Tombstone tries to kill Janice! Spidey tries to stop him! All that plus … nothing else – that’s pretty much it for this issue!
(Lies, all lies. There is no rain or lightning in this issue. Also it looks like Spidey should have his phone in his hand the way he’s looking at it.)
CREDITS
Writer: Zeb Wells
Penciler: John Romita Jr.
Inker: Scott Hanna
Colorist: Marcio Menyz
Letterer: VC’s Joe Caramagna
PREVIOUSLY IN AMAZING SPIDER-MAN …
Spidey visited Tombstone in prison just as he got bailed out because … reasons?(1) Janice thinks that her father will try to kill Randy to get to her. Luke Cage, She-Hulk, and Spidey plan to get Randy and Janice out of the city. Tombstone orders White Rabbit to kill both Randy and Janice when the authorities move them. Digger disrupts the transport as White Rabbit breaks into the truck to disobey orders and get Janice out of the city, but – what a twist – it’s She-Hulk pretending to be Janice, who is still back at her apartment, just as Tombstone breaks in, gun in his hand.
SUMMARY(2)
Tombstone reloads his gun as he tells Janice that she didn’t give him a choice and tries to shoot her as she flees to the other room.
(If they both survive this arc, I don’t think Tombstone is getting an invite to Janice and Randy’s next wedding.)
Back at the transport, She-Hulk has realized that Tombstone is going after Janice and orders everyone to go to her apartment (Janice’s, not She-Hulk’s). White Rabbit tells Lady Octopus, Electra and Digger that they’re leaving, and She-Hulk realizes that Spider-Man has already left.
Back at Janice’s, she dons the top half of her Beetle outfit (plus the helmet) and fights back. But Tombstone stuns her with an E.M.P. grenade, grabs her, throws her to the ground, as he starts to strangle her.
(For all new parents: when your child is a baby and they tell you to “put them down”, this is not what they mean.)
Spidey comes in through the window, slamming Tombstone into the wall.
(Somewhere the Kool-Aid Man is doing the “Leonardo DiCaprio pointing” meme after seeing this panel.)
Tombstone says that Spidey did this and that he’s just “protecting what’s mine”. Janice tries to escape through the window but Tombstone grabs her ankle as Spidey grabs him. This causes Tombstone to release her as she falls to the ground, landing on some trash cans (so she’s fine).
(She’s wearing the top half of her Beetle armor, but they could have had her land inside an open dumpster. Landing on a metal trash can would seriously injure you.)
Tombstone follows Janice as she runs through the streets, into a building, and into an empty office closet (?) where he grabs her and tells her “it’s over”.
Spidey arrives and tackles him as Janice claws at his face, making huge scratches and drawing blood.
(Tombstone is bulletproof. Should Janice’s Beetle gloves be strong enough to not only scratch him but draw blood? They don’t have claws, right?)
Spidey uses his body to save Janice from Tombstone’s blows as she escapes. He tells Tombstone that he “can’t come back from this” as Tombstone tackles him and rushes toward the window.
(This is a weird panel to end the issue on … until you turn the page and see next issue’s cover.)
TO BE CONTINUED!
INITIAL RESPONSE
Not a lot happens in this issue. Tombstone tries to kill Janice. Janice runs away. Tombstone chases her. Spidey shows up and saves her. Janice runs away. Spidey and Tombstone fight. It’s basically a big chase with some fighting sprinkled in. I should be complaining that “nothing much happened here”. And yet … this worked for me. I don’t want every issue to be this quick of a read – it feels like the entire thing took place in about … 15 minutes? But this was well paced and did not let up the tension.
WHAT I LIKED
The simplicity of this issue and the pacing is a big plus. It’s one big chase with some fighting sprinkled in. Everything happens pretty quickly, and aside from a quick wrap-up at the transport, it’s all Spidey, Tombstone and Janice. No other characters.
Spidey is effective here, going toe-to-toe with Tombstone. His main goal here is rescuing Janice so he lets Tombstone hit him sometimes because he’s keeping her safe. Plus he gives as good as Tombstone does.
(Sometimes it hurts being the hero.)
Tombstone is appropriately villainous here. While I am not in favor of a parent murdering their child, I did appreciate that Tombstone showed no signs of holding back when shooting at – and choking – Janice. He’s a villain, so he should be doing terrible things. And he’s decided that killing Janice is more important than going to prison and still having her alive as his daughter. Will we have a scene next issue where he finally has a chance to kill her with no one to stop him, and he decides not to because he finds that he can’t do it because he loves her? Probably. But for now, he’s properly villainous, and I appreciate him as a threat here.
The art is really good. There are a few panels where Tombstone is in the background and looks … unfinished (like a lump of clay). But I’ve mentioned that before, and put it down to his shaven-head look in this run. For most of this issue he’s in the foreground and looks good (although I still want his flattop hair look to come back).
