Amazing Spider-Man #21: Hunted part 5
Hello True Believers! Mark is not able to make it this week, but never fear for I am here! Don’t worry, Mark will be back for the next issue but in the meantime…..
Title: Hunted part 5
Writer: Nick Spencer
Artist: Humberto Ramos
Inker: Victor Olazaba
Color Artist: Edgar Delgado and Erick Arciniega
Letterer: VC’s Joe Caramagna
Cover Art: Humberto Ramos and Edgar Delgado
Editor: Nick Lowe
Published: May 15, 2019
Overview:
Kraven is watching out a window as Spider-Man fights off a horde (mischief???) of Vermin. The Vermin begin to tear Spider-Man apart – oh no!!! Just then, Kraven comes in with a cool sound gun thing and scares the Vermin away! Then Spider-Man wakes up in a cage next to Curt Connors where Dr. Connors begs Spider-Man to rip out his inhibitor chip so he can save his son. Spider-Man is understandably reluctant, after all, Dr. Connors is his friend and ripping the chip out could kill him. And it would turn him into the Lizard with the capacity to kill with no guarantee Connors would be in control. Apparently OG Kraven can see them because he’s narrating like Palpatine in Return of the Jedi “Yes Spider, give into the dark side and rip the chip out” “As soon as you free the Lizard your journey to the dark side will be complete”. Spider-Man does it and now it appears the bloody body of the Lizard but SURPRISE the Lizard is okay and then he rips the cage to bits.
Meanwhile Baby Lizard and Black Cat and running about trying to find a way to escape. Black Cat and Baby Lizard get to talking and we find out that Baby Lizard remembers that his dad ate him and so he’s really scared of his dad (I mean, I would be too). They’re just getting into the nittygritty when Kraven87 pops up and surprises them. Also Vulture is sacrificing some villains for the greater good (would it be greater evil in this case?).
Highlights:
The fight scene with Vermin(s) was pretty cool. There was a cool callback to Kraven’s Last Hunt where Spider-Man is reaching his hand up out of the pile of Vermin.
Also interesting to note that Kraven put Peter in the black suit like he wore in Kraven’s Last Hunt. Peter makes a quip about Kraven having spare black suits to replace the damaged ones. Maybe these are leftover from when Kraven masqueraded as Spider-Man?
Kraven got so mad he lost his pupils!
Also the Kraven narration was interesting and a nice change of pace. There was also a cool mirroring between Spider-Man and Kraven where Kraven tells Spider-Man to get up and Spider-Man tells the Lizard to get up. I thought that was an interesting parallel.
OOTI (Onomatopoeia of the Issue)
On a scale f 1 (POW) to 10 (BLRKBQRKPQRBLNB), FWEEEEEEEEEE gets a 4. Once again the only one in this issue but still waaaay better than last issue.
What was lacking:
The art was inconsistent. There were a couple panels where the art just didn’t do it for me. This has been a problem in the last couple issues and I hope they fix it. The problems are also just with the black suit, the rest of the art seemed fine, so maybe as soon as Peter gets out of this black suit everything will be back to normal art-wise.
When did Spider-Man become a hologram?
It felt like the Vermin build up wasn’t satisfying. Yeah yeah they kicked his butt, however, it wasn’t satisfying to have Kraven just step in and save him. I wish Spider-Man had won and beaten up the Vermin or scared them away and the collapse from his wounds. Then Kraven could have come and put him in the cage with Connors. The build up for this Vermin fight lasted the past 2-3 issues and it really did not live up to the hype.
It also felt like nothing really happened in this issue, it was clearly a connector issue. I’m used to this with the Miles comics but the Amazing Spider-Man ones have been good about avoiding these.
The most grievous thing about the Hunted arc is they neglected Swarm! How are they going to have every animal themed villain without the Nazi skeleton covered in bees?!
Final Thoughts:
We get a little more insight into Baby Lizard here which is nice. It actually made me care just a little bit about the character. Just a little bit though. I’m also a little more confused about Kraven’s goal. It seems like Kraven wants Spider-Man to kill him for some reason? But he also wants Kraven87 to go do something and is sitting idle to provoke him. But he also wants Spider-Man to embrace his inner hunter? I’m guessing this is so Spider-Man will eventually kill him but it seems odd how proud Kraven is.
Final Grade: C
The story was fine. Nothing great. Nothing bad. It was just there. For that, I’m giving it the baseline average grade.
What grade would you give this issue? Leave your grade in the comments below!
If you enjoyed this review, you can check out my regular Miles Morales reviews here: https://www.spidermancrawlspace.com?s=Miles+Chronicles
Thank you all for reading!
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@William Sinclair Hopefully we’ll get a Vermin Horde rematch. I agree the decision making on Peter’s part with Connors added a good dose of suspense. I’m just not the biggest Lizard fan so I know most of this issue didn’t do it for me. I’m sure if I enjoyed the Lizard more I would probably enjoy this issue more. Overall I definitely didn’t think it was a bad issue, I just wish it had done a little bit more for the cost of the issue. It’s definitely going to be a better experience in trade
Great review, Grant! You are much better than that other guy that usually does the Alford Notes review. Maybe BD will replace you. I hate I missed a quality OOTI like FWEEEEEEEEEE! We don’t get those to much any more. To me, this is feeling like a Marvel Netflix show – it’s good, but there is an issue or two too much in it. I’d give it a B-
I would give it higher than a C, I thought there was some great suspense, and I liked seeing Spider-Man forced to make a brutal decision with Connors. The dialogue between Spidey and Connors was also great, especially when he told him he didn’t know what true responsibility was because he didn’t have kids. Considering Spidey’s history with losing children, I feel like that must have touched a nerve for him, hell, that might have even informed his decision! I also thought the Vermin fight was really good, I liked seeing Spider-Man being overwhelmed without seeming weak (after all, just one Vermin is meant to be incredibly hard to defeat, let alone a group of them!) I think he’ll get a rematch with them next time, maybe using his brains to defeat them in some way instead of brute strength. I still think this story will be better in trade form though, the pacing isn’t the best when we’re reading it with gaps.
All in all, I think I’d give it a strong B+.