Amazing Spider-Man Vol 5 #5/Lgy 806 Review: The Bogenrieder Perspective

“Wait, how old’s your mom? You got a picture?”

Spencer’s first arc on Amazing Spider-Man comes to a close! Can he wrap up arcs better than Slott? Only one way to find out! Come along with me, as we look at the finale to “Back to Basics!”

Amazing Spider-Man Vol 5 #5/Lgy #806

“Back to Basics, Part 5”

Writer: Nick Spencer

Pencils: Ryan Ottley

Inks: Cliff Rathburn

Colors: Laura Martin

Editor: Nick Lowe

Editor-in-Chief: C.B. Cebulski

Plot:

So after a cute little page with MJ from Spencer to let us know he hasn’t forgotten her, along with a reminder from MJ that she wants both Peter and Spider-Man in her life (I know I shouldn’t be excited by this, but let’s remember that I spent two years reviewing a comic by a man who I swear forgot how to use words at some points.) Peter begins weighing his options. Having to pass on Felicia and her recycled panel for her help, he turns to a more convenient source of scum and thievery; the one sitting on his couch.

Peter feeds Fred some info about the Accelerator, and as Fred is stealing it, Peter steals it from him. (God, I love this dynamic.) It doesn’t take long to find Spidey, but it takes even less for the two of them to bolt when Robot Master’s army of Tri-Sentinels rains justice from above. Peter takes a hit from Spider-Man, who begins shit-posting with his mouth again; however, Peter uses the distraction to web down the Accelerator and recombine with Spidey, in a glorious explosion of blue energy.

Using the Spider-bot (I wish we had seen these instead of the stupid drones in Superior) Peter uses his smarts to make the Tri-Sentinels go back to where they came from. Peter arrives at the Robot Master’s hideout, only to find him dead from his benefactor shanking him in the back. (Deal with the devil, hmm?) As Peter enjoys the night with MJ, whole once again, Black Ant and Taskmaster are interrogated by Homeland Security but escape, while the hunter becomes the hunted by none other than Kraven… y’know. The Hunter.

Thoughts:

After months upon months of Slott giving me unsatisfactory endings to arcs with promise, we get the wrap-up of Spencer’s first arc.

And it feels oh-so-good, especially as a college student who has few pleasures in life. And I’m lucky to call this series one of them.

First off, I have to continue giving mad props to Ryan Ottley for continuing to nail the detail on both characters and backgrounds. The Tri-Sentinel, in 

particular, looks stunning, especially in the actions scenes where it fights against the onslaught of other Tri-Sentinels. If I have any complaints, they’re relatively minor ones. You get this sense on any page where Peter is covered in blood or where Bug Guy is tearing apart Robot Master that he was holding back from drawing more gore, but he was able to restrain himself enough. (Which I’m glad about, I’m an admittedly squeamish person.)

I’ve never been a fan of how Ottley draws feminine lips; granted, I sympathize with the situation, given the stylized work he does has very little in the way of accommodating emphasized lips. Something else that bugged me is, when Peter is looking at Felicia’s contact info, it’s very obviously a recycling of the one panel she was in during ASM (2018) #1. I know there might have been constraints for how much time he had, but could you please have made something a little less obviously recycled?

Other than that? Some solid artwork. While I’m far more tolerant of Ramos than the average Spider-reader, I’ll miss Ottley until issue 11. He’s been a real treat to look at.

As you turn your attention to the writing, I wanted to point out that as the arc has gone on, there has been more and more of an emphasis on the more comedic aspects to run alongside the more serious character arc we’ve been getting. We get more and more jokes per issue from Spidey in this issue (Who I have decided to call, just a few times so Brad won’t get on my case for swearing, Shitpost-Man.) as well as getting some serious kicks out of every time Fred opens his mouth. It’s great that Spencer is focusing on the comedy that made Superior Foes such a hit and continuing to make Fred into a total schmuck who you love to hate. This book is just plain funny; it’s got great timing, and it never overstays its welcome, unless it’s deliberate. (See Shitpost-Man constantly acting like an irresponsible jackass.)

Another positive is the return of MJ to the forefront of Peter’s life. As I mentioned earlier, stuff like that shouldn’t be hoped for, it should be expected by default. But this time they have together is much appreciated, especially with all of the marriage material being reprinted leading me to believe that there’s something leading to a bigger picture. I’ve heard complaints that MJ hasn’t been getting enough screen time, and I would argue that while MJ is a major part of Peter’s life, she’s not the only part of his life.

I’m loving Peter’s dynamic with Randy and Boomerang, especially in Peter willing to play dirty to save his own skin and potentially get him thrown in prison. Randy could probably use a little more focus and doesn’t share the same size of pie slices that Peter and Fred do, but that’s arguably intentional, seeing as the story really only has Randy as the sort of “straight man” to Peter and Fred’s antics.

Something that I did want to discuss that Dark Mark already covered is the return of Black Ant and Taskmaster. As with their appearances in ASM Vol 5 #2, Spencer clearly loves writing these characters, as they have some of the best back-and-forth and most well-timed comedy in the issue. If this is Spencer’s hint that Black Ant and Taskmaster are going to be recurring villains, I’m all for that and he can just take my money.

I do have some complaints, however. Small ones, but they’re there and I’m not gonna overlook them.

For one, I do think that killing Stromm was a little unnecessary, especially considering that Bug Boy has been quoted as being able to drag people out of hell, as mentioned during Mysterio’s hallucination. This just felt like being edgy because we need a casualty to show the danger of making deals with the devil. Secondly, I think that the whole Tri-Sentinel subplot wrapped itself up a little too cleanly. I don’t mind the majority of the threat being destroyed, but it would have been a good idea to show a few Tri-Sentinels get separated from the network and have Peter’s retrieval of them be a longer-term plot point. While the Tri-Sentinel itself mostly worked as a gimmick and probably would overstay its welcome, I do think that just blowing them all up at the end was a little too neat of a wrap-up.

And this is a smaller complaint, but I would have loved to see Shitpost-Man and Boomerang to bounce off each other and just hang out. Given that Spidey had no real moral compunction and Boomerang is… well, Boomerang, they would have had some great immoral chemistry.

Other than that, Spencer’s final issue to his first arc was solid. Would I recommend buying this series still? Absolutely, it’s one of the best books Marvel has on the stands, period. Marvel made a good choice putting Spencer on this book, and I’m glad their gamble is paying off like I thought it would. It officially has the Bogenrieder stamp of approval, along with Mark’s Crawlspace stamp.

Whereas Mark’s stamp is elegant with calligraphy, mine is the “You’re Winner” screen from Big Rigs. So I’m not sure how much credibility I have.

Final Grade: A