This guy. I feel bad for him and want to know his story.
(This guy picked the wrong time to leave this building.)
WHAT I DIDN’T LIKE
So Tombstone is put on trial, his daughter is the key witness, he gets out on bail … and he decides to immediately kill her. Ok, maybe he can establish an alibi and pin the death on someone else, and he initially tries to do this in her apartment where there are no witnesses, so this could work. But once she runs away, what is his plan here? He is publicly chasing her through the streets in front of many witnesses. Even if he catches her, is he going to kill her right out in public? How does he think he’s going to get out of this even if he succeeds? I get that he’s probably going on adrenaline here and may not be thinking clearly once she starts running, but still, if he kills her out on the street, does he think he’s going to get away with this?
I try not to let the letters page influence me, but enough with the “most brutal fight in comic book history” hyperbole.
WHAT THIS ISSUE MEANT OVERALL
Not a lot happens in this issue. Tombstone tries to kill Janice, Spidey gets in the way, they fight. I don’t every issue to be this quick and compact, but this one worked for me. And it gets us setup for the Spidey vs. Tombstone to end this arc.
This issue is a quick read, but unlike most of the Zells issues, I felt good after finishing it and wanted to know what happens next.
GRADE
A-
Again, not a lot happens here, but it’s done very well and plays very well. I don’t want every issue to be paced like this, but when it is, I want it done well and to keep my interest, which this did.
NEXT TIME, IN AN ALL-NEW ISSUE OF AMAZING SPIDER-MAN …
(“Are we gonna let de-elevator bring us down? Oh, no, let’s go, Let’s go crazy.”)
I think next issue is the last issue of this Tombstone story, so I’m expecting to be let down as much as I have been with pretty much every final issue in every multi-issue arc in this run. Prove me wrong, Zells!
FOOTNOTES
(1) This was a big problem I had with the last issue. I’ve watched enough Law & Order to expect a reason why a known crime lord whose own daughter is testifying against him would be let on bail. Blackmail, some evidence being thrown out … something. But no, he gets out on bail and it’s never explained why.
(2) This may be the shortest summary I’ve ever written here.
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@Big John:
“Viva Crawlspace and Viva the Irrepressible Hornacek!!”
Nuff said!
Thanks for the review, Craig! It was erudite and entertaining as always!
I’m with you on this one: it was a quick read, but it’s by far the most I’ve enjoyed an issue of Zeb Wells’ ASM since (I think) #926. That one where Spider-Man jumps between Norman and Kraven’s spear. This issue very much shows Peter at his best in a couple of ways.
He is as relentless in trying to save Janice’s life as Lonnie is in trying to take it. It’s a great way to show how these two challenge each other. I loved that part where Spidey takes all those blows to the back for her and dismisses it glibly; that was a refreshingly accurate character beat. And I LOVED that one line when he tells Lonnie “You can’t come back from this.” DUDE. He’s not just trying to save Janice’s life but save Lonnie’s soul, in a way. It was Mayday-worthy-not-just-beat-her-villains-but-reform-them type stuff! This arc is definitely leaving me with a better taste than the last one.
However, “the most visceral fight in comics history” should not be between Spider-Man and Tombstone. It should have been with the Goblin. But that story is OVER now. It’s ENDED. I know because I paid $5.00 for a comic that had an entire printed black page that said “THE END.”
Paul’s still gotta go too.
Viva Crawlspace and Viva the Irrepressible Hornacek!!
@Aqu@:
I agree that the final panel was weird, but when you turn the page and immediately see the next cover, I admit that it got me.
@Geiseric:
I mean, to me, Tombstone seems very much like a credible threat. He won the gang war, he’s the leader of crime in New York, he managed to get out of jail, he saw through the police’s switch with the transport, and he almost killed the main witness in his trial.
@Chi-Town Spidey:
Thank you for the praise, even though I suspect it was just for you to use as a weapon against Mark (I hate it when my two dads fight).
@Dark Mark:
Yeah, I agree with you about having Tombstone go full mob boss in trying to kill Janice. I fully expect next issue to have Tombstone pull back and say “No, I can’t do it” and accept prison. I will be very disappointed if that happens (unless it’s earned, which I don’t expect it would be, based on this run). Fingers are crossed!
Once Janice escapes the apartment Tombstone is likely not thinking about witnesses or consequences – he’s just running on adrenaline and that he’ll figure out what to do about this after she’s dead.
“Plus, he has a really good lawyer” Does he though?
You know, a better writer would have had Janice say in this issue (or earlier) that she had upgraded her gloves to be stronger and able to damage harder surfaces.
Yes, I didn’t mention Bruce’s letter. I normally don’t mention the letters page unless it angers me.
