(Writer) Nick Spencer
(Artist) Mark Bagley
(Colorist) David Curiel
(Editor) Nick Lowe
(EIC) C.B. Cebulski
Date Released 7/29/2020
Issue Number #846
Price Tag: $4.99
Buy: Comixologyor GCC
RECAP <-Click MeSpidey is having a nightmare about taking a joyride with Overdrive and is about to crash when he wakes up. He delivers a heart felt voice mail to Mary Jane only to discover that he is still dreaming and it’s not only his dream, it’s also someone else’s dream as well. Kindred is behind it all and warns the Spider-Verse to do what he says.
[metaslider id=90929 cssclass=””]
THE STORY
Issue starts off with a Carlie Cooper backstory (that NO ONE gives a “thwip” about) while she examines a dead body. Then we see Peter walking and thinking about the recent events with Mary Jane (that EVERYONE does give a “thwip” about) when Overdrive is speeding through block party and we get clarification that Peter DID dream that dream in Sins Rising Prelude along with the rest of Spidey-Verse! I’m not saying Dark Mark was right, but I am willing to say that he was very wrong. That dream becomes reality when O.D. (Spencer’s nickname, not mine) does in fact crash due to a blast from Sin-Eater shotgun. Spidey manages to get Overdrive to a warehouse to escape and recover, but it’s all for not since Sin-Eater quickly shows up. Spidey and Sin-Eater banter and fight for awhile, only for Sin-Eater to fire his shotgun at Overdrive killing him. Sin-Eater escapes in a poof of smoke while heckling Spider-Man about Kindred has plans for him and we see Cooper examined Overdrive’s body only for him to come back to life right there on the examination table!
THE BREAKDOWN
- The “Plan”
- Anger Management
- Magic Bullet
- HIS name is Kindred
- Overdrive’s Name
- Nitpicks
- Grade
THE PLAN
Peter has a plan but can’t seem to follow through with it. Which is not entirely his fault…well kinda, maybe his fault. We got a tease of this back in ASM #830. Thanks to his sister Teresa needing his help he wasn’t able (despite his best efforts) to drive Mary Jane to the airport and then when that fell through, he planed on picking up Mary Jane at the airport, take her to dinner and a show and presumably pop the question to her. Nick Spencer has implied this since he began working on this title and has followed through on all of his plots and subplots. I have said this on our discord, there is no doubt that he won’t follow through with this one as well. Kindred is behind the events that have been taking place in The Amazing Mary Jane (which may have been canceled due to COVID19) and he wants to keep people away from Peter. Peter even has the suspicion of that. I do feel that the script for this issue has been re-written. Peter said that “MJ said something came up and had to cancel.”, yet in AMJ #6 Peter is fully aware that Mary Jane is in trouble and he’s going to do everything in his power to help and find her. Leads me to believe that AMJ is canceled and Spencer will fill in the plot holes on a later date. I DO suspect Peter to propose to Mary Jane. I DO suspect that she will accept. I DO suspect that it will happen around the time of ASM #850. However, I don’t suspect a “marriage ceremony” because THEY WERE ALREADY MARRIED. The controversial and awful story One More Day will be addressed by Spencer and if you noticed so far he doesn’t redo or reboot anything, he accepts the reality that something has happened in past continuity, plays off of it and either evolves it or resolves it. Think of his writing on ASM as a contractor fixing a house. What happened to that house HAD happened, what he plans on doing to FIX the house with his tools is what you need to be paying attention to. Another shining example of characterization depth driving the story and not the other way around. The dialogue between Peter and Mary Jane have supported that so far. Lets not forget the realization that Peter is experiencing the other side of when plans get canceled.
ANGER MANAGEMENT
We’ve all seen Spidey get emotional and very serious when he comes face to face with someone who caused pain and or death to someone that Peter loves and or admires. Best examples are is origin story, “The Death of Gwen Stacy” when Peter went after Norman for killing Gwen and “Back in Black” when Peter went after Kingpin after he put the hit out on his family. We get a repeat with “The Death of Jean DeWolff”. Once Spidey sees Jean’s badge on Sin-Eater, all bets are off and he lunges at Carter in beautiful Mark Bagley art form. Anger does cloud our webhead’s mind and Carter did take fully advantage of that. Carter did explain and make a good point to Spidey while they fought. Overdrive did kill policemen recently and Spidey isn’t going all kill bill on him like he is once again doing to Carter. Difference is, Overdrive NEVER wanted to kill and or hurt anyone and Sin-Eater obviously felt the need to. Spidey actions are relatable here. If it’s not personal, you aren’t exactly going to get a personal response. Did anyone else notice that Sin-Eater is following his folklore name sake roots?
MAGIC BULLET
So it looks like Sin-Eater’s powers have also evolved with his weapon of choice. The shotgun. When cleaning the sins of his prey, it provides the damage like any other bullet(s) being shot from a shotgun, but this one apparently does cleanse your sin and is only meant for that particular person who committed the wrong doing. We saw Spider-Man jump in front of that blast and it went through him like Portillo’s runs through me after I have eaten it. There’s an image for ya. ;D It doesn’t kill you instantly though, as Overdrive found out as he woke up with not a scratch on him. Sin-Eater also refers to Stanley Carter in the third person. Which leads me to believe he has a massive ego or someone else is controlling Stanley from the outside.
