To save the life of Norman Osborn, Peter Parker somehow took on his sins, trapping them within Parker’s amazing spider-mind. That imprisonment… has ended. Your Major Spoilers review of Amazing Spider-Man #52 from Marvel Comics awaits!

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #52

Writer: Zeb Wells
Artist: Ed McGuinness/Todd Nauck/Mark Farmer/Wade Von Grawbadger
Colorist: Marcio Menyz and Erick Arciniega
Letterer: VC’s Joe Caramagna
Editor: Nick Lowe
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Cover Price: $4.99
Release Date: June 19, 2024

Previously in Amazing Spider-Man:

Nothing is okay.

THE SPIDER-GOBLIN VERSUS CHASM

Amazing Spider-Man #52 begins with Kraven The Hunter stalking his old foe, Peter Parker, only to find him face-to-face with his clone, Ben Reilly, with both men wearing hideous purple-and-green costumes. Their battle rages beneath the streets of New York, while Norman Osborn, once again possessed by his Goblin persona, goes on a buying spree, purchasing a number of companies and putting them all in Peter Parker’s name. A little blackmail, perhaps? It’s hard to tell, but before he can complete it, he is enraged to find Ms. Marvel is onto him, showing up at Oscorp and trying to investigate what exactly has been happening with Peter. Unable to get to Osborn, she takes off, bumping into the Walking Brain and his coterie, including Dr. Curt Conners wearing an abandoned Doc Ock harness, J. Jonah Jameson, and the utterly mad demon-wearing-a-symbiote called Rek-Rap.

Of course, that’s assuming that Peter even survives the encounter with Chasm.

TOO MANY MOVING PARTS

With so much going on, this issue is quick to fly off the rails. Ben and Peter’s battle should be the emotional center of the story, but it gets quickly brushed aside, and I’m still not entirely sure what Kraven is even doing in the issue. The Living Brain… Sorry, The Walking Brain is a weirdly wise-cracking presence in the story, one of several examples of going for a cute punchline to the detriment of the story proper. Both penciling teams deliver strong work in this issue, but switching from Nauck’s angular style to the smooth-and-bulky stylings of McGuinness is the equivalent of drinking orange juice after brushing one’s teeth. The juice is great, and the superior oral hygiene is wonderful, but the combination leaves a horrible taste in one’s mouth. There’s also a strangely muted color palette throughout the issue that puzzles me, especially since Chasm’s costume is canonically hyper-color poison green and eggplant purple. I’d have chalked it up to low light in the scene, but it continues throughout the issue, even in Norman’s well-lit corner office.

BOTTOM LINE: CONVOLUTED AND CONFUSING

I’m still not entirely sure how Spider-Man’s mental state causes his entire costume to morph back and forth from goblin to spider, but that’s only part of the dissonance that I feel having read Amazing Spider-Man #52, an issue that combines inconsistent tone with incompatible art styles and a dull color palette for a disappointed 2 out of 5 stars overall. If the resolution of this story knocks it all out of the metaphorical park, we could be looking at a memorable collection, but it feels like this entire arc has been predicated on cool visuals provided by this issue’s cover.

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