It’s a brand-new day for Amazing Spider-Man, folks! Well, maybe that is a poor choice of words, but despite the fact that we are still talking about the end of Spencer’s run, it’s time for us to move beyond that and see what is next for our favorite web-head (and for the other web-head, too, for that matter). Will this new run get off to a great start or will it fizzle out before it begins? I know my thoughts on this and I can’t wait to hear yours!
Credit Where Credit Is Due
Story Title: Beyond: Chapter One
Writer: Zeb Wells
Artist: Patrick Gleason
Colorist: Marcio Menyz
Letterer: VC’s Joe Caramanga
Cover Artist: Arthur Adams and Alejandro Sanchez
Asst. Editor: Lindsey Cohick
Editor: Nick Lowe
Published: October 6, 2021
Remedial ASM 101
Look, if you haven’t been paying attention to Spider-Man lately, then a recap won’t help you. Let’s just say that Spidey faced down a lot lately and is tired and frazzled and just found out his friend that just died has been dead for a long time.
The Story – Pay Attention, This Will Be on the Test
Peter wakes up after having a dream that involved one really freaky Uncle Ben. He dodges talking to Randy, who apparently is still rooming with Peter despite deciding to move in with Janice (so maybe she is there too?) and the fact that their apartment is smashed to smithereens, and sneaks out the window. He runs into another Spider-Man who promptly beats him with spider-tech. This makes Peter late for school which is the final straw for his group mates who have replaced him. Ben Reilly shows up and confesses that it was he who Peter ran into earlier and that he is now working for the Beyond Corporation, which now owns the rights to Spider-Man’s name and likeness. Peter and Ben both show up at ESU to fight the U-Foes and Peter gets a heavy dose of toxic gas and collapses.
What Passed and Failed
PASS – The Trademark Deal – I like that this is how Beyond is going to move in on Spider-Man’s territory. It hints that we want to stick to the consequences of what happened in the past (though I do not recall that actually happening, it is well within the expectations that Otto could have done that off panel).
FAIL – The Dream – I’m failing me on this one, because I am thinking Zeb must really have wanted something big here since he starts his run with it, but for the life of me, I don’t quite get the importance. OK, Peter remembers a time when he let Uncle Ben and Aunt May down as a child. His responsibility wasn’t up to snuff yet. Maybe a reflection of his responsibility not being up to snuff now? But we really don’t get any development of that theme. Maybe with dodging Randy and MJ, but that seemed more like just setting up the pieces than the focal point of the issue. So I’m chalking it up to great symbolism worth opening the first Beyond issue with that I’m just missing at the moment and look forward to feeling stupid when you guys tell me in the comments.
PASS – Web Pits – I will always put a PASS on some web pits, even if they are Beyond-tech clone pits.
FAIL – The Suit Tech – I don’t mind Spidey having tech, but I prefer him having a plain suit. Once in a while is nice, but I’ve seen this already with the Iron Spider-Suit and the Superior Suit and the Parker Industries Suit and it usually just seems like overkill and deus ex machina-esque. Plus, this is billed as a chance for Ben to prove that is is just as capable or better than Peter, but it’s the gadgets and suit that he didn’t even make that seems to be putting him a step ahead.
FAIL – Potty-Mouth Spidey – I have no problems with a character using French. Spider-Man is not one that engages in profanity often. This seemed out of character for a few reasons. One was it wasn’t a big enough even for him to get that upset about. Another person in a spider-suit? That’s Tuesday nowadays. Another reason is his going immediately on the offensive. This is a Spider-Man that has encountered countless Spider-Men recently, so I would think his first instinct wouldn’t be to pick a fight here. It’s a small point, sure, and he is tired and off his game, so not a huge deal in the grand scheme, I guess.
PASS – I like when Ben and Peter were cracking jokes together – I thought at times, this issue had some great dialogue between them.
OOTI (Onomatopoeia of the Issue)
On a scale of 1 (POW) to 10 (BLRKBQRKPQRBLNB), MOOB gets a 10. I do not give out this high often and if I had to rank my tens, BLRKBQRKPQRBLNB will always be the gold standard, but I liked the backwards print to show the effects of the iron punch push back onto Ironclad.
Analysis
Full disclosure – I left collecting Spider-Man after the clone saga. I don’t hate Ben Reilly, but I can’t count myself as a fan, either. That said, I really want to like this. I am entering this run with high hopes of enjoying this to the fullest extent.