HIS NAME IS KINDRED
IT’S A BOY! Many speculation on who Kindred is and we at the Crawlspace didn’t rule out gender. There have been some misleading and maybe a typo error on the recap page on ASM, but now it can be clarified that (Thanks to Sin-Eater) that Kindred is in fact, male. So all you bloggers and message board users that thought that Kindred was Mary Jane or even Gwen Stacy, take a look at that panel, blink, turn off you computer, step away from your keyboard and just walk away. This issue came up “clueless” on who Kindred is or more specifically on what he wants, especially with Peter. He’s been pulling the strings to a lot of the events that been happening in Amazing, so hopefully we’ll know soon on who he is and what he’s after. If he has any connection to OMD or even pre-death Harry Osborn, that’s an issue I really want to dive into. I know a lot of people think this is dragging on, but if I may, let’s look at the reality here. COVID19 happened which delayed EVERYTHING. If it didn’t happen we would already be on ASM#850 and know Kindred is and what specifically he wanted. Real life found a way to intervene.
OVERDRIVE'S NAME
Meet James Beverley. An African American Male who is 32 years of age and can scatters nanites by touch which can transform a vehicle to his will such as improving a car’s speed or design. Wish I could do that to my car. Better yet, win some points with George and make his car a 1976 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am with 1977 model front end attached, cause that’s how the Bandit rolls.
Interesting to see how Spencer will evole this character into the story but one thing is for sure. He’s already gotten a name and more importantly we get a feel of what kind of person this man really is. He just needed money and doesn’t want to hurt anyone. Trying to turn over a new leaf so to speak.
NITPICKS
- Bagely’s Mary Jane (side view).
I’m a fan of Bagley’s art and his versions of Mary Jane in both ASM and Ultimate are good and well deserved. Still I can’t help but notice that this side view of her is a bit off. I mean Carlie Cooper looks better than her and honestly, THAT’S JUST WROOOONG. Looks like someone hit MJ with a frying pan. I think it’s a hit and miss sometimes, but Bagely can pull it off. Like the commission he did for the Crawlspace. Good side view of the upside down kiss.
- Stay inside the lines. (Colorist)
I don’t know much about being a colorist and I’m sure Curiel does a fine job but little mistakes like this does become a bit of an eye sore especially with good art from Bagley.
GRADE
Spencer has proven his worth here on this title. He’s hitting all the beats that I personally want him to hit on and seeing Mark Bagley back on this title brings back to the day when I was in high school, heading to my LCS to pick up my latest ASM book with a smile on my face. Pre-Clone days mind you. Besides the usual Nitpicks that I did have, I actually enjoyed this issue. The Sins Rising story arc has begun and I really like Peter’s inner dialogue in this issue. It definitely proves that Spencer GETS SPIDER-MAN. Not just Spider-Man, his whole supporting cast as well. Not a fan (big surprise) of seeing Carlie Cooper in the first four pages. I REALLY do NOT like her character. I know that Spencer is trying to make that character “likable”, but the way she came into ASM was so “UNLIKABLE”. I just want Carlie GONE. I rather have Jean DeWolff come back from the dead that have Carlie Cooper in this story. If Carlie went out the same way Jean did that would add some depth to this Sin-Eater story.
THE REPLYBack in ASM #845 we saw Peter dream about waking up and leaving a voicemail for Mary Jane. This message was however still a dream but I thought it would be fun for all you loyal readers out there to see What If Mary Jane left a message back! Enjoy our fun interactive message brought to you by our frequent MJ cosplayer Nicole Bandit.
Apple Podcasts
Google Podcasts
Spotify
Pandora
Amazon Music
iHeartRadio
Podbean
Amazon Alexa
Player.fm
Listen Notes
Stitcher
@Evan: Good question. I looked back at the issues where she’s having coffee with MJ and she didn’t really talk about HOW she got better. My guess is that the serum did eventually wear off. Still, it would have been nice for her to reference that if eventually did go away. I couldn’t remember either, nor do I care. 😀 I want this character to just go away.
I thought Carly turned into one of the “Goblin King’s” minions. Did she get better? I honestly forgot.
Mark: During Peter’s “Plan” monologue there was a front face shot of MJ that I thought Bagley could have done better on as well. I was a bit disappointed in that. I know he’s done better in ASM and especially in Ultimate.
Adam: YES! We’ll go with that. Spencer does have a way of doing that with characters. Depth and characterization that drive the story. Like I said, Spencer made her a REAL character not just a love interest thrown in there, named after the boss’s daughter to score brownie points. If you ask me.. Spencer is scoring more brownie points by making her character REAL.
I still don’t like her, at all. Her creation served one purpose and one purpose only. I am hoping we have a parallel instance were she dies like Jean DeWolff since she’s involved in this story npw. I would make sense, since both her and Jean’s history are basically the same.
Could I “no prize” the MJ side view and say this is Carlie describing the scene. Maybe she doesn’t see the MJ we all see. Some jealousy at play, maybe.
I will say though that the opening scene of Carlie made me interested in the character more than anyone else ever has. It felt like she was a real character with motivation and purpose. There was nothing new in her monologue, we knew all this already, but Spencer tied it together better than previous writers have.
Ah yes, ‘he’ – I forgot to put that in! Nice job, Chi-Town. The voice mail is a nice touch. I totally missed the colorist errors. I’m pretty oblivious to art issues unless it is something egregious to me, like not recognizing who the character is by art alone or that odd panel with MJ, which is even more striking that she is draw ok in other panels of this book! Weird.