Amazing Spider-Man #69 Review

 

Writer: Joe Kelly

Penciler: Ed McGuinness

Inker: Mark Farmer

Colorist: Marcio Menyz

Letterer: Joe Caramagna

Cover Artists: Ed McGuinness, Cliff Rathburn & Marcio Menyz; Skottie Young; Amanda Conner & Paul Mounts; Ben Harvey; Netease (Marvel Rivals)

Editors: Kaitlyn Lindtvedt, Tom Groneman, Nick Lowe & C B Cebulski

Publisher: Marvel

Price: $4.99

Release Date: March 12, 2025

 

It felt like nothing mattered until Peter Parker saw Randy, Shay, Aunt May, and another volunteer sprawled before the FEAST center. Peter gave up his remaining Reeds of Raggadorr to revive them. Aunt May even thanked Spider-Man! But the danger to Earth remains. Spider-Man changed the future by shrugging off his role as Earth’s Champion. Callix broke Cyttorak and Dr Strange's pact by killing his brothers and sisters. Can Peter defend Earth against the all-consuming Blight? Let's don our arcane armor, leap into Amazing Spider-Man #69, and find out!

 

Story

Sadly, Peter Parker lies dead before the throne of Cyttorak, slain by the scion Callix. Peter could have survived the attack by keeping the Reeds of Raggadorr in reserve. Dr Strange would have. Instead, Peter went from seeing death as an inconvenience to giving up his life for others. It’s a fitting end for Manhattan’s friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. But right now, Earth needs a champion.

 

All this began because Dr Strange craved power. In Amazing Spider-Man #69, Dr Strange returns to help people in New York. But once again, he travels there in his astral form. The former Sorcerer Supreme seems more interested in scoring points with Dr Doom than helping people. Dr Strange could have helped Peter more throughout this contest. Or he could have asked Dr Doom to let him compete in the Contest Of Scions he founded with Cyttorak.

 

While Dr Strange comes off badly in Joe Kelly's story, Phil Coulson shines as the Avatar Of Death. Like Dr Strange, Cyttorak plays games with people’s lives. Most parents resort to psychological games at one time or another to help their children find their way. But Cyttorak has overplayed his hand, and now Callix acts like the leader of a country the United Nations refuses to recognize. So, Callix conquers other countries, and with each conquest, he asks, "Do you see me now?" Phil Coulson pierces the web of illusion Cyttorak has spun. In Amazing Spider-Man #69, he guides Cyra toward the truth like a parent should, without manipulation or games. 

 

 

 

Art

The monstrous Blight froze Spider-Man with terror in Cyttorak’s throne room. Now, it hovers over New York City, turning the sky orange as the X-Men fight. Cyttorak awaits acclaim while Cyra kneels over Spider-Man. As his slain siblings sprawl on a network of long, thin blades, Callix’s white face evokes a mask. But unlike Hallow's Eve's bag of tricks, his isn't easily removed.

 

Doom and Dr Strange share Callix's disregard for gravity in Amazing Spider-Man #69. The silver Sorcerer Supreme resembles an armored Green Goblin adorned with a red and gold cape. His yellow energy bursts deliver healing and hurt in equal measure. Yellow radiance also joins the red and blue energy that floods Cyttorak’s throne room, helping and harming those it touches.

 

 

 

While Marcio Menyz lavishes a loaded palette on Ed McGuinness and Mark Farmer’s art, Joe Caramagna thwips uppercase black lettering into dialogue balloons and narrative boxes. The dialogue grows bold for inflection, swells and changes color for volume, and rarely shrinks in this nearly sound effect-free issue. Coulson's blue-edged narrative boxes suggest a link with Dr Strange's (and another character's) blue dialogue. Thanks to Marvel for providing a copy for review.

 

 

 

Final Thoughts

Cyttorak refused to tell his children and subjects like Juggernaut what he expected of them. Cyra misinterpreted her father's intentions. In Amazing Spider-Man #69, Cyra revises her opinion about her father and what he tried to teach her. It's a revelation that helps the godling understand why she continued to observe Spider-Man after their battle ended.

 

Rating 9.5/10

 

To look inside see my review at Comic Book Dispatch.

