The gang war continues! Do you like your Spider-Man stories when the main character mostly sits around and watches other people drink alcohol while waiting for someone to show up? Where villains switch their established look something really ugly? Where a man and a severed head are dropped off a building and apparently the severed head is the one that survives? Then this is the issue for you!
(Are these guns that are pointed at them? City buildings? At the bottom of the cover it kind of looks like the Goblin Glider.)
CREDITS
Writer: Zeb Wells
Penciler: John Romita Jr.
Inker: Scott Hanna
Colorists: Marcio Menyz
Letterer: VC’s Joe Caramagna
Variant Cover Artists: NOBODY READS THIS PART SO I CAN PUT ANYTHING I WANT HERE. FOR EXAMPLE: PURPLE MONKEY DISHWASHER
PREVIOUSLY IN AMAZING SPIDER-MAN …
A gang war has erupted and Spider-Man has gathered a team (Spider-Miles, She-Hulk, Elektra-Daredevil and Spider-Woman) to stop the various gangs who are targeting each other and tearing the city apart. The team splits up to fight the various gangs (and star in their respective tie-ins). Meanwhile the Beetle has gone full-blown gang leader once Randy was shot and hospitalized. Her father, Tombstone, finally wakes up and tries to stop the gang war but he can’t – it’s got too much momentum – he can’t even stop his daughter from taking his place. So he turns to the one person he hopes can save his daughter – Spider-Man.
SUMMARY
In the West Village The Rose is getting ready to meet his men. He tells Digger that he’s going to take back all the territory Tombstone cheated him out of. Digger tells him that Tombstone’s daughter is running his territory now, to which The Rose says that Tombstone is going to lose her too.
(So is Digger just a bodyguard and a lieutenant for The Rose, or does he help dress him too? He’s standing here holding the rose and literally puts it in his lapel.)
Gang War Territories!
(If you compare this to the map in the previous issue there are differences(1). A nice attention to detail.)
At the Meatpacking District the Tracksuit Mafia are outside a warehouse full of Inner Demons. How do we know they’re the Tracksuit Mafia? Besides them calling themselves this, (a) they are all wearing tracksuits, and (b) they say “bro” in every other sentence.(2)
Suddenly Tombstone shows up and tells them that he can’t let them do that while mocking their fashion sense. Then Spider-Man and She-Hulk enter. Spidey tries to make a joke but she tells him that Tombstone already said that.
(Fun fact: Williams improvised this line – it wasn’t in the script.)
Spidey, She-Hulk and Tombstone make quick work of the Tracksuit Mafia guys, using a move that may be familiar to longtime X-Men readers.
(Spidey perched in She-Hulk’s hands is so ridiculous I kind of like it. Also, Colossus and Wolverine are gonna sue someone – good thing Jen is a lawyer.)
Spidey notices that the Inner Demons ran off and is ready to go after them but Tombstone says that they’re not going to do that because the ID are about to move on Lady Yulan’s vampires, and that if they take out the ID now then the vampires will overrun Downtown, adding “We don’t have time to fight every battle.” Spidey and She-Hulk reluctantly agree.
(“He can be the outcast, he can make the choice that one else can make, the right choice.”)
In the just-mentioned Downtown, Madame Masque is in the basement where she dragged Tombstone to in the previous issue (I assume this is where she is). She’s monologuing to her father, Count Nefaria(3) about how he has nothing else to offer her now, and that tomorrow morning she’ll have half the city, and by tomorrow night she’ll have all of it. Meanwhile a bloody and beaten Hammerhead is ignored in the background, trying to get something out of his pocket. But Madame Masque sees everything – she puts her boot on his neck, revealing that he was reaching for his phone. She’s amused (I’m guessing – it’s hard to tell any of her emotions with her mask) and lets him get his phone, indicating to him that he and his men are not a threat to her.
(This is a huge fall-from grace for Hammerhead. Is this building to a “Hammerhead is the one who takes down Madame Masque” ending? If not, oof.)
In Harlem the Beetle is meeting with her fellow members of the Syndicate – and White Rabbit – to discuss their plans to go after Diamondback. White Rabbit says that their troops are worried about a lack of firepower for this plan, but Beetle says that she personally is going to put the fear of God into Diamondback’s men, and shows that she is going to do this by donning a new … suit?
(What the actual hell is this supposed to be? I don’t know what’s more ridiculous – all the spikes, or the fake jagged teeth.)
