The Amazing Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows #13 Review

“The big secret about us adults? We actually do remember what being a teenager was like.”

We jump ahead 8 years from when we last swung with the Spider-Family. SPOILER ALERT-they got 8 years older. Did we need to do this?

WRITER: Jody Houser

ARTIST: Nick Roche

COLORIST: Ruth Redmond

LETTERER: VC’s Joe Caramagna

COVER ARTISTS: Ryan Stegman & Jesus Aburtov

VARIANT COVER ARTISTS: Khary Randolph, John Tyler Christopher, Michael Walsh

EDITOR: Heather Antos

SUPERVISING EDITOR: Jordan D. White

SPIDER-MAN created by STAN LEE & STEVE DITKO

STORY: Spiderling and Spider-Man encounter “The Sinister Six” in the Danger Room. Peter suggests to Annie that a Family Fun Day is in order before school starts up again. They go to Coney Island where they run afoul of The Lizard. Again.

THOUGHTS: Well, here we are. The all-new Marvel now it’s the legacy era. Stegman has stuck around for the main cover and it’s easily my favorite part of this issue. It’s nothing too outlandish, just the Spider-Family swinging by a building, but it allows us a look at everyone in their current costumes. The lenticular cover, paying homage to Amazing Spider-Man #252, which in itself was an homage to Amazing Fantasy #15, is nicely done by Randolph, but it’s a little weird ascribing the word “Legacy” to a book thirteen issues in, even if we are to believe the characters’ history is far more storied than that.

I really liked the opening page. There are six vertical panels and as you move through each one, it spotlights a different member of the Sinister Six emerging from the shadows. It’s ominous, it’s foreboding, and the feeling doesn’t last long.

As Annie enters the fray, she points out that she needs a new name. I agree, Spiderling doesn’t quite seem to fit her now that she’s a teen. Maybe Spider-Girl? It’s been done, though. The colors really pop here in this Danger Room scene, highlighting characters that don’t have a background to play off of. As Spidey jumps in, he makes a reprimanding comment about Spiderling swearing. Like Captain America in Avengers: Age of Ultron, he’s the dad figure around here, replete with tired jokes to tease his kid. I gotta admit, I’m guilty, too, of using the same tactics with my kids. I find it amusing, they…don’t.

With the simulation over, Wolverine barges in. It’s here that I started to not gel with the art. Wolvie is squat and stout, which isn’t wrong, but he comes off more shrunk than anything else. Masks now removed, I didn’t care for how Roche depicted faces either, sometimes just resorting to dots for eyes. It’s a big adjustment to the “house style” established by Stegman for this title. I also didn’t care for how sheepish Spidey got when Wolverine chastised him. It may be eight years later, but just last issue Spidey saved ALL the X-Men and he still doesn’t command any respect from Logan. This should be a more mature, veteran Spidey and his behavior doesn’t reflect that.

In fact, it’s kind of hard to place where and when this is. Given that it is supposed to be eight years later, that would place them in the future, but it feels like more of a contemporary setting, even with a VR theme park mentioned (C’mon, it’s the Marvel Universe where high tech is a way of life). It’s hard to determine if Peter and MJ have aged at all going by the art. If we compare it to the MC2’s Spider-Girl, and how can you not, Peter doesn’t have anything to distinguish the passage of time outside of maybe an extra worry line on his forehead. Annie is easily identifiable as having grown, but her mom stays more or less timeless. Prior Mary Janes have at least changed their hairstyle as they’ve gotten older. MJ still has her business, though, which I was happy to see carry over. It doesn’t mean the Parkers are financially sound by any stretch. Like most of us, they still have to pinch pennies and budget, keeping that aspect of their relatability. No penthouses or Parker Industries here, folks!