Miles Morales: Spider-Man #26 Review

 

Writer: Cody Ziglar

Artist: Federico Vicentini

Colorist: Bryan Valenza

Letterer: Cory Petit

Cover Artists: Federico Vicentini & Neeraj Menon; Amanda Conner & Paul Mounts

Design: Jay Bowen

Editors: Kaeden McGahey, Kaitlyn Lindtvedt, Tom Groneman, Nick Lowe & C B Cebulski

Publisher: Marvel

Price: $3.99

Release Date: November 20, 2024

 

Miles Morales has a new suit. The thin fabric sports the latest Wakandan technology without impeding Spider-Man’s agility and regulates the venom energy that keeps his vampirism at bay. The only drawback? He can't unleash his venom energy in one massive blast. The Black Panther’s gift is just the first step in Miles’ journey toward a cure, but Vulture isn’t waiting for Miles to regain his humanity. Adrian Toomes wants his granddaughter back, and this Bird Of Prey won’t stop until he clutches Miles in his claws. Can Spider-Man repulse the Vulture in his weakened, regulated state? Let's slip into our Vibranium nano-mesh suits, leap into Miles Morales: Spider-Man #26, and find out!

 

Story

Misty Knight cares about her intern. That's why she enlisted the Black Panther's aid. Still, she wants to set boundaries. Miles put her on hold to talk with Tiana, then invited his girlfriend inside her garage without requesting permission. But the Vulture's attack brings the magnitude of Miles' complicated life home to Misty. Rabble's fixation on Spider-Man left his home in ruins and nearly killed his family. Now, the Vulture wants to take her intern down. Like Rabble, the Vulture trashes her garage and may kill her amid his savage attack on Spider-Man.

 

In Miles Morales: Spider-Man #26, the Vulture grabs Spider-Man and flies away. But the Vulture doesn't carry Miles far because he's anxious to kill this pest and rebuild his relationship with Tiana. Miles tries to reason with Adrian but can't say anything Tiana's grandfather wants to hear. How could he? Miles is a child. Worse, he's a thief who pretends to be a do-gooder!

 

Miles may be the hero of Cody Ziglar’s story, but Tiana Toomes puts her stamp on Miles Morales: Spider-Man #26. After all the problems with her parents, Tiana craved stability, but her grandfather fed her lies. She ripped Adrian Toomes’ heart out when they parted ways, but he can’t blame her because she’s family. So Miles, the outsider, becomes Adrian’s target.

 

The Vulture prides himself on caring for his family. But as with Magneto, anyone outside his flock doesn’t matter. With age comes wisdom, but that doesn’t mean others will embrace your truth. While her grandfather loved her, Adrian’s controlling protectionism left Tiana unfulfilled. She found the stability she sought with Miles. Her grandfather, who should dig his claws into his roost and watch her fly, wants to drag her back to his nest again. And Adrian will kill anyone who prevents him from sustaining her on his activities and ideologies.

 

Art

While Miles wants to talk, the Vulture intends to fight. As long as Adrian remains fixated on his goal, he takes Miles to the cleaners. But things get complicated when the destruction he unleashes endangers his granddaughter. So, Adrian swoops in to grab Miles and flies toward the moon. The combatants show no more regard for a construction crane than James Bond in Casino Royale. When they alight on a roof, Miles tries to reason with Adrian. But the more Miles talks, the more violent Adrian gets. Miles' venom-energy-fueled attacks shatter the rooftop, while the Vulture follows Deadpool’s playbook by flinging razor-sharp weapons.

 

Bryan Valenza lavishes bright hues on Federico Vicentini’s explosive art in Miles Morales: Spider-Man #26. The red on Miles’ new costume links him with Misty Knight and Tiana Toomes. The purple ties him to the Black Panther. There's an eerie resonance in this association between the Spectacular Undead Spider-Man and the King Of The Dead, while the yellow power of the sun courses through Miles' high-tech suit. Just as red opposes green on the color wheel, Miles and the Vulture battle each other for the fate of Tiana. So, Adrian's red-plumed granddaughter pushes Miles aside to oppose the green Vulture and show how far she has come.

 

Cory Petit thwips black uppercase letters into white dialogue balloons. He shares Miles' thoughts with white letters in red narrative boxes. The delicate font emboldens for inflection, swells for raised voices, and rarely shrinks. Energetic sound effects help us hear rapid-fire feathers, steel beams breaking, a collapsing roof burying someone alive, and the hum as venom energy builds toward maximum intensity. Thanks to Marvel Comics for providing a copy for review. 

 

 

 

 

Final Thoughts

The Black Panther wants to heal Miles. But in Miles Morales: Spider-Man #26, the Vulture is hurting. Like Rabble, Adrian Toomes wants his family back. As Spider-Man stole the relationship Adrian cherished, Vulture won't stop until he has killed the interloper who left him bereft.

 

Rating 9.6/10

 

To preview interior art see my review at Comic Book Dispatch.

