Amazing Spider-Man (2018) #44 Review: The Bogenrieder Perspective

“–It’s getting harder to do this without you.”

Peter and Kindred finally meet face-to-face! How will Centi-Demon make himself known to the webslinger now that the endgame (?) is in motion?

Amazing Spider-Man (2018) #44

“Beware the Rising”

Writer: Nick Spencer

Artist: Kim Jacinto with Bruce Oliveira

Colors: David Curiel

Letters: VC’s Joe Caramagna

Editors: Nick Lowe and Kathleen Wisneski

Editor-in-Chief: CB Cebulski

Plot:

As Peter crashes for the night, he has a familiar voice creep into his head, and he dreams inside a dream. The first part is Peter silently ghosting Overdrive, who after his role in playing getaway driver for the Inner Demons, is cornered by the resurrected Sin-Eater, who uses Kindred magic to consume the Inner Demons through their own sin. (I don’t pretend to understand it, it’s devil magic.) Overdrive, who is next, instead runs; and whenever he tries to outrun Sin-Eater, he always gets closer.

Until he finally catches up.

Peter wakes up from a nightmare of shrapnel and pain, panicking and calling MJ. One voicemail about how much he needs her later, Peter starts vomiting rats and worms and is dragged beneath the dirt by Kindred’s death magic stuff. Kindred revels in torturing Peter, before revealing that it wasn’t his dream: through Madame Web, it was the dream of the entire Spider-Family. (Except Ben. And Kaine. And Miguel. And SpOck, but he doesn’t count anymore.)

Thoughts:

So, this was a weird issue, because the first time I read it I really had no clue what was going on, particularly the dream-within-a-dream plot device and the double twist at the end with Madame Web. On subsequent readings, it makes a lot more sense, but the magical mystery ride makes a lot less sense the first round through.

Something that’s a lot easier for me to discuss and a little more up my alley is the art, and this time we have two different artists; Kim Jacinto and Bruce Oliveria. Kim Jacinto I really liked; he’s like a more pointy and more dynamic. The pages of Overdrive are gorgeous, backed up by David Curiel’s smooth and slick coloring on the details of Overdrive’s helmet and car. However, everything falls apart when Bruce Oliveria takes over; the perspective is all over the place, and the anatomy becomes jilted over the few pages he’s on the book. It’s a sharp nosedive, and while I’m going to give massive points to the Jacinto art, (Though it’s going to get some marks off for blatantly reusing art from both ASM #1 and Sensational Annual #1 rather than redoing the scenes in his own style) it gets a bit more than a few points off for the last few pages.

That said, the book more than redeems itself with two major areas; Kindred’s first real contact with Peter and Peter’s message to MJ, both of which are pivotal factors in Spencer’s overall run.

Kindred’s presence has always been one of mystery, accentuated by two key factors: Who is he, and what Spencer emphasizes as the bigger point, what does he want? And while I think that while the more critically inclined have been able to deduce that he wants Peter isolated and alone, and while that involves dragging in the Spider-Family, I imagine it’s to lull him into a false sense of security. Kindred’s own ability to attack Peter in his home and in his mind, the one place where he should be safe, allows him to be much more threatening than the average rogue; it sets the stage for him to psychologically hurt Peter directly, something that I’m sure will be played with in the upcoming Sins Rising arc.

And, somewhat more important, Peter’s voicemail to MJ. While it’s upsetting that MJ’s off in limbo with her title yet to be solicited again, it’s good to know that Spencer hasn’t dropped the ball on his end, but more continues to reinforce the idea that Peter needs MJ to not only find a reason to come home, but to stay sane, particularly during the current crisis he’s undergoing. (Which is what I’m willing to bet made Kindred take her off the chess board while he’s playing the fiddle with Peter’s head.) There’s a moment Peter takes to talk about how Spider-Man and Peter Parker are becoming a blur, and I appreciated that it was taken completely seriously, as opposed to being made a “haha lol so random” moment in runs we won’t discuss. It felt hard and was handled with a proper amount of gravity that this kind of existential worry would have on a person; it was serious.

Overall, in spite of some less-than-Amazing art at the end, Amazing Spider-Man is being led in a stronger direction as a whole, and while Kindred’s identity isn’t here, his motives certainly are, especially as he begins letting others in on the operation. And with Sin-Eater punching way higher than his usual pay grade and gunning for the Lethal Legion, it’ll be fascinating to see how Spencer has Peter tackle the new pseudo-mystical deck stacked against him.

Final Grade: B+