Despite this approach, I can’t help but rankle at the scenes that show how much better Ben is at this with his tech than Peter is. I know they are trying to quickly set up Ben and the new tech as the newest shiny thing and I also know that all this is going to fail at some point, but still…
Ben’s tech – I’m going to try to keep tabs on. So far, he’s got:
- A Spinneret that is strong enough to bind a super-powered foe for at least an hour.
- Radiation-proof suit
- Adhesive-proof suit
- Surveillance tech used by Beyond to monitor him with
- Some kinetic foam in the suit that repels sudden force and returns it to opponent
Did I miss something? How long do you think this list will be by issue 80?
Evil Beyond Corp – What will be interesting is to find out what exactly Beyond Corp is up to. The fact that we are getting these guys is odd. Here is how Marvel Database describes them:
The Beyond Corporation is a collective of beings who embody the wild spaces beyond reality. While the other entities from the Outside want to study and even preserve the Multiverse population, the Beyond Corporation care only to play with them and have fun.
It’s the exact same corporate logo, so it’s not some coincidence that we have this corporation that makes Choco-Snacks with the same name as these guys beyond reality. Is all a big Impossible Man sort of thing? It doesn’t look like it so far. I do think that they hired the Ufoes. They don’t seem to be there for any particular reason. But why? To test Ben? To take Peter out?
Big Brother? Whatever their game is, they seem to be all intent on keeping tabs on Ben. Check out the surveillance:
My guess is that Ben being a clone of Peter, a fact that Beyond doesn’t seem to know, Peter’s body signature will be exactly the same and maybe they will be able to use that to fool them.
Nick Lowe – He seems to be very excited about this new writing team, more so than just typical marketing. He’s doing pages of writer and artist intro. He’s not just putting in editor boxes, but signing them too. In one he just added his own commentary. There is a big story here going on behind the scenes. I wish I knew what it was.
Five minutes – I got the feeling that this may have been an allusion to the Peter David short story from The Ultimate Spider-Man (no, not THAT Ultimate Spider-Man) titled “Five Minutes”. If you haven’t read it, you should. Plus Chi-Town does a review of it here.
But Wait! There’s More!
We get two additional stories (I hesitate to refer to them as back up stories since they seem intrical to the longer reaching story) that must impact the grading of this opening issue. This first one shows Misty Knight and Colleen fighting monsters only to be approached by Ben Reilly and asked if they are for hire. Nothing much to it for a story, just showing up that I guess they will be his new Amazing Friends, or Scarlet Buddies, or whatever. I’m not especially thrilled about that. Kelly Thompson wrote it so I am guessing that her contribution to the revolving authorship will be with Misty and Colleen.
The other is more complicated. We get a great look at this Marcus dude that seems to be the brains behind the Beyond Corporation, or at least a major mover and shaker in the company, and he is super interested in Kafka (who has gotten even younger) and her ability to deal with clones. OK. So they know Ben is a clone at least. But they thing that threw me was this:
The way the timeline seems to work here is that the Kindred story just ended. Peter hasn’t discussed it much with MJ and not at all with Randy. The implication is that we are within a week of the event. According to this, two weeks ago, Electro was in Ravenscroft. But he wasn’t. He was nothing until Ock pulled him back. The talk about clone is confusing as well. It seems as if the Electro they have could be a clone? Did this happen somewhere else? This Electro is upset about killing Francine, but just two issues ago he was fighting side-by-side with her.
I’m going to have to hope our resident Electro expert, Stuart, can help me figure something out here. I must have missed something.
Final Grade
It was a pretty good start to the arc and much of any hesitation comes not from the quality of the writing, but my on stumbling blocks about buying in a Ben Reilly story. It has promise and potential to really bring me in, so I’m giving it a
B-
Tell me your grade and thoughts in the comments! I think I would be very happy if this were a B title instead of the main one.
‘Nuff Said!
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@Mark
I don’t think they interacted, but who knows, Slott’s stories are pretty forgettable to me. (I know Spidergeddon was written by Gage, but it was still not quite remarkable to remember little details like this)
@Sthenurus
Ah! Yes, we are. And we’re also humble enough to admit it.
@Aqu@
It doesn’t matter who’s the original and who is the clone. We are both awesome!