Meanwhile Spider-Man and She-Hulk are with Tombstone in his apartment where he pours some drinks and says that he heard that Fisk is back in town and he is coming to see him, so they’re going to stay there and wait for him to show up. Spidey assumes Tombstone is talking about The Rose (don’t worry, we’ll discuss this leap in logic later) and tells him that he’s not going to protect him just so he can get back his territory.
(I like how Tombstone only pours drinks for himself and She-Hulk. He either knows that Spidey doesn’t drink, or just doesn’t bother to offer him any.)
Tombstone reveals that after publicly fighting alongside Spider-Man and She-Hulk tonight, his days of working with organized crime in the Tri-State area are over, and this is his “last ride”. After She-Hulk admits that her drink is great, she asks what Tombstone’s plan is. He says that he wants to stop the gang war before his daughter gets hurt, and that means working with Fisk.
Back in Downtown, a group of Maggia goons are about to break into a building(4) looking for Hammerhead. Madame Masque appears, and they ask her if she has “the boss”. She asks them “Who is the boss?”(5), revealing Shotgun above them holding a beaten Count Nefaria and Silvermane’s head. He drops them to the ground, where Count Nefaria leaves a bloody stain (he is really dead this time, right?). Madame Masque holds up Silvermane’s head, who is still alive, and tells the Maggia goons that she leads the Maggia now. Silvermane’s head confirms this, and the goons accept this and bow to her.
(I got some “Belloq holds up the idol to the natives at the start of Raiders of the Lost Ark” vibes from this.)
At Sugar Hill, Beetle and the Syndicate (and White Rabbit) break into Diamondback’s home (I assume – I don’t know where a lot of these gang leaders live or have their bases). Beetle tells Diamondback’s men that they have a new boss now, but one of them says “He got here first.”
“Fisk” finally arrives at Tombstone’s, at the same time as Beetle is asking Diamondback’s man “Who got here first?” – he replies “Fisk”.
(“Wait, Fisk is in more than one place at the same time? Or there are multiple Fisks? How can this be?” … is what Zells wants you to be asking here)
Finally, the big twist ending that fooled everyone!(6) The “Fisk” at Diamondback’s is The Rose (aka Richard Fisk), who tells Beetle that she’s trespassing on his property, and the “Fisk” at Tombstone’s is the Kingpin (aka Wilson Fisk), who is accompanied by Typhoid Mary (I assume – feel free to drag me in the comments if I’m wrong about this too) and a crowd of Hellfire Club goons.
(“Hey dolls, you’re an all-star, get your game on, go play. Hey dolls, you’re a rock star, get the show on, get paid.”)
TO BE CONTINUED!
INITIAL RESPONSE
This is a pretty good issue of the Gang War story … but it feels like only an average issue of Spider-Man. Not as good as First Strike or the previous issue, but still a good read. But there are a couple of annoying things.
WHAT I LIKED
Like First Strike and the previous issue, we get a bit from the different characters, which I like for a gang war story. There are a lot of characters in this and we get something from a lot of them.
As someone who was never a Tombstone fan from back in the day (or even the beginning of this run), I am kind of liking him post-getting shot. He knows more about this world than Spider-Man, and he lets him know that Spidey needs him and his knowledge about how things work with these gangs (i.e. when to let one of the gangs go). He tells Spidey and She-Hulk that their best plan is to just sit and wait, he explains why, and they both realize that he knows what he’s talking about. And he lays his cards on the table – by publicly helping Spider-Man he is done as a crime-boss – none of these gangs will ever trust him again. But he’s willing to do this to save his daughter – both her life and her soul.
(Zells, don’t ruin this character development by having this be all an act and Tombstone ends up being a crime-boss at the end of this thing.)
I knew almost nothing about Madame Masque before Gang War (besides the fact that she existed) but I’m liking her as a villain here. While I enjoyed her monologuing to Hammerhead, I am worried that keeping him alive may lead to her downfall.
We don’t get anything from the other members of the Spider-Team, which is good. We saw them all last issue, they all went off to do their own things (in their own tie-in books), and if you want to know what they’re doing you can read their tie-ins. But at least in this issue, we’re “focused” on Spidey (and She-Hulk) and not them. I was worried that every ASM issue would have a few panels/pages showing what was going on with the other Spider-Team members in their books – don’t slip up and do this in the next issues, Zells!
Silvermane is still alive – well, his head is at least. We may yet see him in a tiny car again.
The Kingpin’s return is appreciated – it’s hard to do a gang war storyline without him (although personally I don’t want him to be the big boss at the end – we’ve had that many times). I like how he showed up to Tombstone’s apartment with a mug of coffee – not a travel mug, but a literal mug.