Deadpool #7 Review

 

Writer: Cody Ziglar & Alexis Quasarano

Artist: Andrea Di Vito

Colorist: Guru-eFX

Letterer: Joe Sabino

Cover Artists: Taurin Clarke; Mark Bagley & Edgar Delgado; Amanda Conner & Edgar Delgado; Scott Koblish & Jesus Aburtov; Peach Momoko

Graphic Designer: Kat Walkington

Editors: Drew Baumgartner & MR Daniel; Mark Basso & Ellie Pyle; CB Cebulski

Publisher: Marvel

Price: $3.99

Release Date: October 2, 2024

 

Deadpool is dead. His body lies in the conference room. At least, all the bits that Death Grip lopped off are there. Deadpool always wanted to be the guy in the chair, but Deadpool & Daughters, LLC, needs someone to call the shots while their leader rests in pieces. Can Ellie and Princess assume all the field duties while Taskmaster ensures sufficient cash flow to keep the office rats in fresh water and throw the weekly pizza party? Let's leap into Deadpool #7 and find out!

 

Story

Ellie is acting out. She’s ignoring orders and violating Daddy's No Killing rule. But then, Daddy's not around anymore, and Task-Daddy’s laissez-faire management style during the Arseni Angeloff affair failed to impress her. Taskmaster understands Ellie's anger. But for him to stick around as the Interim CEO and CFO, Deadpool & Daughters, LLC needs income to purchase weapons and give them another shot at Death Grip. 

 

 

 

The entire concept of death comes under review in Deadpool #7. Wade Wilson may no longer breathe, but neither does his body decay. Ellie’s healing factor helps her recover from wounds that would kill others. Her recuperative abilities enhance her brain functions, making her a super student. Ellie learned how to teleport by watching internet videos. So now she's watching Agatha Harkness (or another purple-clad witch) on New Toobe in the hopes of resurrecting her father. Taskmaster warns Ellie against the dangers of obsessing over bringing the dead back to life. Ellie is young, so perhaps that explains her ignoring Mary Shelley's warnings. Besides, it's not as if Ellie can resurrect the dead responsibly like the Scarlet Witch. 

 

 

 

While people may compare Spider-Man with Deadpool, Cody Ziglar & Alexis Quasarano’s story highlights the difference between heroes and antiheroes. Taskmaster isn’t sending Ellie and her symbiote canine sister to steal a briefcase from a villain. Instead, he proposes they steal money from a biotech research firm. Taskmaster implies that stealing from a shell company is okay, as people often create them to launder money, avoid taxes, or shield their activities from public scrutiny. Ellie and Princess embrace the idea enthusiastically. But then, teenagers are scary, right?

 

 

Art

Ellie charges fearlessly into the fray on a rooftop, taking down gun-toting baddies before hurtling down a fire escape. Andrea Di Vito captures the action with time-lapse photography until Ellie reaches the street in Deadpool #7. Ellie braves pistols, rifles, and a rocket launcher while confronting baddies who should clean up their language. But questioning a foul-mouthed villain proves unnecessary thanks to a grenade down the tank top and a tail-fling into the sky. It's not purple rain, but the red shower refreshes, nonetheless.

 

 

 

Princesses' pink tongue also renews Ellie's spirits as she texts her dead dad on a blue cellphone screen. Watching a purple-clad witch on her red phone also makes Ellie smile. But trouble brews when they teleport to a forest-green building illuminated by fern-green windows. Guru-eFX’s white lightning and rain streak the blue evening sky as red, black, and brown Ellie and magenta Princess prepare to ascend the steep grassy rise and enter Chemocorp.

 

 

 

Joe Sabino pulls out all the stops in Deadpool #7. Commentary appears in pink narrative boxes and white ones bordered with pink or blue-and-yellow. White balloons feature uppercase black text, while red ones feature Princesses’ distinctive white font. The dialogue rarely shrinks or grows bold, while yellow arrows highlight Deadpool’s daughters practicing restraint. Pink music notes suggest Ellie is taking her cues from Starlord and Baby Groot, and red letters remind us of Princess' canine nature. Colorful sound effects enhance workplace destruction and people firing laser beams with their eyes. But then, how else can one diffuse contentious office encounters? Thanks to Marvel for providing a copy for review.

 

 

 

Final Thoughts

After Daddy’s dismemberment and death, Ellie is killing time and people, Taskmaster sends juveniles to commit Grand Larceny, and Princess catches a scent that makes her happy in Deadpool #7.

 

Rating 9.4/10

 

To preview interior art see my review at Comic Book Dispatch.

