Responsibility Personified: ‘Amazing Spider-Man’ #10 Reviewed
by Tony Thornley
Spider-Man is one of the few superheroes whose motivation can be boiled down to a sentence- with great power comes great responsibility. In the midst of Judgment Day, Peter Parker will live up to that on a level he seldom has to.
Spider-Man enters Judgment Day, and learns what the Progenitor thinks of him from Zeb Wells, Nick Dragotta, Marcio Menyz, and Joe Caramagna.
The Progenitor has come to Peter Parker in the form of Gwen Stacy. Now he doesn’t just have to contend with his judgment, but also the grief and love he’s battled his entire life. Maybe, just maybe, that will mean getting a dream brought to life.
Peter’s life is one full of tragedy and perseverance. Through it all, he’s done his best to fulfill Uncle Ben’s infamous mantra. That’s meant that he’s forged bonds of love and loyalty with those closest to him. Wells is able to take history and turn the event tie-in into a poignant exploration of Peter Parker as a person.
Even better, he gets Peter and Gwen’s relationship. As Peter pours his heart out to the Progenitor’s ghostly version of Gwen, we understand his feelings for her on a level that very few writers have been able to convey in the last thirty years. Gwen isn’t Peter’s only true love, and she will forever be the love of his life and the girl of his dreams. That doesn’t mean MJ is not, and Wells captures that here too, even if the incredibly frustrating mystery of their estrangement is still hanging over their heads.
Dragotta guests here with incredible results. This is an issue built on character beats, interactions between human beings. He’s able to distill Peter down to his essence in his line work, and show the pain he’s struggling with in each panel. And then, when the issue reaches its climax, the ending could have come across as corny, and emotionally manipulative. Instead, Dragotta shows us two people struggling with reality and love lost. It’s a heart-wrenching moment that would not have worked without the way Dragotta rendered it.
Going down the well of Peter and Gwen again is a tough tightrope to walk (mixing a metaphor). Though there were a few bumps- particularly with the dragged out mystery of MJ- this was one of my favorite Spider-Man issues in recent memory.
Amazing Spider-Man #10 is available now from Marvel Comics.
Overview
Going down the well of Peter and Gwen again is a tough tightrope to walk (mixing a metaphor). Though there were a few bumps- particularly with the dragged out mystery of MJ- this was one of my favorite Spider-Man issues in recent memory.
