Craig’s Critique: Amazing Spider-Man: Gang War First Strike #1: “Gang War, Huh, Yeah, What Is It Good For? Absolutely Everything!” or “First Strike, Second Ball”

Hey, it’s Gang War time!  Stop, come back, no more teasing about how “Gang War is coming!” – it’s finally here!  And did somebody say “I want some one-shots in my comicbook events?”  No?  Well, you’re getting them anyway, you lucky dogs!

(Google defines “first strike” as “an attack with nuclear weapons designed to destroy the enemy’s nuclear weapons before their use.”  Uh-oh.)

CREDITS

Writer:  Zeb Wells with Cody Ziglar

Artists:  Joey Vazquez with Julian Shaw

Color Artists:  Bryan Valenza

Letterer:  VC’s Joe Caramagna

Variant Cover Artists:  SWEENEY BOO?  IS THAT A REAL NAME?

THIS ISSUE IS DEDICATED TO SHARI ANN MYERS – 1963-2023⁽¹⁾

 

PREVIOUSLY IN AMAZING SPIDER-MAN …

We had a three-part⁽²⁾ story about Rek-Rap.  No, don’t try to remember it, it’s best that you don’t.  Pretend that it never happened and move on.  But Gang War shenanigans were transpiring!  Hammerhead was pitting the various gangs against each other, Janice decided to take her father Tombstone’s place and broke up with Randy, Silvermane and Count Nefaria were revealed to be the big bosses behind the scenes orchestrating everything … only to be immediately defeated (killed?) by a mysterious figure.  Also, some guy got their letter printed in the letters page.

 

SUMMARY

(I’ve been reading Marvel comics for decades, and I admit that there are a bunch of names here I don’t recognize.  Some of them must be fake just to mess with us.)

In the Bronx a bunch of gang leaders are meeting.  One of them (I have no idea who this is but he’s got a lot of hair on his face and looks wolf-like so I’m calling him “Wolf-Face”) is arguing with The Rose (or is this the Crime-Master?), Lady Yulan, Shang-Chi, Mr. Negative, Shotgun (?), and Black Mariah.  The Rose/Crime-Master has partnered up with AIM (and has one of the beekeeper outfit guys with him), while Shotgun plans to take over Madame Masque’s territory (since she’s dead).  Hammerhead (who is at the far end of the table, away from the squabbling “kids”) reveals that Shotgun has partnered with HYDRA and accuses him of killing Madame Masque, but Shotgun says that he would not have killed Count Nefaria’s daughter.  Also, Black Mariah wants Tombstone’s territory.  Basically it’s like having Thanksgiving dinner with the members of your family that you choose to see only once a year – at Thanksgiving.

Suddenly the White Rabbit appears (it feels like forever since we saw her).  Hammerhead says that she’s supposed to be watching “Tombstone’s girl”, which is when Janice enters and sits in Tombstone’s vacant seat.  She says that she’s not going to let any of them take over her father’s territory.  Hammerhead thanks Janice for inviting him to her wedding, which is where he met “what’s-her-name” (the woman hanging off his arm every time we’ve seen him since the wedding), but says that she has to earn her father’s seat by killing the guy who’s trying to get Fisk’s Law repealed:  Randy Robertson!

(Janice:  “Who?”Hammerhead:  “I thought you might have forgotten him so here’s a photo of him.”  Janice:  “Who is this woman with him?”  Hammerhead:  “That would be you.”)

Janice appears shocked at first but tells Hammerhead to give her 24 hours to do the deed and tells everyone to not touch “that #$%&ing seat.”

Meanwhile Spider-Man is chasing Slyde⁽³⁾ who is slipping away (I like wordplay) but Miles is also here to help.  He says that he doesn’t have time for this and uses an energy sword (Miles can do that now?) to cut a walkway that Slyde is attached to, causing him to fall and get knocked out.

Spidey tries to joke around with Miles, but Miles is having none of it, and we get 2 pages of Miles reading him for filth about being gone for 6 months (and pretty much all of his actions during the Zells run).  Miles tells him how he’s been working with Luke Cage, Misty Knight, and Randy Robertson trying to get rid of Fisk’s Law.  Spidey admits that Cage asked him to help and he refused, and now admits that wasn’t a good decision.  Miles tells him to get his act together and leaves.

