Craig’s Critique: Amazing Spider-Man #68 (Legacy #962): “The 8 Deaths of Spider-Man. Part 8: “Four Lives To Live”

NOTE:  Once again I don’t have the physical copy of the issue.  My LCS says this week’s Marvel order is delayed due to the holiday⁽¹⁾ – it feels like forever since I had a review with the physical copy in my hand.  So once again I had to use my MS Paint skills to create a display image here.  And once again, flawless!

In this issue … Peter finally gets out of his “everyone’s going to die so why bother doing anything?” funk, uses up all of his magic reeds, and helps the X-Men fight a blight-infused Callix, all while the blight takes over the city (and soon, the world), leading Spidey and his new BFF Cyra to go to Cytorrak’s realm, just in time to have his neck snapped.  All this, plus Cytorrak … (wait for it) … continues to sits around in his chair and do nothing???

(Could we have a more generic cover for an issue?  Well, I guess the black eyes and crossed hands are meant to represent that he’s dead, but still.)

CREDITS

Writer:  Justina Ireland⁽²⁾

Penciler:  Andrea Broccardo

Inker:  Scott Hanna

Color Artist:  Marcio Menyz

Letterer:  VC’s Joe Caramagna

 

PREVIOUSLY IN AMAZING SPIDER-MAN …

Peter wakes up in Felicia’s bed after spending the night with her just as she leaves.  But this afternoon delight did nothing to fix Peter’s defeatist attitude.  The X-Men show up to fight Cradios, since Spidey is a no-show.  Cytorrak continues to sit in his chair for this entire storyline.  Doctor Strange shows up to finally tell Peter what this whole covenant thing is about, but it doesn’t convince him to do anything.  The X-Men defeat Cradios, but Callix – who has been taken over by the blight – shows up and kills Cradios, handling the X-Men easily, while he unleashes his Rot Dogs on Aunt May, Randy, Shay and everyone at FEAST.

 

SUMMARY

Cyra transports Peter to FEAST where the X-Men are fighting Callix’s Rot Dogs, but his attention is on the dead bodies of Aunt May, Randy, Shay, and Ricardo (aka “some poor soul who didn’t even commit the crime of knowing me”), with Agent of Death Phil Coulson there to collect them.  Peter is shocked because this isn’t how he was shown by Callix that these three would die (sorry, Ricardo), but she reminds him that was only a possibility, and that their fates changed when Peter rejected his role as champion.

(“If only I had acted when I had the power to do so.  If only I had already learned that lesson when I was 15 years old …”)

This realization (of something he already knew) is enough to completely reverse Peter’s new outlook and he magically transforms into Spider-Man (out on the street in front of everyone).  He demands Coulson bring these four people back to life by using his four remaining magic reeds.  It works and they are resurrected.⁽³⁾

Spidey prepares to join the fight as Cyra tells him that the Rot Dogs are corrupted and more dangerous.  Spidey and the X-Men find Callix, who has been easily fighting off the X-Men.  Spidey uses a spell that Strange told him to use as a “last-ditch effort”, but Callix is unaffected, revealing that he is no longer just a scion but is infected with the Blight.

(“Blight-Callix”, as he shall be called from now on.  Also, can we have a ban on the word “superior” in Spidey comics for awhile?)

Blight-Callix decides he’s had enough and explodes all of his Rot Dogs (you can tell he’s evil by his killing of dogs), leaving to take over his father’s realm.  But out of nowhere Cyclops attacks Juggernaut.  Cyra transports herself and Spidey to “a place between your world and mine” where she reveals that Blight-Callix has unleashed “soul rot” upon the city, causing people to attack that which they hold most dear⁽⁴⁾.  Their only chance is to stop Blight-Callix, which means going to the Crimson Cosmos.

Spidey and Cyra arrive to find the rest of her siblings dead, murdered by Blight-Callix, with Cytorrak sitting in his chair doing … (you guessed it) … nothing.  Cyra leaves to find Blight-Callix telling Spidey to get her father’s attention.

