US Shipping Date: August 2007

Previous Issue: Amazing Spider-Man #541 Next Issue: Amazing Spider-Man #543

Synopsis
Kingpin introduces Spider-Man to the crowd of inmates as a chump who has given up everything.

Silently, Spider-Man pounds him with several shattering punches!

Kingpin tells Peter that everything he ever stood for is now being mocked.

Spidey leaps on Kingpin again and knocks him down with a bloodied face!

Kingpin rises and challenges Spidey to say something. Spidey speaks, telling Kingpin that he is wrong. Everything Spider-Man stands for doesn’t count here. As he removes his mask and shirt he shows Kingpin that Spider-Man has not come to kill him… Peter Parker has!

Peter puts an incredible beat-down on Kingpin, busting his face, ribs and back! He humiliates Kingpin by slapping the hell out of him and then raises him ready for the finish. He tells Kingpin that he is going to fill his lungs with webbing; his death will take three seconds...

Peter holds him and counts to three…

…and then throws him down. Kingpin tells him to do it and Peter tells him that he will but that he has done something worse tonight; he has beaten and humiliated him and everyone there has seen him do it. Now he wants Kingpin to wait in fear, to wait to see if Aunt May pulls through. If she does not then he is dead and he now knows that Peter can and will do it.

Once Peter has left, Kingpin crawls back to his cell in bloody defeat.

Back at the hospital, MJ tells Peter that they need to consider moving May. They are running out of money and they all may get recognised. She then suggests that they just have to wait for the inevitable… as Kingpin does in his cell…

Highlight
If I had to chose one it would be the entire page in which Peter slaps the crud out of Kingpin!

Comments
Wow! I’m going to start by saying that if there is one thing I am not disappointed about it is the resolution of the last three issues. In the back of my mind, I knew Peter wasn’t going to kill (mainly because Kingpin lives on in Daredevil) but I was led to believe, and still believe, that this is something he is capable of and that is more impacting and provides a darker depth to Peter’s emotions than if he actually had.

JMS’s storytelling here is typical of his excellent grasp on Peter Parker. The scene in which he takes off his mask makes the unmasking clearer than ever before – this is now about a man with power, responsible for the drastic actions he is being forced to take and not an identity, not a mask. For the first time since Civil War I feel that Peter Parker has taken control of the situation and used his real self to his advantage and it is credit to JMS for doing what other writers have not and had Peter as the active rather than passive.

The awesome beating Peter dolls out is brutal quick and heralds as one of the best fight sequences I have seen in a few years. The emotion behind the last three issues comes to a head and is extended and visualised with power and crunch within these pages. And when I say crunch I mean CR-U-N-CH! From the amazing panel where Spidey leaps all over Kingpin battering his face to my highlight of the issue the stunning page of humiliating and brutal slapping, which uses bold movement lines, the colour technique that sets off the explosion of action and a clever use of line breaks where Garney shows the impact of Peter’s hand on Kingpin’s face. And that’s the key of the whole sequence – Kingpin’s face. I know it might sound odd but here’s my reasoning: when you want to hurt someone and really hurt them you punch them in the face and reign blows to the head (I know this not from experience but from any violent contact sport – boxing, cage-fighting, martial arts) which is exactly what Peter does. Within seconds Kingpin is a bloody mess and fighting to stand up. This no-nonsense approach, orchestrated by Straczynski and portrayed by Garney, is what Back In Black has been all about and fans should not be disappointed.

But it is not the fight that is the important bit but the aftermath. Peter’s choice words echo a little from last issue’s sewer scene but resonate more with pure hatred for the man who shot his Aunt. I didn’t realise what Peter was doing at first when he counted to three but looking quickly back at it I can see how this is the ultimate humiliation for Kingpin – Peter counts to three as a rehearsal for his death. JMS’s humiliation of Kingpin is nearly worse than death and Peter’s victory resounds as Kingpin crawls back to his cell where (on the powerful last page) he awaits his reckoning and takes this character to a place of insignificance and fear that I have not seen before.

I have already spoken about Garney’s handling of the fight sequence and all I really have to add is that there is not a weak panel, not a storytelling/flow glitch and that the array of panels, pages, angles and techniques of movement he uses is superb! I mean check out when Peter hurls Kingpin like a bowling ball… it’s a small panel but packed with clear intent and power.

Also, a massive mention to colourist Matt Milla! Throughout the book he uses the brilliant background colours that boldly leap from the page, makes slow scenes subtle with a delicate blend of greens and blues and maintains the structure of the story himself by giving Kingpin black eyes, bruises and grazes as the fight goes on. All of these aid the tone of the book which remains stylish, with clear layout and an excellent focus on the story, action and visuals working together, which is exactly what the main Spider-book and any excellent comic should have.

JMS leaves us at an interesting point here. The fight is over and there is one more issue before One More Day. With the only hint at the events of next issue having something to do with moving May, being discovered or running out of money I have a feel that this will be more of a lead in to the final JMS story (as he did before The Other). I do hope that the black costume is given a reason for retirement next issue – this is, after all, Back In Black!

Rating
Cover –
Overall –

Reviewed by Adam Rivett

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