(Miles:  “You know where to find me … in a book where I am written well and consistently, unlike one of us.”  Spidey:  “Ouch … but true.”)

Meanwhile Randy is talking to Luke Cage on the phone, who says that he can’t repeal Fisk’s Law if he can’t force a vote⁽⁴⁾.  Randy says that he’s going to talk to some of his supporters, and Luke hears a noise outside Gracie Mansion, and we see that Randy has brought his protestors there.

(There are 4 (FOUR) “Iron Man Saved My Dad” protest signs here.  What the hell is going on here?)

Hammerhead and What’s-Her-Name are driving by the protest and he says that he will find the one making the most noise and deal with this.  Randy is practicing his speech to the protestors when he is confronted by the Beetle (aka Janice).  She shoves him against the wall and asks if he thinks she’s a murderer – like her father – and Randy admits that he doesn’t think that, but he does think that of whomever sent her to threaten/kill him.

While all this is happening, What’s-Her-Name is telling Hammerhead that it’s not right to send Janice to kill her boyfriend, but he is sure that she won’t do it, and that he did this to let Janice realize that she’s not a killer.  Janice realizes that she can’t kill Randy, unmasks, and tells him to get out of New York (not just the city but the state).  But then three goons show up.  Randy forgets that Janice’s Beetle armor is bulletproof⁽⁵⁾ and throws himself in front of her just as the goons shoot.

Spidey shows up at Gracie Mansion to talk to Cage about Randy and his protest work, but Cage tells him that something’s happened to Randy.

Meanwhile Robbie Robertson is sitting besides Tombstone in his hospital room:

(This is kind of weird, right?  Since when did Robbie care enough about Tombstone to sit somberly by his bedside?  He got Robbie sent to prison in the 80s.)

A nurse enters assuming that Robbie was just admitted with bullet wounds, but she realizes it’s another Robertson – Randy.  Joe finds Randy being wheeled in with multiple gunshot wounds.  Janice is with him, crying, saying that Randy jumped in front of her, but Joe tells her to “get the hell away from my son”, causing her to leave in tears.

Hammerhead and What’s-Her-Name are at his place.  She is holding Madame Masque’s mask⁽⁶⁾ and saying that she doesn’t like that he ordered his men to shoot Randy.  He yells at her and shoves her to the floor, saying that he’s the man got the “killers” and “psychos” to want to kill each other, and that he’s the only one keeping everything from blowing up.

(Hammerhead:  “Hey baby, my head itches.”  What’s-Her-Name:  “Don’t worry, I’ll help you with that.”)

Suddenly, What’s-Her-Name reveals that she hasn’t just been eye-candy for the past few appearances, takes out an adamantium (and magic?) pole, and bashes Hammerhead on the head.  She reveals that it’s an actually a femur (this is from Silvermane’s robot body, obviously) and proceeds to bash him repeatedly on the head, leaving him seemingly dead (F in the comments for Hammerhead, who I am 100% positive is dead and won’t come back later in this story).

Beetle arrives to see What’s-Her-Name covered in Hammerhead’s blood.  Janice recognizes her as Hammerhead’s date at her wedding, and What’s-Her-Name reveals that she is actually … Madame Masque!⁽⁷⁾  Sacre bleu!

Madame Masque reveals that she hired someone to pretend to be her at the wedding when she learned that Hammerhead planned to blow up her car, and then be his “floozy” on his arm while he monologued about all of his plans in front of her.

(So does this mean she was the mysterious figure at the end of the previous issue?  Or is that someone else?  There are no purple boots in this shot.)

Madame Masque tells Janice what is about to happen – the various gang leaders will learn that Hammerhead is gone⁽⁸⁾, realize that the agreements that held everyone together were only effective when he was around, and everyone will move on the other gangs.  We see Mr. Negative, RingMaster, and The Rose starting to make their moves against each other as Masque describes this.  Masque admits that all the gangs want war – she’s just giving it to them.