Suddenly a giant creature appears over Cytorrak – the Blight itself.  Before Spidey can do anything, Blight-Callix appears behind him, grabs him by the throat, and breaks his neck, killing him.  And with no more reeds to bring him back to life!

(Hmm, maybe we should have kept one of those reeds instead of using all of them?  Was Ricardo really worth saving?)

TO BE CONTINUED!

 

INITIAL RESPONSE

We knew that Peter would eventually get out of his “everyone will die so why bother doing anything” attitude, but we didn’t know exactly how it would happen.  Would someone else change his mind?  Would he come to the realization himself that life is worth fighting for?  Would it be a big moment that would take multiple panels/pages for him to come to this realization?

And then we get to it, and … it’s awful.  Terribly written, resolved way too quickly, and just brings down my entire opinion of the rest of the issue.  So very disappointing.  Did I expect Shakespeare?  No, but I expected something.

So while I have found the Justina Ireland issues to be the better issues of this entire story, the way Peter’s new attitude was resolved here really disappointed me (and I’m used to being disappointed on this book for years now, so this is saying something).  Enough so that for the rest of the issue I kept thinking back to how this was resolved.  I couldn’t think about anything else going on for the rest of this issue.  The rest of the issue would have had to be an A+ level of quality for this not to drag the entire issue down.

 

WHAT I LIKED

Peter is back to his normal self.  While how this was resolved was terribly written, at least it’s over now.

Cyra continues to be the only interesting scion of Cytorrak (not that there was much competition between first and second place).  But I continue to like how she’s hanging around with Peter, and now actively helping him.

(“So, the rest of you family kind of sucks, huh?”)

I liked Spidey immediately trading all of his remaining reeds to Coulson without thinking about how he might need them later.  As far as he knows he will need them when he fights the rest of the scions (he doesn’t know they’ve all been killed by Blight-Callix already).  Although it is funny that he trades them for the three most important supporting cast members (at least in this arc) and some guy he’s never seen before.  They couldn’t have had the fourth person be someone we knew, like Aunt Anna, or MJ?

(“Take these reeds, Coulson!  I have to save Ricardo’s life!”)

Blight-Callix is just a little bit more interesting than regular Callix.  It’s not much of an improvement, but it is a tiny bit of an improvement.

I have to admit I laughed when I saw that rest of the scions were all dead.  So much for Spidey having to face the rest of them in combat.

(Don’t worry Cyra, nothing much was lost here.)

And Cytorrak continues to just sit and do nothing, which makes me chuckle each issue.  I keep thinking “Is this the issue where Cytorrak is actually going to do something?”  And each time the answer is still “no”.  Is this typical for Cytorrak when he’s appeared in other stories?  I thought in Juggernaut’s origin story Cytorrak actually talked to Marko at least.

It’s not a 1-for-1 but the depiction of the Blight in physical form reminded me of the Behemoth from The Mist:

(Great movie but probably not an ending that parents should watch.)

WHAT I DIDN’T LIKE

Peter has had this defeatist attitude for the past few issues.  We knew it would eventually be resolved.  But how would this be done?  We finally get the big moment and it turns out that Peter realizes that what Callix showed him was possible futures for everyone he knows, and that those futures can change based on the decisions that he (and everyone else) makes.  This realization is enough for Peter to realize that life is not hopeless and it’s worth living to try to help people.

The problem with this is … Peter already knows this!  He knew this back when Callix was showing him all of these deaths that these were only possible futures!  This is not new information!

(A rare screenshot from the previous issue.)

And this “realization” has Peter instantly change his entire new attitude.  Within 1-2 panels he is back to his normal self, as if he hadn’t spent the last few issues thinking that nothing he does matters because everyone is going to die anyway.  But this issue reveals it like this is some sudden “Eureka” moment and a grand realization that  he didn’t already know, and it completely changes Peter’s new viewpoint.  It makes no sense.  He already had this information!

