Another week, another Amazing Spider-Man review! This one adds an estrogen-flavored twist to a classic Spider-Man rogue. Read the full article and leave a comment or I’ll cry.
THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #565
“To Squash a Spider” (Part 1 of “Kraven’s First Hunt”)
WRITER: Marc Guggenheim
PENCILS: Phil Jimenez
INKS: Andy Lanning
COLORS: Chris Chuckry
PLOT:
A young woman who looks like a female Kraven the Hunter stalks Spider-Man and learns where he lives. Apparently harboring a vendetta against the webhead, Kraven-With-Fallopian-Tubes does all she can to ruin the lives of the names on Peter’s apartment lease. First, she shoots at Peter at his new job at a local comic shop, and then she frames Vin Gonzales for shooting a drug dealer, causing him to become suspended pending investigation. Vin’s bad luck doesn’t end there; Girl-Kraven wipes out his savings and tries to hit him with a car. In the end, it turns out She-Kraven thinks Vin is Spider-Man, and she binds the confused cop in her sewer hideout.
THOUGHTS:
Had Guggenheim not waited until the end to reveal that Lady Kraven targeted Vin and not Peter, then there’d be no argument against this being a very average issue. The villain mistaking someone close to Peter for Spider-Man plot is as old as ASM #5, and this chick’s efforts don’t even approach the lengths the Green Goblin and the Kingpin have gone to dismantle the lives of their respective enemies. We know little interesting about the villainess herself, other than (a) she has the worst haircut I’ve even seen, and (b) she must be pretty stupid not to figure out Peter is Spider-Man after he precognitively dodged her arrows while leaping from a second story window.
Even taking into account the misdirection gimmick, which provides the issue’s only surprise, it’s still poorly handled. Things like Kraven narrating the steps of her master plan out of order so it fit more with what she did to Peter than Vin are cheats on Guggenheim’s part. For a better story with a similar twist, go read the “Internal Affairs” webcomic by Morbius from the podcast. When I reread that after knowing the twist, it made a whole new kind of sense. Rereading ASM 565 just exposes the man behind the curtain’s lazy tricks.
Peter gets served a subpoena for the lawsuit against Spider-Man, which is the only contribution this issue makes to the overall story. If this title is going anywhere interesting, it’s taking unreasonably long to get there. Furthermore, the “team up” with Daredevil doesn’t sit right at all. The two characters have a weighty history together, but none of that came through in the dialogue. Then again, who knows how much of their history still “exists” at this point. That we’re twenty issues in and still without answers is unacceptable. My patience level is at zero.
RATING:
2.5 webheads out of 5. Issues in the 2.5-3.5 range are tolerable on their own, but three of them a month, month after month, with little or no development do not make for a title worth reading. Amazing Spider-Man is running out of second chances.
REVIEWED BY: CrazyChris
Apple Podcasts
Google Podcasts
Spotify
Pandora
Amazon Music
iHeartRadio
Podbean
Amazon Alexa
Player.fm
Listen Notes
Stitcher
I’m interested to find out she-Kraven’s history. I don’t understand the impatience among readers for answers. Do people want marvel to draw them a schematic?? countless times the audience has been told that those details will be revealed over a period of time. Next July see issue 600 and it appears a lot of stuff is building towards and after that.
I liked DD’s appearance nice to see the two of ‘em together again. The issue itself was average enough but I’m interested in seeing where it goes.
Call me “Spidey”. Give me a frakin’ break. Worst team up between my two favorite heroes ever. This was my fear after all the BND crap. It appears that all the history between “Spidey” and characters like Daredevil may have been lost. That’s a real shame.
She must have some kind of power, seeing as how she defeats Vermin in a physical fight in the next issue.
Nice story, nice authors and nice website :).
She-kraven hasn’t any super-power ?
You’re still giving it second chances?
I liked She-kraven, she has potential and Jimenez art is the best thing of the story, as well as She-Kraven.
I read the entire article, so please do not cry. Nicely done. In my other comments on the boards I also forgot to mention that She-Kraven did not think it was curious that Peter was so extraordinarily athletic, but the guy he saved wondered how he did it and thought he might be Spider-Man…