Amazing Spider-Man (2018) #33 (Lgy. #834) Review: The Bogenrieder Perspective

Adventures in Sable-sitting, continued, again.

Amazing Spider-Man (2018) #33 (Lgy. 834)

“Point Blank”

Writer: Nick Spencer

Artist: Patrick Gleason

Colors: Matthew Wilson

Letters: VC’s Joe Caramagna

Editors: Nick Lowe and Kathleen Wisneski

Editor-in-Chief: CB Cebulski

Plot:

Losing Lyla, Miguel is left to fend for himself: he beats Roxxon’s super-powered goons and takes off to find the Spider-Man of 2019. Elsewhere, Peter, Teresa, Foreigner and Silver Sable are in a standoff, and Teresa shoots first, revealing Silver Sable to be an LMD. The real Sable, as it turns out, has been critically injured since Ends of the Earth, with the Infinity Formula that Foreigner was acquiring to restore her to the leader that Symkaria needs. (Even though she’s up and at ‘em in Doctor Doom? Or is that just the LMD?)

Eventually, Peter returns to ESU, where his classmate reveals the true purpose of Peter’s Webware: it’s a Minority Report-style device called the Clairvoyance, which can predict the future withing a statistically acceptable margin of error. (Didn’t we literally just have an entire event where Captain Marvel and Iron Man screeched at each other and looked like idiots about this exact same topic?) Meanwhile, on orders from Katrina Karkov and Chameleon, obscure villain Hitman takes aim at his newest target at the UN: Victor Von Doom.

Thoughts:

I don’t really have that much to say about this issue; not because it’s necessarily bad, but much like the way back when Back to Basics and Hunted, the story is a bit more drawn out to accommodate five-plus issues. And while I don’t necessarily like this, it’s more than likely to accommodate the 2099 one-shots and drag it out a bit. Unlike Back to Basics, however, it feels a little stretched thin because there’s not as much to introduce and we’re 33 issues into the run already.

Once again, Patrick Gleason absolutely nails the shadow and lighting of his environments. I’m not a fan of all his faces, but for the most part I’m perfectly fine with even some of the rougher ones. (Teresa’s is the only one that really sticks out to me, but again, I’m giving it a pass because her look is the new Carlie Cooper: vaguely defined and changing from artist to artist.) The page where Teresa blows open the head of the Silver Sable LMD is gorgeous, and seeing the behind the scenes speed-drawing that Gleason uploaded onto his Twitter gives a lot of insight into how he does his linework digitally. Matthew Wilson is still rocking it on the colors, as well as their depth and intensity, so there’s not a whole lot more to say that I didn’t last issue.

Story wise, however, I have a bit more to complain about. While everything is technically competently put together, (Hence my higher grade than Dark Mark’s) some of the storylines are just not gelling with me. I’m entertained, don’t get me wrong, but I was promised a 2099 story (As well as some stuff regarding Jonah) but so far there’s been way more focus on the SHIELD storyline and Teresa’s revenge subplot. Hell, Miguel only appeared in two pages of this issue, and while I’m sure he’s guaranteed more before the 2099 Alpha, I shouldn’t have to read that supplementary material to get more of what I was promised. Though I did like the use of Hitman, as it once again shows Spencer’s love of using lower-tier villains and the ability to make deep cuts consistently.

There are some things I just… didn’t like. For one, I think Kharkov and the Symkaria storyline are fairly one-note and was one of Slott’s weakest storylines. So returning to this plot point hurt the narrative of the entire story, as well as weakening it by making the entire 2099 storyline hinge on the weakest link in the chain. I also don’t like how the storyline is retconning Silver Sable’s outcome from Ends of the Earth, not necessarily because it’s a bad change (I actually quite like the concept and its execution on paper) but it just felt somewhat unnecessary. I’m also kinda getting a little worn out on the Jamie guy, mostly because he’s more or else the Chekov’s Gun that will predictably be fired at some point or another. (Not to mention, as I said earlier, that we just had an entire event three years ago about the ethical implications of something like this, and more or less ruined the perception of the main characters involved among comic readers.)

I can’t bring myself to hate what I’m reading. It’s still entertaining, and I’m still getting my money’s worth on a technical basis. But I don’t feel incredibly excited or feel like I’m being taken on a time-warp adventure, and that’s a little disappointing. Maybe it’s because Spencer has set such a high bar for himself, but I’m still not really feeling this story. Hopefully the next issue will turn things around, and that same kind of hope extends to the 2099 one-shots.

Final Grade: B+