(Goon: “Sir, are you sure you don’t want a travel mug with a lid for this trip? What if the coffee spills?” Kingpin: “Don’t question me. This looks cool.)
WHAT I DIDN’T LIKE
The whole “Fisk” twist is a big (and annoying) swing-and-a-miss. I get that Zells wants to take advantage of there being two crime-figures named Fisk. He *really* wants that twist ending of “Oh, you thought Richard Fisk was the guy they were talking about? Turns out it was actually Wilson Fisk! Dun-dun-dunnnnnnn!” But it requires characters to (a) be dumb, and (b) not ask obvious questions.
When Tombstone says “Fisk is back in town.” why does Spidey assume he’s talking about The Rose and not Kingpin? Yes, he has fought both of them, but he has fought Kingpin so many more times than The Rose. If you say “Fisk” to Spidey he should automatically think “Kingpin” (unless there is something in recent history about Fisk that would make Spidey think he would not get involved in this gang war – if there is let me know in the comments – hey, I didn’t even know Fisk had been mayor until Fisk’s Law was mentioned in recent issues).
And Tombstone says that Fisk is back in town. This means that the Fisk Tombstone is talking about has been out of town. Is there a reason for Spidey to think that the Rose has been out of town? Doesn’t he think that the Rose is part of this gang war and would already be in New York? (if I’m forgetting something about The Rose in this run that backs this up, let me know in the comments). Isn’t the more logical conclusion for Spidey to make is that of the two Fisks he knows, if one of them is now back in town it would be the one that no one has seen much of since he was mayor of the city, not the crime boss who has been active in this gang war (and this entire run)?
Since Spidey has fought two men named Fisk, when Tombstone says “Fisk” the logical thing for Spidey to ask is “Which one?” But for this twist to happen he has to assume it’s The Rose and not ask this question. And he literally says “The Rose” to Tombstone – why wouldn’t Tombstone correct Spidey here? The answer is “so the twist/reveal at the end of the issue can happen” but in universe there’s no reason for Tombstone not to correct Spidey here.
I’ve gone on about this for awhile – maybe more than any “What I Didn’t Like” point in any of my reviews, but this whole thing was very annoying to me and felt forced just to have that twist at the end of the issue which only works if characters make bad assumptions and don’t ask follow-up questions. And it’s not even that good a twist.
(To quote M. Night Shyamalan on Robot Chicken, “What a twist!”)
Then there’s the Beetle’s new costume.
(Accurate representation of me seeing this new costume for the first time.)
Remember pre-OMD when Aunt May got shot, and Spidey switched to his black costume and was going around angrily beating people up, and the black costume reflected how his mood had changed? This really feels like Zells wants Janice to have her own Back In Black moment here. She’s angry about Randy being shot, she’s gone all-in on taking her father’s place and being a crime-boss, so she needs a dark and edgy new outfit. Do the spikes, teeth and color make it look like an actual beetle in real life? I have no idea – entomologists, please speak up in the comments! But it just looks ridiculous.
(White Rabbit is literally biting her tongue here, thinking “Tombstone told me to stay with her and look out for her. Wouldn’t be good if I told her the truth about how bad this new suit looks.”)
Spidey doesn’t do a lot in this issue – less than First Strike and the previous issue. In a gang war story like this there are so many characters with their own stories, so Spidey is not going to be in most of the pages. I felt this worked better in First Strike and the previous issue – in those issues Spidey felt active and did stuff. But in this issue he beats up some Tracksuit (bro!) Mafia guys – who are basically normal guys with no powers – and he has She-Hulk and Tombstone on his side, so this fight is no contest and over almost immediately. And after that he just sits arounds and waits (and watches people drink). I get that sometimes doing something will cause more harm than doing nothing, but we could have had Spidey doing more here.
(Accurate representation of what Spidey does most of in this issue.)
I like She-Hulk, but I still don’t understand what she is doing here. She lives in New York (I assume) but a gang war doesn’t feel like her wheelhouse. Daredevil-Matt feels like a better partner for this (I assume he’s doing other stuff in his book). You would think She-Hulk is in the ASM issues because she doesn’t have her own book like the other members of the Spider-Team, but doesn’t she have her own book now? Or was that just a mini-series or was canceled, or is it still going but focusing on her love story with Jack of Hearts?
WHAT THIS ISSUE MEANT OVERALL
Like I said, this is a pretty good issue of the Gang War story, but just an average issue of Amazing Spider-Man. Spidey felt more active and involved in First Strike and the previous issue – he actually did stuff there. And the “Fisk twist” thing really annoyed me, and the Beetle’s new outfit is baffling.