Jim Zub Interview Part 4: Conan The Barbarian #13 & The Frost Giant's Daughter

 

After concentrating on his contributions to Titan Comics' series The Savage Sword Of Conan, I shifted topics to the latest issue of writer Jim Zub's Conan The Barbarian series. Still, I made a slight detour into Savage Sword along the way! Here's more of my interview with Cimmerian scribe Jim Zub!

 

David: With Conan The Barbarian #13, it seems like you've gone through cycles where Conan was with Brisa and then his world kind of breaks. He tries to go back to Cimmeria but he couldn't. So, he's goes to Shadizar to start over, and then that situation gets messed up. So now he’s going out into the wilderness on his own.

 

 

Conan The Barbarian #1 Cover B (Roberto de la Torre)

 

Jim: Well, we've jumped to an earlier part of the timeline. Like with the weird tale stories, we can move around. We don't have to go linear. So if you look in Conan The Barbarian #1, there's a flashback. It talks about him fighting at the battle of Venarium, and he's got this bear on his back, and it talks about him testing his might. Now we're going back and showing that story.

 

Conan The Barbarian #13 Cover A by Dan Panosian

 

We're showing Conan in his youth, questioning his faith, and wondering what it's all about. Chronologically, Conan The Barbarian #13 to 16 take place between zero [The 2023 Free Comic Book Day issue] and #1.  

 

David: The shape of his sword made me wonder. 

 

Jim: It is the Pict blade that he got at the end of the Free Comic Book Day special.

 

David: But in Conan The Barbarian #12, he discards it, right?

 

Jim: Yeah.

 

David: Okay, because it [the panel] was very small.

 

Jim: Yeah. No, he does discard it, yeah.

 

David: I'm going to revise my review then.

 

Jim: [Laughs] No worries. It's all good. 

 

 

The Savage Sword Of Conan #4 Cover A by David Palumbo

 

 

David: So, [in Savage Sword] you've done a prose story. You've done comics. You've done a poem. Are we going to see a pinup next?

 

Jim: [Laughs] You know, I am an artist. I was an artist before I became a writer. I'm not sure. I do sketches of Conan and stuff for people, but man! You know Doug [Braithwaite] and Rob [de la Torre] are so phenomenal! I would be extra intimidated to step into the ring. It's not impossible but it's not the current plan, no, but thank you for the compliment. It would be cool, for sure.

 

David: Yeah, something different.

 

Jim: Yeah, you’re like, “Are you doing a rock opera next?”

 

David: [Laughs] So, with your Conan The Barbarian series, you pass over some stories and you kind of blend on others.

 

Jim: Yeah.

 

David: Why retell “The Frost Giant’s Daughter’? 

 

 

Conan The Barbarian #13 Cover B by Amanda Conner

 

 

Jim: Good question! So, early on I made it very clear we weren't going to do straight adaptations because they've been done many times in comics. If you're a Conan fan you know “The Frost Giant’s Daughter”. You know the “God in the Bowl”. You know “The Tower Of The Elephant” and “The Queen Of The Black Coast”. So, we can build off those pillars and hopefully surprise you with the ways that we echo the themes or ideas or visuals from those stories, but not just retell them.

 

Doug [Braithwaite] specifically asked me to do a story set in the frozen north. He loves those [Frank] Frazetta paintings of Conan fighting in the snow, and he's like, “I want something that feels like that!” 

 

 

Conan Legacy Frazetta Cover #1 (Dark Horse Comics)

 

 

There’s only canon story that takes place in the north like that and that's “The Frost Giant’s Daughter”. I said, “I’ve got to think about it,” and I came across this idea of faith and Conan in his youth with wanderlust. Originally, I was going to finish it with him heading into “The Frost Giant's Daughter.” Then I realized thematically we could do something even more expansive.

 

I don't want to spoil it, but “The Frost Giant’s Daughter” is sort of central to the story now. So, we see before and after [Robert E Howard’s story] and there are some surprises. Even though you've read “The Frost Giant’s Daughter” before, there’s context for why they happen and where. We can give you a different story that is not just the one you've read before. There's more under the hood and I'm really excited for people to see it.

 

And it’s the 90th anniversary of the original story’s publication so it just seemed like kismet that we could do it and we'd be able to celebrate at the same time. 

 

 

The Cimmerian: The Frost Giant's Daughter #1 Cover A by Peach Momoko

 

David: I'm sure it'll be a lot different than Ablaze Comics’ version of “The Frost Giant’s Daughter” [in their series The Cimmerian].

 

Jim: [Laughs] Yes, I can say that with absolute confidence!

 

Thanks again to Jim Zub for speaking with me, Titan Comics for arranging the interview, and the press office at Comic-Con International for granting me the opportunity to speak with the author bringing Conan back to comic readers! I'll share more of this interview soon!