(I don’t know why this made me think of this Simpsons joke, but it feels apt.)

Like I said, we all knew that eventually something would happen to change Peter’s viewpoint back to normal.  But I at least hoped it would be some new information that he didn’t already know.  Or someone would present a cogent argument that would convince him that he was wrong.  But he changes his mind because he realizes something that he already knew.  Also, isn’t this the lesson Peter learned in Amazing Fantasy #15?  He knows that his actions can affect other people’s fates!

Peter comes across as very naive and dumb here.  I expected more from Ireland, but this whole thing is Kelly’s story so I’m going to put most of the blame on him.  She probably did the best with what he gave her here.  Still, it’s very dumb and infuriating.

Ok, rant over.  Now onto other things I didn’t like …

In the previous issue FEAST was full of people, right?  And the Rot Dogs had broken in, and that’s how Aunt May, Randy, Shay and Ricardo die?  But what about all of the other people in FEAST?  They had to have been killed by the Rot Dogs too, right?  And yet the only dead people we see are these four.  Of course this is because Peter has four reeds remaining.  I was hoping Coulson was going to say after “Well, I gotta go inside and deal with all the dozens of other dead people in there.”

(Yet another screenshot from last issue.  I count at least 5 people inside FEAST here, and there were probably other people already inside.)

Also, once they’re resurrected, Spidey says that it’s not safe inside and to get back inside the FEAST building.  But that’s where they were before and the Rot Dogs broke in and killed them.  So inside FEAST is not safe either (I guess he had to tell them to go somewhere).

While I mentioned Cytorrak just sitting around doing nothing in the What I Liked section, it also falls into this section too.  Is this guy ever going to do anything?  His son is infected with the Blight, something that he’s been keeping at bay forever, and has killed almost all of his children.  And yet he still does nothing?⁽⁵⁾

(Spidey is speaking for all of the readers here.)

Spidey dies at the end of this issue.  It’s been awhile since I was able to say that.  First, as soon as he gave up his remaining reeds we all knew this was coming, but I didn’t think it would happen this soon.  Also, by giving up his four remaining reeds, this means we’re not going to have “8 deaths” of Spider-Man, right?  The part of me that loves math is not happy about this seemingly inaccurate title.

(This should not come as a shock to anyone.)

And finally, the obligatory “this isn’t a Spider-Man story” complaint for this entire arc.

(Spidey is literally speaking for the readers here.)

 

LETTERS PAGE SHENANIGANS

Bruce!⁽⁶⁾

WHAT THIS ISSUE MEANT OVERALL

Well, Peter’s new defeatist attitude has been resolved.  And he is immediately back to normal … just like in real life – you have an emotional problem, someone tells you something you already know, and you’re back to normal as if nothing had ever happened.

While I’m not really interested in Blight-Callix, the fact that we’re not getting 4 more stories of Spidey fighting yet another scion and having to use a reed after to resurrect himself is not where I thought this story was going.  Still, at least we only have 2 (?) more issues of this until it’s over.

 

GRADE

D-

Without the terribly written reveal of how Peter’s defeatist attitude is revealed, this probably would have been an average issue of this arc.  But that resolution left a terrible taste in my mouth which dragged down my entire opinion of the rest of the issue.  Such a very disappointing solution for this problem.

 

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

(Oh great, another .DEATHS issue.)

 

FOOTNOTES

(1)  I would like to think it’s about Heritage Day but it’s more likely President’s Day.

(2)  From the “Spiders & Symbiotes” page:

 

 

 

 

 

 

(3)  So this would be the second time Aunt May has literally died and been magically resurrected?

(4)  So this means that Juggernaut is what Cyclops holds most dear?  Sorry, Jean and Emma.

(5)  Cytorrak during this entire story, and the reader’s hopes that he’ll eventually do something:

(6)