GRADE
B-
This would have been a B but the whole “Fisk” twist really annoyed me and felt like it was insulting my intelligence. It really felt like Zells thought of this twist and assumed it would be amazing, but it requires characters to make bad assumptions and not ask any questions. Roger Ebert talked about “the idiot plot” in some movies where every character in a movie had to be an idiot because if they weren’t they would ask logical questions and the plot would be resolved in 5 minutes. This twist felt like that.
NEXT TIME, IN AN ALL-NEW ISSUE OF AMAZING SPIDER-MAN …
There’s no actual image of next issue’s cover so I had to use the updated checklist.
Also, there was a full-page salute to Alison Gill and her retirement from Marvel. I admit I had no idea who this is, and at first glance I thought she had died based on this tribute. If you know who this, let me know in the comments.
But her name made me think of Alison Pill, who to me will always be Kim in Scott Pilgrim vs. The World.
FOOTNOTES
(1) Differences in this map and the one from the previous issue:
- CONTESTED: FORMERLY TOMBSTONE is now BEETLE
- BLACK MARIAH is now BEETLE
- RINGMASTER is now SPIDER-MAN (ACTUALLY A SPIDER-ICON)
- CRIME-MASTER is now SPIDER-MAN (ACTUALLY A SPIDER-ICON)
- HAMMERHEAD/THE MAGGIA is now THE MAGGIA
- MR. NEGATIVE is now BLACKED OUT (NO NAME PRINTED)
- HAMMERHEAD is now MADAME MASQUE
- CONTESTED: FORMERLY MADAME MASQUE is now DIAMONDBACK
- FROST PHARAOH is now SPIDER-MAN (ACTUALLY A SPIDER-ICON)
- BUMBLER is now SPIDER-MAN (ACTUALLY A SPIDER-ICON)
(2) I loved the Tracksuit Mafia in the Hawkeye TV series, so I was happy to see them hear, bro-ing it up.
(3) Is this Count Nefaria? She never mentions his name, and he’s never seen clearly, but her dialogue is like a child talking to their father. Just covering my bets in case everyone comments “You idiot! That wasn’t Count Nefaria! It was so-and-so! Bring back Chi-Town’s reviews!”
(4) Is this Hammerhead’s apartment? Madame Masque’s apartment? Has she taken over Hammerhead’s apartment as her base of operations? Or is this a church? A lot of stained glass windows here.
(5) This has an easy answer:
(6) Narrator: This didn’t fool anyone.
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@Evan Berry:
I was wondering if anyone would catch that.
@hornacek — Purple monkey dishwasher!
@Michael:
The thing is that everything you wrote about Kingpin and Typhoid Mary could have been made up by you and I would have no idea that you were lying.
The whole “Fisk” miscommunication just annoyed me. If there’s a gang war going on and someone says to Spider-Man that “Fisk” is coming to see him, unless he knows for a fact that Wilson Fisk is dead or in prison or on the Moon, there is no way that he should automatically assume it’s Richard Fisk coming to see him.
The new Beetle suit did remind me of the Gimp suit from Pulp Fiction, but I wanted to keep this review family friendly. This isn’t a patreon-only podcast where Brad is Googling terms that the rest of the panel is pleading with him not to.
The weird thing about this issue is Typhoid Mary and Kingpin. Previously, Mary and the Kingpin were separated when the anti-mutant organization Orchis tried to teleport Mary to Mars but she instead got transported to the realm of Vanaheim. Thor sent her home last month in Realm of X 4 but she hasn’t been reunited with the Kingpin yet. Just this week in Uncanny Avengers 5, it was noted the Kingpin’s wife Mary is missing. It’s weird that they were reunited off-panel.
And yes, Peter thinking that “Fisk is back in town” means the Rose is weird. The dialogue makes it clear that Rose has been in jail for crimes he committed in New York City since the start of this series and just broke out. Kingpin, on the other hand, journeyed to the island of Krakoa in the Pacific and has recently returned to New York City. You would say “Fisk is out of jail” if you meant Rose and “Fisk is back in town” if you meant Kingpin.
The only reason I can think of why Peter would think the Kingpin might not get involved in the gang war is because Kingpin is currently helping the X-Men and Cap and Iron Man against Orchis. But does Peter really expect Kingpin to stop committing crimes while helping the heroes for his own reasons? How many times has Fisk aided the heroes to get what he wants at this point?
Re: Daredevil-Matt- Unfortunately he’s in the middle of a story where he lost his memory after helping some people escape from a demon in Hell.
I think Beetle’s suit is supposed to be a BDSM suit.