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Saturday 9 September 2023

The Amazing Spider-Man, Volume 5: Dead Language, Part 1 Review (Zeb Wells, John Romita Jr)


Since the dawn of Zeb Wells’ Spidey run readers have been axing themselves what that opening scene meant and wha hoppen to him and MJ’s relationship - how come she married to Some Guy wiz kids not Peter’s? Well, five books in and Zebby’s now answering them q’s with some a’s. And, as always when it comes to Pete and MJ, it’s… complicated.


But first we get treated to two of the most boring issues of Spider-Man you’ll ever read courtesy of Joe Kelly and Terry Dodson. Spidey and Black Cat go for a spa weekend and end up fighting some tech bros trying to get rich off of Sinister Six knockoff equipment. The story is utterly disposable, boring rubbish and Dodson’s art is sketchier than his usual polished work.

The existence of these two superfluous issues is either to give Wells and JRJR more time for their issues, which are what readers actually want to read, and/or to simply pad out a book like this so Marvel can double-dip on the storyline rather than deliver it in one volume - hence the “Part 1” of the subtitle. Booooo!

So onto the main event - does Dead Language deliver? Kinda. Without going into the details and potentially spoiling it, it’s definitely unexpected, and its unpredictability is what kept me intrigued to see where it could all be headed - and then it ends abruptly, to be bloomin continued when they could’ve excised the wasted space Kelly/Dodson’s crap took up and replaced them with more of Wells/JRJR’s story to provide a more satisfying read!

Hmph. Typical commercialism for you. Zeb Wells and John Romita Jr provide a decent half-story in Amazing Spider-Man, Volume 5: Dead Language, Part 1 though the wait to find out the whole story continues on for at least another book (unless you’re reading the singles, in which case you probably already know it).

1 comment:

  1. ...don't you like MJ? Or is it just romance that grinds your gears?

    ReplyDelete