The Amazing Spider-Man #12 Review

The Inheritors are killing the Spider-People of all realities, but the last page of The Amazing Spider-Man #12 will definitely have you screaming Dan Slott’s name.  Major Spoilers await in this no holds barred look at the latest issue.

Seriously, we’re spoiling the end of this issue, so don’t read if you haven’t picked up the issue. You’ve been warned!

THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #12
Writer: Dan Slott
Artist:Giuseppe Camuncoli
Inker: Cam Smith
Letterer: Chris Eliopoulos
Colorist: Justin Ponsor
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Cover Price: $3.99

Previously in The Amazing Spider-Man: “A terrifying family called The Inheritors is traveling around the multiverse feasting on the life-essence of Spider-people, so a group of Spiders have come together to fight them. After a deadly battle with The Inheritors, Peter took the leadership reins of the Spider-Army, much to the chagrin of The Superior Spider-Man (Doc Ock’s mind in The Amazing Spider-Man’s body).”

LEOPARDON, COWBOY WORLD, AND DAN SLOTT!

The biggest problem with a major event like Spider-verse is you kind of need to read all of the tie-in books in order to get the complete story.  As a stand alone issue, there are a lot of holes that need to be filled; what’s going to happen to Jessica Drew? What happened in Cowboy World? Who the hell is The Master Weaver? At least the last question gets answered. The Master Weaver has been captured by The Inheritors, who have manipulated the creature to spin the web of life and destiny in their favor. To answer the other questions, you can either look at the brief snippets shared in this issue, or run off and buy all of the other books in the Spider-Verse series.  While this story does give the reader a few bits of closure, the constant editorial boxes telling me to read another title is somewhat off putting.  This isn’t the first time this has been used in an event book, nor will it be the last. I had the same reaction when I read Crisis on Infinite Earths back in the ’80s, and I kind of feel like I’m only getting part of a very big story for the price I’m paying.

SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT!

There is one reason to pick up this issue. The Spider-Army is being slaughtered left and right, and The Inheritors have been listening in to their communication since the beginning. The only hope is to escape to Earth-3145, a planet suffering from a catastrophic nuclear war. The Inheritors are more susceptible to the radiation than the Spiders, who still can’t stand outside and breath for an extended period of time, but fortunately, there is a nuclear fall-out shelter that can protect them.

Who is inside the shelter besides Silk?

Wait for it…

Last chance to get out

Uncle Ben.

Dun-DUN-DUUUUUUN!

This isn’t the uncle Ben from Earth-616, but the return of Ben Parker is a big deal in comic history. Will uncle Ben stick around following this series? Will he die, thus giving Peter a reminder of why he does what he does? This appearance screams of gimmick to boost sales and to get people reading the book, but if there is one thing I’ve learned from reading Dan Slott’s run on Spider-Man is he is someone I trust to tell me a masterful story that will pull all the right strings and get me excited about Spider-Man again and again. If there is one person who should be in charge of and writing all of the Spider-Man books, it is, in this reviewer’s opinion, Dan Slott.

Oh, and in case you are wondering, Spider-Buggy, Leopardon (the giant robot belonging to the Spider-Man of 51778), and Spider-Ham make appearances in this issue. One of them does not make it.

I like the continued push from Doc Ock, The Superior Spider-Man, that Peter doesn’t know what he is doing, and we may be seeing the psyche cracking so that Ock returns to his nefarious ways. Even though the interactions between the two are brief, Slott is able to make the power struggle very clear.

SO MANY SPIDERS

The great thing about Giuseppe Camuncoli’s art is he is able to make every Spider-person is unique, different, and represents accurately the Spider-Man from that particular Earth.  It is a monumental task to keep everyone on the page recognizable, and that increases my interest in this book.  There is a lot of death on the page, but it doesn’t get too gruesome or graphic, so I feel comfortable sharing this with a younger reader. At this point, I would really like to see Camuncoli do a quadruple page spread featuring every Spider-person revealed in this series.

The coloring by Justin Ponsor is really good too. When police are chasing Spider-Buggy and crew, the light being cast is spot on, and the golden glow of Loomworld feels warm and inviting… and also deadly. Over the last year or so, whenever I look at the coloring of an issue, I look at how the color reflects the environment, interacts with the characters, and helps shape the mood of the scene.  Here’ Ponsor working with Camucoli’s art and Cam Smith’s inks creates unique worlds that don’t feel like a carbon copy of one another.

BOTTOM LINE: PICK THIS UP

The Spider-Verse series is really good. How the team will eventually come together and defeat The Inheritors is still a mystery, but I have a feeling uncle Ben has it all worked out. In a week that has Ant-Man #1 and the Unbeatable Squirrel-Girl #1 arriving on the stands, The Amazing Spider-Man #12 manages to drop a big bomb that will have the Internet talking for a couple of weeks. Beyond the gimmick – and yes, uncle Ben’s return is a gimmick – The Amazing Spider-Man #12 is a well written story, even with the glimpses/teases to pick up the tie-in issues, and the art is fantastic. Definitely something you should pick up if you have been following Spider-Man for any amount of time.