Meanwhile at the McCarthy Medical Institute⁽⁹⁾, Robbie is sitting by Randy’s bedside.  Spidey arrives and Robbie says that Spidey should be out there fighting, not in here with Randy, and gives him a speech so inspirational that you would swear you’d hear patriotic music playing in the background.

They’re interrupted by multiple explosions outside.  We get a great 2-page spread of various gangs attacking each other.

(Shang-Chi and Hulks and RingMaster?  Oh my!  Plus, more of Wolf-Face!)

Janice tells Madame Masque that if anyone comes after Harlem she will destroy them.  Masque says that “they’re already coming after Harlem” and that she’ll be there to claim what’s left after.  Beetle leaves; Masque contacts Shotgun and tells him “We’re go.” … which means that Shotgun was working with Masque all along!  What kind of world do we live in when we can’t even trust a man named Shotgun?

Cage is telling his subordinates to mobilize everyone.  Spidey arrives and tells him that he’s going to be doing a lot of super-heroing and doesn’t want any “distractions”.  Cage confirms that he’ll make sure that he won’t be arrested for being a superhero in public, but Spidey tells him that it’s not just “him” – he’s putting together a team.

(I was really tempted to include an “I’m putting together a team” GIF here but I could decide between the Nick Fury one of the Batfleck one.)

TO BE CONTINUED!

 

INITIAL RESPONSE

Remember when this run started and, although we all hated the brand new mystery box mystery, we had some optimism because of the initial story with Tombstone?  Remember how good it felt to read about a street-level Spidey story?  It’s nice to have that feeling back here.

 

WHAT I LIKED

After months of teasing and setup, the Gang War is finally here!

Like the second half of the previous ASM issue, we got something from pretty much everyone involved in this story.  There’s a lot of characters, and while we didn’t get a lot from everyone, we got enough from the main ones.

Miles shows up just long enough to tell Peter what the readers have wanted to tell him since this run started – how terribly he’s been acting during this entire run.  I shouldn’t like another character coming into the book just to tell Spidey how bad he’s been acting, but considering this run, Spidey both needs and deserves it.

(It feels weird when a guest star criticizing the main character feels like a good moment, but Peter needed someone to tell him this.)

While I had more interest in the Randy/Janice relationship during the Spencer run than the Zells run, her realization that she couldn’t kill him and that she still cares for him was nice to see.  I’m still rooting for those two crazy kids!

They got me with the Madame Masque reveal.  There was nothing specific, but a few pages into the issue I thought “Hmm … I think Hammerhead’s nameless girlfriend is more than she appears.”  But I never thought that she would be Masque – I thought maybe she was just a mole for Mr. Purple Boots.  I knew nothing about Madame Masque before this run but I recognized the name, so when she blew up at the wedding I thought “there’s no way they’re going to kill off a villain that’s been around for years (decades?) like this”.  So I suspected that she was still alive and her “death” was part of someone else’s plan (I assumed Hammerhead’s).  So it was a surprise to see What’s-Her-Name rise up and beat (kill?) Hammerhead – to follow up on the Survivor analogy I made in the previous issue, if you get too much power and make yourself look too powerful too early before the game is over then you run the risk of someone else realizing this and taking you out.⁽¹⁰⁾

Not sure I like the idea of Spidey forming a team, but there seem to be enough crime groups to fight that he can’t fight them all at once by himself, so I guess it makes sense to gather some other New York heroes and divide up the groups amongst them.

 

WHAT I DIDN’T LIKE

Spidey doesn’t appear a lot in this issue, and he’s very reactive – he’s not driving the plot, he’s realizing that he hasn’t been doing enough – things he should have been already doing.  Miles tells him that he’s been acting terrible to him and the city.  Robbie tells him that he should be out fighting the gangs instead of visiting Randy.  Spidey finally gets the message and decides that he needs to stand up against Fisk’s Law, and go out and fight this Gang War, but he should have already known that he should do that.  I guess Zells might say that this realization is all part of Peter’s arc across this entire run, but it just feels like he made him act out of character for so long just to have this momentous moment of him realizing what he has to do.  But it mostly comes off as the reader saying “Duh!  Yeah, this is what Spidey should have been doing all along!”

