Review: Amazing Spider-Man #8 by Dan Slott, Christos Gage, and Giuseppe Camuncoli

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Amazing Spider-Man #8

Written by Dan Slott and Christos Gage

Art by Giuseppe Camuncoli, Cam Smith, and Antonio Fabela
Spider-Girl by Humberto Ramos, Victor Olazaba, and Edgar Delgado

 

The short of it:

We pick up at the end of a team up between Spider-Man and Ms. Marvel, though she’s really just standing there and fangirling out until Spidey plays to her fandom and gets her to help him finish the fight. Well, to get what Dr. Minerva (the bad guy) was after, anyway. A cocoon, and it starts to hatch during the attempted getaway. There’s an interlude to Cindy “Silk” Moon and her new day job at Fact Channel, where she finds out her boss wants Silk to be ‘theirs’ in the way the Bugle has Spidey, but she hates on the all web costume and Cindy bails to go fix it. Back at the fight, the cocoon hatches and…it’s a baby! Minerva takes on Spidey, her minions chase down Ms. Marvel, and if not for one of them growing a conscience at the right moment…we might have had a dead baby in a comic today.

Minerva keeps talking menacingly, talking about getting stronger, about Kree reinforcements, and then Ms. Marvel and Spidey start calling her bluff. That there are no Kree, and that she’s completely full of it. She promptly bails. Elsewhere, Silk knocks out the Ringer and debuts a new costume right in front of her boss. But, back to the main story, Spidey and Ms. Marvel deliver the baby to her parents, and Spidey gives Marvel his vote of confidence and good faith. Then he acknowledges the lackey that grew a conscience, who winds up being the bad guy from the Learning to Crawl miniseries. Spidey gives him the best second chance he can.

Now, for the part of the issue I really care about! Daemos is on Earth-982, and he’s got the Sensational Spider-Girl under his boot! And her boyfriend Wes elbowed up against a wall! Up until he throws him at the fireplace and we hear a nice loud ‘krakk’. Peter joins the fray, his cybernetic leg destroyed, and he uses that classic Parker Spirit to buy MJ enough time to rally May and give her a more important job…to get her little brother out of there. Mayday runs from her house, baby brother in tow, as she hears her mother scream. Other Spider’s show up to save the Parker children, and all May can do is swear vengeance at the Hunter as she goes off to join the crossover.

 

What I liked:

  • SPIDER-GIRL!
  • Ramos comes in to draw Mayday?! I mean, yes, I’d have loved Ron Frenz to be the man handling it, but how can I complain about Ramos?
  • Clayton “Clash” Cole? Alright, I’m cool with that, Learning to Crawl officially has purpose (other than just being a solid little Spidey story). He was an interesting character, and it’s nice to see him not only make a present day appearance, but to get the second chance from Peter. I mean, he was the original Spider-Man fanboy who let things go horribly wrong. That’s a unique angle that I look forward to seeing played up.
  • Slott and Gage have a knack for using Spidey to build up a new teenage character that is still finding their footing in their own book. This issue was Ms. Marvel, but all I can think about is the Avengers Academy kids. Ms. Marvel stole the show for the entire first part of the book despite Spidey doing all the work.
  • Ms. Marvel: Super Fangirl. I need to get current on her book.
  • Giuseppe Camuncoli is one of the unsung heroes of the Spider books. His work is always top notch, but it almost seems like an afterthought when sandwiched in between Ramos arcs. I always love his work. He draws a hell of a Spidey.

 

What I didn’t like:

  • How is this the first we’ve seen of May in five years?
  • Not enough Spider-Girl.
  • Did they have to kill Wes? I mean, I understand Peter having to die, and I understand MJ going down with him, but why did they have to kill her boyfriend? Why not just throw Moose and Courtney in there while you’re at it?
  • Silk’s old costume was better. Less giant weird looking crotch area.

 

Final thoughts:

A super villain beat by calling their bluff and then them completely chickening out. I can’t remember the last time I saw that, very clever, very fun.

So does Minerva always namedrop the Kree in hopes that it scares pants off of people, or does she have other lines too?

I really don’t like the scorched Earth approach to Mayday, because now, unless she either hangs out in 616 or joins some multiversal Spider-Team, she’s got nothing to go home to. Now, again, if she decides to hang out in 616, I will buy that book, and I will obsess over it like it was a Stephanie Brown Batgirl; because, goddamnit, IT WOULD BE MY PRECIOUS!

Seriously, words can’t fully articulate how it feels to see my favorite Marvel character finally emerge from limbo. Even if I was half expecting her to get killed off because Dan Slott hates me.

Alright, fine, Dan Slott does not hate me, he gave me Spider-Island and the Great Lakes Avengers. I want to shake his hand and then shove a stack of books in front of him to sign.

All that said, seeing May and the credits not reading Tom DeFalco, Ron Frenz, and Sal Buscema just seems weird. Like, it doesn’t feel right. Where the hell are they?! This is their baby!

Spider-Girl ongoing? How ‘bout it?

When does Spider-Verse actually start? Not soon enough. This is the only event Marvel should be marketing, it’s already infinitely better than Axis.


Overall: 8.5/10

A lifelong reader and self proclaimed continuity guru, Grey is the Editor in Chief of Comics Nexus. Known for his love of Booster Gold, Spider-Girl (the real one), Stephanie Brown, and The Boys. Don't miss The Gold Standard.