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Tuesday 4 July 2023

The Amazing Spider-Man, Volume 4: Dark Web Review (Zeb Wells, Ed McGuinness)


Madelyne Pryor, the Goblin Queen of Limbo, along with Ben Reilly, infamous Peter Parker clone, 
make edgy Pepe the Frog memes for the lulz and do illegal things using a VPN bring Limbo, and ensuing chaos, to New York City in Dark Web.

Zeb Wells’ Amazing Spider-Man run gets less amazing as it ties into the latest loud’n’stoopid Marvel Event, Dark Web, which was a load of boring nonsense.

Remember those great ‘80s Ghostbusters toys, like the toilet that turned into a monster? Those, along with the ghosts-invading-NYC story of the Ghostbusters movies/TV show, made me feel like Wells was doing Ghostbusters fan-fic with Marvel characters given that Limbo invading NYC means inanimate objects coming to life and demons wandering the streets.

Ben and Madelyne’s motivations felt silly and immature, the action was forced and uninteresting, and the story predictable - nothing happens for a while before, inevitably, everything resets with few consequences, none of them significant.

Hallow’s Eve isn’t a good character either - she puts on a mask and then becomes the mask and its powers (a Frankenstein’s monster, a werewolf, etc.). Very convenient that her slight bag contains so many useful masks - she must have gotten it from the same place Batman gets his utility belts!

Ed McGuinness’ art is pretty good. Ben Reilly’s Chasm character design is fine but he starts looking a bit Spawn-y once he reaches his final form. Rek-Rap is a daffy chap - he looks like a Battletoad cosplaying as Spidey! The dig at manga was amusing - Spidey sets fire to a copy of “Ramen Ninja, Vol 17”. I think manga is outselling Marvel (and DC et al.) at a crazy ratio like three to one - Marvel did it to themselves though, the quality has been dropping for years and readers have given up and moved on; who can blame them, eh?

Amazing Spider-Man, Volume 4: Dark Web is my least favourite book in Zeb Wells’ Spider-Man run and that’s because Marvel Events are nearly always terrible so tying into it was unlikely to have been good. With this forgettable trash out of the way though, hopefully the series will get better going forward.

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