Beside, I’d be floured if I were the clone… Waitaminute…
@Evan and @Paul
Evan – For your backwards directions, I just thought you were continuing the whole semordnilap theme…
Paul – I had just assumed that Ben would go away once this was over, but your theory that he might move forward is intriguing. I hope this is a great story arc and the character is back to how he was for those that love him (I know Slott’s turning him into the Jackal rankled many of Ben’s fans) and that maybe we’ll get a Spectacular Spider-Man title again this time featuring Ben. That would be pretty cool. I know many here on the Crawlspace always worry about diluting the brand, but I don’t. As long as I can have my Peter Parker Spider-Man doing his own thing, I don’t mind there being a hundred other titles for other people to enjoy.
Here’s a thought – has Miles interacted with Ben during any of the Spider-Verse/Spider-Geddon/Spider-Whatever stories? If not, I would like to see Miles approach him like he’s Peter, notice that something is not right, assume it is another mind swap or impostor and give him a decent dose of the venom touch or whatever it is he calls that move.
I just think that the explanation that Sinister War took place two weeks ago, is a better explanation than there are two Max Dillon Electro’s, or something equally complicated. Really, the two weeks ago thing was unnecessary. But, Peter would still be mourning Harry two weeks later would makes complete sense. Peter does tend to live in his guilt.
And I like looking back too! I think continuity heavy stories are great. But Spencer’s run did that a lot. I’m happy to be doing something different, for a while.
For people who don’t want Ben starring in the title… it won’t last. Hopefully, after Peter has recovered in the hospital, he’ll be in the book as a supporting character. He’ll eventually return to starring in Amazing and any other Spidey books.
Usually they use this kind of story to show why it has to be Peter in the suit. And yeah, they did a similar thing with Superior Spider-Man, although Ben is a more heroic character than Doc Ock.
I think after the Kindred Saga, Peter needs a break. And apparently, the only way to get him to take a break, is to break some bones. I mean, he’s not the type of character to take a holiday from superheroing. Writers are limited by what they can do with Peter, hopefully they can explore some things with Ben that they’d be unable to do with Peter.
Maybe we’ll get Peter back in the suit by issue #900, or #950, or #1000. I hope what they do is have both of them in the suit for a while. Having both Peter and Ben as Spider-Man could generate some interesting conflict between them.
@Mark and Aqu@ — Somehow I wrote those directions in backwards order, but you know what I mean. I swear I know my right and left. These backwards and forward words are making me dizzy!
@Mark and Aqu@ — Interesting to me that “semordnilap” is singular word when read from right to left but a plural word when read from left to right. Given its definition, I’m surprised it starts with an “s.”
@Mark
I hope you’re right about the Beyond corp. but, given the last decade or two of comics, I’m not very optimistic.
Thank you for answering on Colleen. Misty Knight I know, but her? Bah!
I still have to watch those Luke Cage and Iron Fist series (and the Defenders!). I don’t have Netflix, so I have to exploit my parents’ account whenever I can.
I quick-searched for the definition of “semordnilap” and got “A word, phrase, or sentence that has the property of forming another word, phrase, or sentence when its letters are reversed”… So basically everything but a palindrome? A really precious word.
@ac, @Aqu@, @Evan, and @Chi-Town
ac- You request to drop out and join us later in 19 issues has been reviewed by the Crawlspace Committee and has been denied. New issue coming out next week and I’m reviewing it (three weeks in a row! Jeez!) and I expect to see you here for it.
About the U-Foes taking out Spider-Man, I have no problem with it. Remember, this is the Spider-Man that took out Firelord, but he is also the Spider-Man who got his butt handed to him by the likes of the Trapster, Slyde, and Spot. He can go toe to toe with the big boys, but he can also get taken down a peg or two from time to time from the C-listers. U-Foes have handled the Hulk before, so it stands to reason that they could get one on Spidey. But I must agree with you on the putting someone else as protagonist in my Spidey book. To me, ASM will always be the Peter Parker Spider-Man, not any other.
Aqu@ – The whole Beyond thing bothers me not because it is another tech company beefing up Spider-Man, but rather because it just doesn’t seem to fit that discription of who they are. I’m going with the idea that they did pick this company on purpose, so these guys know a lot more than what they are letting on. If they know Ben is a clone, it is likely they know who he is a clone of. Peter was a school teacher and as such, has been fingerprinted and entered into the police database. They have all this info on Ben, so surely they have run fingerprints at the very least. Or facial recognition. I think they know. They have to know.
