Alford Notes: Amazing Spider-Man #41/842

Folks, we know you are begging for something on the Internet that has nothing to do with coronavirus* and we here at the Crawlspace always listen to our readers!  Here is our review of Amazing Spider-Man #41, which is guaranteed NOT to make you sick in any way, shape, or form!

 

Credit Where Credit Is Due

Story Title:  True Companions Part One

Writer: Nick Spencer

Penciler: Ryan Ottley

Inkers: Cliff Rathburn

Colorist: Nathan Fairbairn

Letterer: VC’s Joe Caramanga

Cover Artist:  Ryan Ottley and Nathan Fairbairn

Asst. Editor: Kathleen Wisneki

Editor: Nick Lowe

Published: March 11, 2020

 

Sorry for the delay, folks.  Schools are shutting down here in North Carolina and that means quite a bit of unexpected work on my part.  I promise to never again allow work to interfere with what really matters – comics!  Plus Neil beat me getting this review out!  Geez!

 

Remedial ASM 101

Spider-Man’s roommate, Boomerang, has taken something that Kingpin wants.  A while back, Arcade thought it was a great idea to clone Vermin.  Like, a lot of times.

The Story – Pay Attention, This Will Be on the Test

Turns out the thing Kingpin wants is actually lots of things – pieces of the Lifeline Tablet.  Boomerang has been collecting them ahead of Kingpin because a city government employee said a magic spell that gives Boomerang the location of a piece of the tablet every so often.  At first Spidey and Boomerang have fun, but after one particular near-death fight with the congress of Vermin clones, things go from bad to worse as a mystery monster from Spidey’s past comes to play.

Pop Quiz

What is the name of our mystery monster (yes, all of these are actual monsters in the Marvel universe)?

A. Groot, the Monster from Planet X
B. Manphibian
C. Orrgo the Unconquerable
D. It, the Living Colossus
E. Golem
F. Gor-Kill the Living Demon
G. X, the Thing that Lived
H. Gog
I. Trull the Inhuman
J. Spragg
K. Poker Face
L. Zzutak
M. Goom
N. Fin Fang Foom

Click the image below to reveal the answer.

What Passed and Failed

PASS – Boomerang and Spidey’s interaction – The exchanges between these two sound completely in character and they are hilarious.  The two are not fighting for the punchline, the whole conversation is the punchline.  Plus, Spidey stories thrive on these types of situational irony.

PASS – The Soap-arang! (with hyphen, no less!)

PASS – Fred as narrator – This brings us to the LTOTI!

What makes this so great is that Fred is obviously telling some of the truth, but there is no way of knowing how much. It appears at times that we can see what really happened in the panel and what Fred is telling Spidey in the caption boxes,

but even then, the panels are Fred’s memory of what happened and I doubt it all went down exactly like that.

So we can’t trust what Fred says, and we can’t really trust what he believes to be true, either.  That’s why Fred is such an awesome narrator.

Analysis

This issue was focused on the one story – Boomerang vs Kingpin – and I think it was better for it.  I don’t mind teases for stories to come, but if I were to have one complaint about this run, it would be that it constantly feels like Spencer is juggling too many plots.  Here we are on issue #41 and we are finally getting some meat to the story teased in the FCBD issue** to lead this volume off.  Though, I feel obligated to say that I have enjoyed Spencer’s run immensely, so I am able to not let this complaint get in the way of my enjoyment of the stories.

So, Boomerang was chosen to be the one to stop Kingpin.  Well, maybe more like Boomerang was stealing something when things went haywire and the building exploded, somehow giving Boomerang the mystic map.  Whatever the case, Boomy has it and off we go to save humanity from Kingpin.

But why does Kingpin want the tablet?  Surely he knows what happened to Silvermane when he used it.  I am doubting that Kingpin wants it for his own youthfulness.  Instead, with Fisk gazing so much at Vanessa lately (and again in this issue), I’m thinking he believes this is a way to bring her back.  A way that I am sure will not yield the results he is hoping for.  If so, this would give motivation to his whole mayor act and his move to become legitimate.  When this fails – look out!

OOTI (Onomatopoeia of the Issue)

I know JR loves these things, so here is the onomatopoopie for this issue:

On a scale of 1 (POW) to 10 (BLRKBQRKPQRBLNB), KRAKA-TOOM rates an 9.  Fun to say out loud (go on, shout it in a deep voice!) and double outlined in black and white!   

Extra Credit

Goes to whoever can tell me which Marvel movie has a cameo of the Lifeline Tablet.

Double Bonus Extra Credit

Who is Hess?  We get a reference to the ‘Hess Estate’ here and I have no clue who this is.  I look it up and found a Hess who was an artist for a few Captain America issues and a Hess in the Freeform Cloak and Dagger series, but I don’t think this reference is to either of  them.

Homework

You have some extra reading to do, folks:

• Amazing Spider-Man #69 – Spider-Man’s first brush with the Lifeline Tablet
• Amazing Spider-Man #103 – First appearance of Gog
• Overachievers – find a copy of Spider-Man: Lifeline #1 (Marvel Unlimited has a placemark for it, but as of right now, no digital copy)

Final Grade

I just plain enjoyed this issue.  It was a fun read!

A

 

Your Turn

What grade do YOU give it?

 

But Wait!  There’s More!

The second story gives us little to go with on how it will impact Spidey in the future, but as they mentioned the Chameleon helped them to get their notes needed, so I imagine this is going to play into that larger story we were teased with at the end of the Kraven the Hunter saga.  I have no real connection with the Lethal Legion, so I don’t know what to expect one way or the other, but if Spencer is writing it, I’ll be more than glad to give it a shot.

 

What’s Next?

• Well, knowing what Boomerang is doing sure didn’t help.
• Spidey and Boomerang are in trouble in a VERY BIG WAY.

 

I love this preview!  The only preview better than the first bullet point was that Moon Knight issue that only said, “Moon Knight punches ghosts!”  And who can be upset with the promise of more Spidey/Boomy team-ups?  Unless of course it is akin to the promise of Sin Eater appearances (I read your comment,  Hornacek!).

 

Nick Lowe has asked people to let the Spider office know how they are doing by sending an email to spideyoffice@marvel.com and to make sure you mark it “OK to print”.  If you get published, make sure to draw our attention to it!

 

* Ok, I lied.  This panel shows that Nefaria is clearly suffering from the coronavirus.

 

** Oh No!  What is coronavirus going to do to Free Comic Book Day?

 

‘Nuff Said!