cyra’s shell of indifference. Cyra is so inured to her depression that the warmth is alien to her. Her father's gift granted her a cosmic view of the universe. But instead of seeing life spring eternal, she only saw the Inevitability Of Death. Tasked with an unwanted responsibility from her father, Cyra judged everyone on Earth by Dr Strange. But Stephen Strange differs markedly from Peter Parker. While Cyra infected Peter with depression, Peter made Cyra wonder what it felt like to care about others. Her task, the one Cyra never wanted, is over. But instead of sinking into a hot bath with a glass of vino, Cyra lingers, desperate to understand the man she broke like an unwanted toy.
As Peter walks through the disaster zone that was once his life, Justina Ireland contrasts Peter Parker with Doctor Strange. Stephen calculates the cost of helping others. He observes them and strategizes the best way to help them. Dr Strange uses deceit and psychology to manipulate them into “giving their best.” As Cyra observes, Strange endured her “Emo Fanfic” by employing a professional distance from humanity. Yet even as Peter tells himself nothing matters, he cannot stop engaging with others. Peter Parker may be stumbling in the darkness. Still, he illuminates heroes and villains in Amazing Spider-Man #66.
Art
Cyttorak’s eyes glow when his scions assemble. Yet the energy shooting from Cyttorak’s eyes dies when Callix claims he succeeded where his brothers and sisters failed. Andrea Broccardo reveals Callix's desperation when he takes his Crimson Hounds for walkies in a forbidden cave. Monstrous stalagmites rise while lightning leaps from hovering shards of rock. Yellow eyes and buried limbs suggest a graveyard. Yet the glowing orbs in the gray floor and the cracks that rent the red air reveal that life still throbs in this place of death. Or perhaps it is a shadow out of time in the mountains of madness.
Like everyone else Peter sees in Amazing Spider-Man #66, Dr Strange is dead and alive. Marcio Menyz & Erick Arciniega contrast his blue and aqua-green spirit with Cyra’s black, red, crimson, and magenta appearance. Despite the sunlight shining down on New York City, colors fade where Peter Parker walks. The vibrant street life before him hints at the vitality Peter once prized when Shay, adorned in a T-shirt with a yellow sun, shares what keeps her going. But when Peter looks around, he sees only black, white, and gray.
Joe Caramagna thwips uppercase black lettering into dialogue balloons, red-edged narrative boxes, and tan boxes. The dialogue grows bold for inflection, enlarges for volume, and rarely shrinks. Dr Strange speaks blue letters into blue-edged white balloons, while Spider-Boy uses his foot to upbraid a criminal for his insensitivity. As Callix schemes and observers talk, the letters on a flyer confirm Peter’s new paradigm. Still, the numbers on a cash register urge Peter to remember why he became Spider-Man. Thanks to Marvel for providing a copy for review.
Final Thoughts
While Miles Morales engages with the gods in Wakanda, Peter Parker struggles to grasp the reed of truth in New York. Like Miles, Peter cannot recover what he lost by fighting. Instead, Peter must peer into himself and rediscover the truth of his life in Amazing Spider-Man #66.
Rating 9.6/10
To look inside see my review at Comic Book Dispatch.
No comments:
Post a Comment