And if both you AND Paul think this is two weeks after Sinister War, then I’ll go with it. You’ve convinced me. Colleen and Misty are a duo team called Daughters of the Dragon. They basically female versions of Luke Cage and Iron Fist. In fact, they were in those Netflix series and were supposed to get their own, but Iron Fist failed so hard it ruined all of the goodness that came from the other series and led Netflix to wash their hands of the stink.
Evan – Oh wow! All this time and I never noticed that BLRKBQRKPQRBLNB was a semordnilap! I’ll let you look that up and marvel at my command of useless vocabulary. Now that you mention it, BLRKBQRKPQRBLNB is much better than BNLBRQPKRQBKRLB! Good call by Slott there. You know, even a blind squirrel can find an acorn now and then, but heck! Slott was golden there. Should have retired while on top.
As for that guy Chi-Town, he tricked me into doing three issues back to back to back. Here I am, doing nothing but being nice to the guy and he goes and takes advantage of me like that. Well, some people, you know? Some people. But I’ll take the high road and not talk trash about him, because that’s the kind of guy I am.
Chi-Town – Actually, I never say, “Pay attention.” I prefer it when my students *don’t* pay attention. Then, they don’t turn in the work and I don’t have to grade it. 🙂
@Paul Penna and @Sthenurus
Paul – Looking forward instead of looking back is a great way to view this run. We’ve had a lot of looking back, so I am ready for something different, though I did enjoy most of Spencer’s stories. I am more than certain that Beyond’s tech will come back to haunt Ben before this is all over with. I think it will be what we all thought the Threats and Menace suit was going to be – gathering data on Spider-Man to use against him. As far as Electro goes, I don’t think we can say Sinister War happened 2 weeks ago because the Kindred business at the end was just a day or so. That would mean we are picking up two weeks later, but with the way Peter is acting and how Randy is wanting to talk, it feels like this must be sooner than two weeks. I’m wondering how much of it is Wells moving ahead with his story and Spencer moving ahead with wrapping up his story and the two not communicating over Electro. As for what he is, I am guessing we’ll find out sooner than later, but it could just be a visual to show Kafka getting hired and not having anything to do with the story.
Sthenurus – I did like that scene where Ben tells Peter, “I’m not asking.” It was confrontational, but it was decisive. If I were Ben, I don’t think I would feel like I needed to ask for Peter’s permission either, but the heads up was a gesture of good faith. The fact that his first reaction to Peter was to fight him and detain him for an hour was nicely explained about how he didn’t want Peter to say anything that could be recorded by the Beyond surveillance tech. It was like when Bond punches Felix Lighter in, I think Thunderball, because Felix is about to call him 007 not knowing there a man hiding in the closet. The banter between them was well done – too bad Peter looks to be incapacitated for the rest of the story.
Mark goofed. He didn’t pay attention to what I messaged him about the alternating reviews. Which is surprising since he always says “Pay Attention”.
@Mark — PS — I second Aqu@ in saying I’m glad we get your take on this issue, too — I wasn’t expecting your review for a while. Are you just trying to show up Chi-Town this one time or are you planning on making him out to be a liar and reviewing ever issue going forward, too?
I’m feel like he’s going to hold the Eyebrow Mayday Incident over your head for a while. I better start popping the popcorn.
@Mark — Wow, another 10! I think that either that rating has to come down or BLRKBQRKPQRBLNB has to go up, since the joke is on us: “BLRKBQRKPQRBLNB” is backwards, too!
Seriously, though — as I wrote in Chi-Town’s review, I’m trying to be hopeful about this storyline, but I’m counting on the the commenters especially to help me appreciate this more than I otherwise would. (So far Sthenurus has been very helpful in that regard.)
I wonder what Spidey-Dude Zack has to say about this.
Mark, glad you didn’t get the note saying you, Chi-Town and Read should alternate on reviews. You were expected next week! Or so says Chi-Town.
Maybe the dream is meant to show us that even Peter can do bad, stupid things, and so can Ben, since it’s always been in them.
I know Peter doesn’t curse often, but I think he’s still tired and upset about everything that happened.
I knew you would love that MOOB! When I read it, I thought about you.
I didn’t know anything about Beyond Corporation before now, but that encyclopedia entry seems just wrong. Are we sure the brain trust did their homework?
