Amazing Spider-Man Vol 5 #16/Lgy #817: The Bogenrieder Perspective

Yes, Chi-Town has already released a review for this last week’s issue. I don’t care. It’s the road to Hunted, so hopefully it takes me home to the place I belong.

Amazing Spider-Man (2018) #16/ Lgy 817 

“The Road to Hunted”

Writer: Nick Spencer

Pencils: Ryan Ottley and Alberto Alburquerque

Inkers: Cliff Rathburn and Alberto Alburquerque

Colors: Laura Martin Brian Reber, Carlos Lopez

Cover Art: Cully Hammer

Editor: Nick Lowe and Kathleen Wisneski

EiC: C.B. Cebulski

Plot:

So this is more of a flashback episode. (Oh boy, my second favorites! Only behind amnesia episodes!) The issue goes a lot more in-depth on Kraven’s plans, starting with his first step; gaining an heir. He has the High Evolutionary make a good 80-something clones of him, and then sends them out into the wild. Only one returns, having killed the others, much to Kraven’s delight. At a reception in Kraven’s African hideaway, Kraven has Arcade reveal the Savage Six to a cabal of hunters for the Great Hunt– Tarantula, Stegron (George, get in here!) Rhino, Vulture, Scorpion, and King Cobra. Afterwards, Kraven explains to his son that he has hired Black Ant and Taskmaster to capture not just those six villains, but EVERY animal villain.

Elsewhere, Peter is sick and being taken care of by MJ when he gets a call from Doctor Connors; Billy has gone missing. Turns out he was captured by Black Ant and Taskmaster, and Spider-Man is furious with himself. A Spider-Tracer sent by Black Cat, however, puts him on the hunt…

Thoughts:

Whenever Nick Spencer takes a break from Peter to focus on the villains, he always somehow finds a way to be almost as entertaining as when he’s writing our favorite wall-crawler. Almost being the operating word. To be fair, as a man who wrote one of my favorite comics in the past decade that was centered around villains, you expect his villain game to be on point; but in my opinion, some of his strongest work is with Peter. But that’s neither here nor there.

I want to talk about Kraven’s motivation and his current plan set in motion here, because a lot of people I think misinterpreted it (Or chose to see things where they weren’t) as Spencer seething about hunting in Africa, but I don’t think it particularly falls too far out of the realm of Kraven’s character to be seen as projecting on Spencer’s part. While Kraven himself has always been a weird character, this makes total sense for him. Including clones is a bit of a stretch, but making a proper heir is within the realm of rationality, at least for somebody like Kraven. (Why breed an heir when you can make yourself your heir?)

Characterization-wise, I think Spencer nails Kraven, as well as his psychopathic spawn. Kraven, to me at least, has always been a goofy character until Last Hunt, so making him a mix of the two is right up Spencer’s alley and adds a little bit of the hokeyness of the 70s to this interpretation of the character. Really, the only two characters in the first story with much depth are Kraven and his son, though the second story does a solid job with Peter, MJ, Taskmaster and Black Ant (They are effectively a single unit at this point, which makes me wish that Spencer would just write a mini-series about these two. I know I’ve requested this multiple times, but I think this is the first time I’ve asked for a run about two characters in a while.) and the Lizard family; appropriate pathos is provided to Billy as well, knowing that he was set up over the last few issues.

There’s also some solid comedy in this issue, including Kraven’s twist reaction to Kraven Jr. slaughtering his brethren and (as Mark pointed out in his review) Taskmaster and Black Ant just casually visiting the M&M store and everybody just going along with it. Even in this rather serious prelude, Spencer knows how to stay light on his toes and make us smile.

Going over to art, I’m going to be a little more forgiving than most towards Robert Alburquerque. Ryan Ottley, as per usual, knocks it out of the park, even if it is less about Peter and more about Kraven. Albuquerque, on the other hand, leans a little more into the Ramos spectrum of odd proportions and odd facial expressions. (I never thought I’d see the Lizard wear a tank top, but I did, and MJ is wearing a shirt and short shorts that would be way tighter on a J. Scott Campbell cover.) I don’t think the art for the second story is a good companion for Ottley’s outstanding pencils, but I don’t think it’s the worst thing ever.

At the end of the day, a “Road to…” issue needs to get you excited for the storyline it’s building up to. Does this book do that? I certainly think so, now that all the wheels within wheels are now turning and everything has been laid out. Here’s to hoping that the opening salvo is good enough to keep me invested.

Final Grade: B+