US Shipping Date: June 20, 2007

Previous Issue: Amazing Spider-Man #540 Next Issue: Amazing Spider-Man #542

Synopsis
Peter hangs up the phone and demands answers from Jake Martino’s killer. He knows nothing but Peter decides to make an example out of him anyway…

In his cell, Kingpin calls for the guard. As he talks to him he begins to smash his room apart, uncovering hoards of rolled up money hidden in the furniture! He collects it all and hands it over to the guard and tells him to do two things: spread the money around so that the guards on the night shift look the other way tonight and secondly… bring him his clothes.

Peter has the man webbed up in the sewer and lectures him on predators and prey. As rats start to crawl all over him, Peter tells him that he is to spread the word; if anyone goes near his family again they will know that there is a new predator in town – Spider-Man!

Returning to May’s bedside, Peter discusses with MJ the likelihood of them being discovered and they decide to speed the process up. He reminds her of the time when he gave May his blood (Amazing Spider-Man #10) and that he wants to repeat the transfusion without filtering his blood for impurities. Once the procedure is complete, Peter says that any change should happen soon and that he has to go. MJ tries to stop him in his weakened state but he leaves anyway.

In prison all of the doors suddenly open and Kingpin begins to get dressed. Outside, Spider-Man approaches.

As Kingpin strolls down the prison corridor, with inmates free and looking for trouble, Spider-Man crashes in and demands a fight!

Highlight
The silent preparations as the two meet for battle!

Comments
I’ve just read the issue again and I wonder if people think I am getting carried away with this arc. Looking back on my last two reviews I can see where these people might be coming from and, if I take a step back and read the issues again in the whole light of The War At Home and leading into One More Day I can almost see why people may think that these aren’t good issues and that there are still filler for the “next big event”.

But, I still disagree and I think reading these issues from a “enjoying it as something we hardly ever see in Spider-Man” perspective is resulting in these issues being damn fine. They may not stand the test of time, but in my playbook they are winners.

This issue is as good as the last. It slows down a tad, and there is hardly any dialogue in the latter half of the pages but that’s what I like! JMS manages to delve a little more into the black costume psyche of Peter here, which is something that he ahs only managed to do in the closing pages of the first issue of the arc. Here you really get a sense that the man behind mask is desperately trying to separate himself from the dark side of the hero, an interesting concept now that the world knows they are the same man. The prime example of this is the end of the brilliant scene in the sewer: Peter, in a wonderfully dark and threatening full-page splash, goes from pointing out that he is top of the food chain to the next page where he appears silently (almost as a killer) at the bedside of May where he breaks down in tears. The solid look on his face as he enters the room shows anger, sadness, determination and fear. This idea is supported more when he totally disregards MJ and leaves to face Kingpin later in the book.

The little flashback to early Amazing issues is a lovely touch that will spark a small cheer in hardcore fans and Garney art mimics the past with heart-warming subtlety.

The close of the book contains very little dialogue and therefore reads very quickly. I raced through this first time round wanting to know the ending and didn’t take in the clever dance of preparations that the two nemeses take. The seven pages, from when Peter leaves MJ to the end, let Garney run wild and build the movement and suspense up and up. From the unveiling of Kingpin’s suit to the donning of the black mask, the pencils are superb and build up to a dropping final page that just makes you pine for next issue so bad!

As they often say, ‘silence is golden’. So are these pages.

Finally a knock-out fight between Spidey and Kingpin! Finally! Just to be on the safe side, I have a slight niggle about the next scenes meeting expectations but it’s about time we had a decent fight scene in Amazing!

Garney excels on the book. I love his Kingpin design as he assumes power over the page without coming across as a fat guy and he is still the best pencilled of the black costume out there. He handles the eerie and dangerous atmosphere of the sewer well, using his knack and dropping in solid shadow perfectly, and is able to orchestrate the emotions of the characters throughout. My favourite panel has to be where Peter has swung out of May’s window. Peter is blocked against the building backdrop in a luminescent colour similar to those used when Peter was fighting Captain America. This panel just made me think and look again, and consider the use of colour (presumably at Garney’s direction) that just makes this odd, energetic and simply stunning.

I strongly hope Mr Garney is one of the rotating artists (and if he wants to drop me an email about this he can!).

So go and try to read this not for the sake of getting somweher else but exploring the predator side of Peter.

Rating
Cover –
Overall –

Reviewed by Adam Rivett

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Previous Issue: Amazing Spider-Man #540 Next Issue: Amazing Spider-Man #542