The fact that people at Beyond Corp. knows Ben’s identity has little sense. It’s not that Ben’s face is that much different from Peter’s, a face everybody in NY knows since the days of P.I., so we must assume they already know who Spider-man is, especially if they know Ben is a clone.
Also, Ben swinging with his mask off during the day is very irresponsible.
Does Kafka know who Ben Reilly is? Do they have a past I don’t remember? Or does she know it’s him who cloned her? I’m puzzled. Unless it’ll be revealed in the upcoming series by DeMatteis.
I think we’re expected to believe last issue took place about two weeks before this one and that Electro is the same one who has just been apprehended with, I assume, the majority of the knocked-out criminals. As Paul Penna said.
I have two questions. First, if Peter meets Ben after waking up and gets tied up for one hour, how come is he late the NEXT morning? Did the tech malfunction and blocked him for a whole day and night?
Second, I’m too lazy to search for it, but who is Coleene? She doesn’t ring any bell.
As for when Peter and Ben interacted last time, it’s as Sthenurus said, anticipating me again. Stop doing a Ben Reilly on me, man! (just joking, maybe I’m the clone and you are the Peter Parker. It doesn’t really matter, does it brother? 😉 )
The issue is not bad, apart from your typical nonsense from unfocused writers, it’s the hard push they did for this arc that puts me off, as I explained deeper in Chi-Town review’s comment.
One good thing is that Ben’s new costume is growing on me. It’s not great as the original it’s trying to pay homage to, but it’s ok. At least with this artist.
Oh, and count me among the people bothered by the swearing thing. This is Spider-Man, not Wolverine.
I’m glad that people enjoyed the issue, I most certainly did not. Spenser had his faults, but I liked his run, I just didn’t love it. It was gold compared to this. This felt like Slott 2.0 Spider-Man is incompetent, can’t get out of his own way, and I just find it extremely difficult to believe that he just fought 36 (Was it 36? 42? 48? I lost track) villains and 2 Kindreds and was fine, and that he was taken out here in 4 pages by the U-foes.
I have nothing against Ben. Same as I don’t have anything against Captain America, the Hulk, or any other hero. But we wouldn’t replace Peter with Bruce Banner and do a story about the Hulk in Amazing Spider-Man, so lets not replace him with Ben in Amazing. Give Ben his own comic. Tell all the Ben stories you want there. Make him a SUPPORTING CHARACTER in Amazing, and I’d even be fine with that. But don’t replace my Spider-Man with him. Not even for 19 issues. Or I’m out. Hope to see all you fine people again in 19 issues…
@Mark
Great review! I’d score it a little bit higher personnaly, but it’s my Ben Reilley Biaised talking…
I, too, Really liked the banter! I believe Peter and Ben talked at the end of spider-geddon, when ben was “reset to factory setting” by his last death and resurrection during that cross-over.
I also like that Ben isn’t antogonistic. He is warning Peter privately over coffea (rather than in a fight while being listened to) of the fact that he was back on the scene, how and why. He died in the suit afterall, Being Spider-man his just as much part of who he is as it is for Peter!
I enjoyed this issue. Felt like we were looking forward, instead of looking back. As for Ben’s tech, well, Peter has had advanced suits before. I don’t imagine this will last. Something is bound to go wrong with working for Beyond.
And I don’t think Electro is a clone. I think the dialogue between Marcus and Kafka imply that they don’t know what he is. And Kafka is viewing Electro’s memories of Francine’s death, which if anything, would imply that it’s something he still feels guilt over.
As for the reference to this being two weeks ago… I guess Sinister War must’ve taken place two weeks ago, and Electro was immediately captured and put into Ravencroft afterward.
The fact of the matter is, we don’t really know what the current Electro is. He’s basically the original Electro’s powers or electrical signal gathered together and given human form. But when Max Dillon died, he’d been depowered. So, that raises questions. Like, does this Electro’s memories only go back to the moment he was depowered? Was this Electro separated from the original Max Dillon at that point? And if that is the case, that would mean he wouldn’t remember his death at the hands of Francine, since it wasn’t really him who died. Is this Electro truly a human being? Or is this Electro something else that has just been forced into Max Dillon’s form?