Maybe it’s the body language Roche bestows upon him, but Peter just feels like a schlubby loser to me. This may be in part to Houser’s writing of Annie. She comes off as a typical teen, absorbed in her phone, and not caring about her dad droning on. I really didn’t care for Peter’s facial expressions on the van ride home with Annie or when he raises his arms in an “I don’t know” gesture after Annie storms off at Coney Island. There’s just an air of “sad sack” about him. Having said all that, the shirt rip is pretty epic and heroic looking!

I’m also a bit of a mixed bag on The Lizard returning. His introductory panel is great. The low angle allows him to feel threatening as he domineers the page. It’s just that we’ve seen him before. Granted, we’ve seen a few of Spidey’s rogues gallery make several appearances in this book already, but it would’ve been cooler in hindsight to see a new spin on an old villain. Going back to the topic of aesthetic changes, the Lizard isn’t all that dissimilar from how Todd McFarlane represented him, so it doesn’t feel like there’s been a passage of time or a difference on an alternate Earth. We’ll have to wait and see if Houser and Roche do anything to differentiate him, but he only gets three panels in this issue.

Included in this issue is a three page recap of the RYV history by Thompson, Stockman, Campbell, and Caramagna. Things are very close to the 616 version of events up until Annie is born and then we only get to see the original RYV mini and a representation of the first arc of this series. I don’t envy Stockman trying to recapture some of the magic of the famous panels depicted. He brings his style, but it can’t compete with the likes of Romita Sr.’s introduction to Mary Jane.

Thus begins our introduction to this new era of “Legacy”. Not being privy to what goes on behind the scenes at Marvel, I have to ask, why are we here? This book was just getting started on establishing the world with plenty of gaps in history to be filled and here we are already creating more by jumping ahead in the timeline. There were those at the onset of this series being announced asking why this book and not the return of May Day in her own title and I’d have to imagine they feel even more slighted now.

The difference, the nuance, this title had was the addition of Mary Jane to the hero fray and how that impacted Peter’s crime fighting ability. That brought a drama and tension as she gave him strength in numbers, but also made him weaker in powers. That doesn’t even get addressed in this issue. Is she still using Regent tech to stay in the field? In the past eight years did she come up with a way to get her own spider-strength? Or maybe she is still bonded with the symbiote and she had it alter its appearance to her “classic” look? Maybe I’m jumping the gun and it’ll get addressed in upcoming issues, but Conway mentioned all the potential and plans he had, like numerous outfits for MJ, and we seem to be very far away from those possibilities now.

We also had the extra stress of a young child, which is a whole other ball of wax compared to a teenager. All that promise has been thrown away for a seemingly more indignant and “too cool” variation of May Day who spends most of her time this outing being irritated with her dad. It’s not that she’s not accurate to some teenagers, but we’ve explored Spidey with a teenager daughter. We haven’t seen Spidey with his little girl outside of a year’s worth of issues, a year’s worth that only told five stories essentially. What about all the mistakes she’s going to learn along the way? How’re they going to handle her getting hurt and missing school because she got injured by Doc Ock or a Spider Slayer? Heck, what happened to Liz and Normie? It just seems needless and I’m barely scratching the surface of what we’re missing.

This is a hard issue for me to grade. There’s what I want this book to be and there’s what we were given. The art has some bright spots, but more often than not it just wasn’t for me, looking more suitable for a Marvel Adventures book than the world Stegman created. Story wise, it didn’t have the impact of RYV #1, where it felt like we were coming home to old friends. I’ll take dorky dad Pete over international C.E.O. Pete, but nothing really stood out for me this issue. We had a virtual fight, a car ride, a conversation at home, and an outing interrupted. I didn’t feel any stakes with this issue. With issue #1 I felt like shouting from the rooftops that Spidey was back; by issue #13 I’m left with a resounding “meh”. I’m willing to see where this ride goes, but all the excitement and momentum has been lost for me.

MY GRADE: C

JAVI’S HUH?: Where’d Stan and Steve’s credit go?

Why doesn’t this have a Legacy issue number? Is it because the original mini went towards the original Amazing’s count? Seems odd to proclaim Legacy for a title then that doesn’t have any history.