After a full issue of almost nothing (well, more “same thing” than “nothing)”, I didn’t react well with that ending bleeding in the next cover. It would have been a nice idea, if the issue had more content. As it is, it just exacerbated the feeling of watered down content: it is really showing that Wells had to stretch his run to reach a silly round number and has been showing since the Goblin sins final arc.
I don’t care if he was a street thug, I just want him to be a credible threat, and he just isn’t right now
@Chi-Town – Oh, did you get a letter published? I must have missed that. I’m sorry, buddy! You should have told someone!
I was eating lunch and decided to check out Craig’s review. Yet I kept wandering WHY my spider sense was going off. It’s a good review! Craig is correct, nothing much happens. One could say the same for the Wells run with the phrase “..and it makes no sense.”, but I digress. I liked this review and I figured out why my spider sense was going off.
Mark: “Also, kudos to Bruce for another letter! I’ve ALWAYS been happy for fellow Crawlspacers to get published. Always.”
It’s the “ALWAYS” that caught my interest and let my spider sense know of “fowl play”. Let’s find out what Mark said to me when I got just a few letters published ““YET ANOTHER STINKING LETTER FROM THAT CHI-TOWN”
He doesn’t seem “Happy.” 😛
I really liked this issue. I wanted Lonnie to go after his daughter, but I expected this to be a fake out and that he was tracking her down to talk to her or to realize she was more important than his jail sentence or job as mob boss or that they had set this all up for some reason or another. If not, I expected him to try to hurt her, but eventually realize he can’t do it. But no! Wells goes all out and when the gun doesn’t work, he goes in for the choke. It doesn’t get much more unredeemable that this for a parent. I liked having Tombstone commit to this role.
As for the plan, I agree with Craig in that he was a thug before and now that everything has fallen apart, he reverts to his true nature – thug. We’ve seen Tombstone really progress and think things through, but he doesn’t have too much time to prepare and he’s no Kevin McAllister, so once the gun bit failed, he had nothing to fall back on. That and this is so personal, that I think he is not caring at the moment of the consequences. Plus, he has a really good lawyer, so he probably figures that he can deal with that bridge after he burns it.
When I read the comic, I thought the scratches were a nice visual and just assumed there was stuff about the armor I was not aware of. Then when you brought it up in the review, I figured I must have been right before. So I just now looked it up on Marvel Fandom and they do not indicate any blade weapons for the armor. That said, she did just get the purple armor back, so maybe adjustments had been made to add the bladed fingertips in. I looked up and just watched two videos that show a knife going through kevlar, so he could have bulletproof skin without it being knife proof. I am fine with letting it be that blades were added and this is the first we are seeing of it. Doc Ock’s always changing his arms up, so why can’t the beetle add blades? Maybe adamantium blades at that.
The pacing was great and the story uncomplicated – this story didn’t need to be complicated. Tombstone was just the right amount of villain here. I waivered between A- and B+, but I think I am going to have to come down on the B+.
Also, kudos to Bruce for another letter! I’ve ALWAYS been happy for fellow Crawlspacers to get published. Always.
@Michael:
In comics people miss their targets when shooting at people all the time.
Maybe there’s a previous issue where Janice’s Beetle gloves had claws on the fingers, or at least points. I don’t know. I’m just glad it wasn’t that God-awful black costume.
@Geiseric:
I mean, Tombstone *is* a street thug. He’s risen through the ranks to become a mob boss, but he’s always been a street thug at heart.
How did Tombstone manage to miss shooting Janice over a dozen times at point blank range?
And yeah, how DID Janice manage to claw Tombstone’s face? It couldn’t have been one of the armor’s weapons- the armor wasn’t working due to the EMP grenade. And no, Janice’s armor doesn’t have claws. Abner Jenkins’s Beetle armor had suction cups but Tombstone’s face doesn’t look like it was damaged by suction cups.
My issue isn’t that tombstone is the bad guy it’s that that’s all that’s happening and also tombstone is fighting like a street thug. He doesn’t feel like a mob boss
@Geiseric: This run started with a Tombstone story, so it makes sense for it to end with one. I’m assuming Tombstone will be taken off the board when this is done – either sentenced to prison or having to flee the city, never to return … until another writer eventually brings him back, likely ignoring everything done with him in this run.
Personally I like Spidey (super) stories where he has to deal with street crime and crime bosses. Having a crime boss with powers feels like it’s the comic’s way of being able to do a grounded street crime story but still having a villain with wacky superpowers.
I just don’t get this arc. Tombstone is supposed to be the big finale of Wells run but he doesn’t feel like a particularly harsh threat. Like if they wanted to do that maybe play up that he’s a big important crime boss, but him being a crime boss doesn’t mean anything.
If this was a villian of the week two parter it would be fine but for a run ender so little is going on it’s shocking. Like 60 is the epilogue but epilogue to what exactly?