I’m starting to get whiplash from the repeated introductions of the new person in charge of the Gang War plans, only for them to be removed and someone else to be revealed as the new big threat.  That isn’t a problem with this issue specifically, more so how it’s happened a few times so far in the Gang War setup stories.  But if we get Madame Masque removed/killed in the next issue by a new Big Bad I’ll start rolling my eyes and say “Whatever!”

What is Shang-Chi doing here hanging out with the crime gangs?  Is this supposed to be an undercover assignment?  Or he is anti-hero who acts as a criminal sometimes to maintain order?  I knew next to nothing about him before his movie but had heard about him over the years – enough to know that he’s not supposed to be a criminal.  Please let me know in the comics if this is out of character for Shang-Chi to be here like this, or am I wrong about him?

(Mr. Negative asking the question that I was.)

 

WHAT THIS ISSUE MEANT OVERALL

Gang War is here!  It’s started, with a bang!  Multiple bangs!  There’s plenty of time for Zells to disappoint me as the story goes on, but right now I’m … excited?  Is that the word?  I’m optimistically cautious?  Yeah, that’s the phrase.

Also, if you skipped this issue because you only read Amazing Spider-Man then you’re going to have missed a lot when you read the next ASM issue.

 

GRADE

B+.

This was almost an A-, but the reactive Spidey annoyed me, even though that seems to be over with this issue.  It feels like Zells deliberately made Spidey act out of character for so long just to have this big moment in this issue when he realizes that he should be doing what he should have been doing all along.  But at least Spidey seems to finally have his head screwed on straight about what he’s supposed to be doing, and this still a really good issue, setting up lots of Gang War shenanigans to come in the issues ahead.

 

NEXT TIME, IN AN ALL-NEW ISSUE OF AMAZING SPIDER-MAN …

(What’s a Marvel event without a checklist of tie-ins?)

What will happen in Luke Cage:  Gang War #1 and Spider-Woman #1?  Tune in to the Spider-Satellites patreon podcast to find out (I assume) because neither Mark nor I will be reviewing them here!  You’re lucky you got a review of this issue – I asked Mark last week if he was going to review this issue and he yelled at me for 20 minutes about how he only reviews the odd-numbered ASM issues, and that I just wanted him to include this one-shot in our rotation to throw off that pattern so that *I* would get to review the odd-numbered issues in the future.  Mark is really into numerology I guess.

 

FOOTNOTES

(1)  According to her obituary (I assume this is her), she was married to Jesus Vasquez in 1988 but that marriage eventually ended and she remarried.  I assume the divorce was amicable because the Vasquez family is listed among her friends and family.  I mentioned that because I wonder if Joey Vasquez (this issue’s artist) is related to Jesus Vasquez.  If anyone knows who she is and why this issue is dedicated to her, let us know in the comments.

(2)  Actually it was a 2.5 part story.

(3)  According to the Marvel Wiki, Slyde was killed when Underworld (?) shot him in the back of the head during Civil War (the first one), but later turned up alive with no explanation in Avengers Standoff:  Assault On Pleasant Hill Omega #1.

(4) 

(5)  Is it bulletproof?  I don’t remember if we have been told/shown this, but it seems likely.  Who wears an armor suit that is not bulletproof?

(6)  Try saying that five times fast.

(7)  Finally I don’t have to type What’s-Her-Name anymore in this review.  Oh wait, I could have just copy and pasted it instead of typing it each time.  Drat.

(8)  I like to think that the other gangs found out about Hammerhead’s death so quickly because Madame Masque tweeted about it and tagged them all in her post.  #HammerheadIsDead #GangWar #ThugLife

(9)  According to the Marvel Wiki, this institute is home to the Maria Wheelock Cancer Center where Aunt May and Jane Foster both received their cancer treatments.

(10)  I can finally reveal that I only took the job of writing these reviews to slowly start to discuss my interest in Survivor here.  Eventually these reviews will be 95% Survivor, 5% Spider-Man review.