@Geoff and @Joshua Nelson
Geoff – Thanks for the kind words! I always try to crank this reviews out before reading anything else about it, so I’m never sure if I’m going to hit what everyone else is talking about or not. Sometimes it works, sometimes I make a big deal about Peter’s eyebrow and it turns out I should have been talking about Spider-Girl… That’s a good point about when Peter last saw Ben. That crossed my mind a bit. To my knowledge, the last time they saw each other, it was tense and Ben was scarred and running off to Las Vegas for his Peter David run, but maybe there is a Spider-Verse thing where he came back? Now, if Peter had seen him, assumed it was Ben coming back to cause more issues and THEN he attacked him – THAT would have made more sense to me than how it played out here. It would also provide a bit of ummph that Peter is still pissed at Ben and when he goes to the hospital, Ben has some desire to use this new opportunity to prove (a little to Peter and a lot to himself) that he is indeed a hero.
Joshua – I will always be a Spencer fan, even if that last issue was all his doing. He wasn’t perfect, but then again, no writer was. I think history will look fondly on his run and in two decades when JR is still talking about how it is time for him to retire from Spider-History, he’ll cover the run and talk about how wonderful it was.
@Anthony and @Stuart Green
Anthony – I felt petty for mentioning the cursing, so I’m glad at least one other had the same approach to it! The Spencer days are certainly over and I’m trying my hardest to take this new run as a chance for Marvel to write stories that would be a bit out of character for Peter Parker and get it out of their system. Supposedly this is for only 19 issues, so I can last that long and hopefully just sit back and enjoy the ride. I’m thinking we should know if it is a spell of mediocrity or not by issue #77. I’ll give it a fair shot until then. If it can keep cranking out B/B- stories for me, I’ll be happy.
Stuart – I was hoping you had some reference to explain it (you see, in Web of Superior Carnage limited series #1.5, Electro was cloned to make Kingpin save money on his utility bills….), but “a wizard did it” works for me! It would make sense in the context of this story that maybe Ben did make a clone of Max for Francine, so I will go with that working knowledge until I read otherwise.
I’m glad to see some Nick Spencer fans here. I’m coming across far too many people who are dismissing his tenure outright because of the lackluster finale, which I blame on obvious editorial interference.
As always @DarkMark, you are the voice of the voiceless when it comes to thoughts on Spider-man
I had one question I was wondering if you could answer: Whens the last time Peter saw Ben from Clone Conspiracy? I cant remember if Peter was a major player in Spider-geddon . Either way, Shouldnt Peter be flipping out that hes seeing the Jackal Ben Reilly who made his life hell during the Parker industries era? It just seems so.off to see for Peter to be so chill as he is.
Also, I’m already miss Nick Spencer on ASM 🙁
@Mark – Nice review! From what I’ve read and seen about this issue, you’re a nicer gent than I for giving it a B- grade.
I’m the resident Electro expert?!? I feel honored and humbled. Since I don’t read the current comics, seeing scans people have shared of stories and reading what happened to the character on Wikipedia is my source of current knowledge on old Max Dillon and apparently it’s paying off.
So we have an Electro clone in addition to Doctor Octopus resurrecting Max Dillon? Francine Frye did ask Ben27 if he could bring Electro back and I don’t think that was ever touched upon. Maybe Ben did make a clone of Max Dillon and we’re being introduced to him? Or was this always Electro, who Doc Ock abducted and gave him back his powers? It wouldn’t be the first time that dialogue wasn’t matching what was actually happening in the Spider-Man comics lately, with Kindred being the most obvious recent example. I don’t know if Marvel even knows, since Electro’s resurrection was such an underpromoted, underdeveloped non-event leading up to “Sinister War” and he had about four or five lines of dialogue in that. We also didn’t get any (proper) Max Dillon/Francine Frye moments, character development and dialogue (though to be fair, nobody — NOBODY — was surprised by Electro suddenly being alive again in “Sinister War”, even if villains get resurrected on a semi-regular basis), so maybe something will come out of that in “Beyond”?
Right now, I’m just going with the Lucy Lawless explanation from “The Simpsons Treehouse of Horror”: “A wizard did it.”
I agree with a B-. I don’t like Peter Parker cursing either. I mind it less on some characters like say Wolverine, but it’s annoying every time I have to stop and figure out what the word ‘:$#@%’ is supposed to mean in any given sentence.
I want to like this run, but right now it feels like the Spencer days (which I loved personally, best run since JMS) are over and we are going to enter a period of mediocrity for a spell.