| The Amazing Spider-Man #76 Written by: Zeb Wells Artwork by: Patrick Gleason |
| Published by Marvel Comics Released on 13/10/21 |
Beyond continues here! Welcome back to the Amazing Spider-man, although at the moment, he’s not really living up to that title…because he is in hospital, so…not amazing. What IS amazing, however, is this issue! Let’s dig in…
After the events of last issues cliffhanger, Peter has been hospitalised and is in really nasty shape after being in a radioactive-ly charged explosion in an encounter with the U-foes. The story begins with Aunt May talking on the phone to Peter, telling her what shape he’s in or so we think until May puts the phone down – realising it wasn’t Peter at all and we cut to Ben ending the call as he waits outside Peter’s bed in hospital. The doctor is stunned by the radiation poisoning Peter has contracted asking if they were on drugs (by the way, for the record, I always thought Spider-man had some sort of poison ivy esc. Tolerance to radiation, it was never stated but I just figured since he’s been Spider-man this long and hasn’t had cancer from the spider bite he’d be somewhat immune? Guess not. Maybe there’s a difference in ionising radiation to your standard radiation?).
Following this, Mary Jane runs into the hospital asking for Peter as Ben disappears and Peter starts convulsing! We hear him talk about a danger inside of him, we heard it at the end of last issue and we hear it throughout this one too. It obviously points to the radiation but that’s obvious, so I’m wondering if there’s some sort of deeper meaning? We’ll just have to wait and see i suppose.
Moving on from that, we see that Ben disappeared back to his penthouse in the beyond tower with his girlfriend Janine. His supervisor tells him he needs a contractual rest to which Ben states he needs to check up on Pete but is instead tasked to finish off the u-foes.
We then switch back to the hospital, where MJ and May are by his side. At this point in the story, Peter is conscious and talking to his family about the u-foes attack and Aunt May has some problems with the doctor and goes and presumably rips him a new one. Switching to Ben once more, he’s being suited up with the help of heroes for hire Colleen Wing and Misty Knight. I really felt like this scene is the beginning of beyond’s possibly sinister intentions, something I gather we’re going to be seeing a lot more of in upcoming issue’s.
Ben, before his supervisors have time to react, tells them to give him one hour before swinging to the hospital yet again. Ben runs into MJ who berates him for what happened to Peter. She eventually calms down and gets a chance to talk to Pete for a minute. Although bitter at first, Peter ends up giving him his blessing as Spider-man and they make good before Ben leaves, once he does though, Peter (in a moment I nearly laughed out loud at) checks with MJ that Ben is gone and when she says yes, he replies with “Because I can’t feel my body”. Once again, he begins to convulsed whilst Ben, oblivious, goes on the hunt for the U-foes with a new lease of Spider-life as Peter goes into a coma.
The U-foes are found conversing in a building when Ben bursts in, taking out vapour and X-ray. In fear, calls out Spider-man to which Ben closes the book with an awesome line. “Hell yes, SPIDER-MAN”.
This issue was another brilliant instalment in the Beyond saga, the writing tight and witty and the artwork fresh and vibrant. I can’t see this book slowing down anytime soon and I absolutely cannot wait to get my hands on issue 77! Stay tuned!!!
Review by Leo Brocklehurst on 20/10/21