US Shipping Date: March 12, 2008

Previous Issue: Amazing Spider-Man #552 Next Issue: Amazing Spider-Man #554

Synopsis
Freak emerges as Spider-Man looks on! The monster races off into the crowd but, before Spidey can intervene, Officer Alan O’Neil shoots it through the head! The monster falls into an open shaft and deep into the sewers where another chrysalis begins forms around him… Back on the surface, O’Neil justifies his actions and mentions that a police mistake can easily be pinned on Spider-Man.

Meanwhile, at The Bar With No Name, The Bookie has to pay money back to some clients. Back on the street, Carlie Cooper arrives to take a sample of the empty chrysalis in case another one appears. On the rooftops, Spidey questions whether he should be out in public.

At The DB!, Bennett is not pleased with Peter so demands that he goes to the Hollister Press Conference and, what with the DB! supporting Crowne, get a shot of Bill Hollister that makes him look awful.

At the conference, Peter takes some pretty awful photos of Bill Hollister as he announces his candidacy for mayor. He catches sight of Lily and realises once again how attractive she is… Bad for his reputation but good for his wallet, Peter’s photo makes front page.

In a NYPD lab, Carlie is joined by Curt Connors to investigate the chrysalis sample. He links it to the theft of his stem cell research and takes a sample back to his lab for further tests.

In the sewers, Freak regains consciousness. He feels different, something is wrong with his hands, his feet and his sense of smell. He blames Spider-Man and Raymond for getting him into this situation and when he catches himself in a workstation mirror he explodes with fury! With scaly green and pink skin, fur, protruding bones and a rat –like face, he really is a Freak!

The next day, Peter is ordered by Bennett to cover the dedication of Crowne Plaza. Soon, Peter is testing a thicker webbing and a tracking sensor in his costume that is linked to his camera to guarantee good shots.

Across town, Freak emerges and kills a hotdog vendor and then picks up Spidey’s scent from a town fragment of his costume (#552), the police prepare for the dedication and drug-dealer Raymond pays his nearby lab a visit.

At the dedication, Peter is happily snapping away when Freak appears and demands Spider-Man shows himself! Gonzalez and O’Neil shoot at him but Freak is now bullet-proof! Peter quickly changes and throws himself into stopping the rampaging monster who screams at him saying that his condition is his fault! Crowne orders them to stop destroying public property so Freak turns his attention on him. He grabs a massive piece of sculpture and launches it at him! Spidey’s webshooter jams… and he may be too far away to save Crowne!

Highlight
The visual representation of Freak again! Jimenez is gross!

Comments
Things start to improve this issue with there being much clearer transition between scenes, use of internal monologue to break up the large volume of dialogue still used and some clever uses of panels and layout that were nowhere to be seen last issue.

Take, for example, the excellent double-page spread of The Bar With No Name, the crime scene and Spidey on the rooftops. At first I didn’t even notice, but Gale and Jimenez match up panels for each setting (looking down the page rather than across) to create a sense that these all happen at the same time, are all connected (or will be) and are linked well with clever continuation of thought and speech.

In terms of development, the plot moves pretty quickly and in an interesting direction. Whilst Freak’s motivation to kill Spidey is still only based on a brief encounter, Gale now does his best to make him a viable threat with a deranged purpose. He does himself a huge favour including the page of Freak’s thoughts as this humanises and deepens the character slightly. Gale’s choice to kill and mutate Freak early on in this issue breaks the impact of the character up nicely and allows for the details of the relevant subplots to be explored. Considering last issue’s review, there is a much clearer sense of narrative and more obvious techniques used to tie things together better.

In fact the shallow portrayal of characters last issue lessens on a number of fronts here: Alan O’Neil turns out to be pretty darn ruthless and sees Spider-Man as an excuse for police mistakes, Peter considers his reactions and decisions as a persecuted Spider-Man, he has to deal with Bennett and betraying his friend, Carlie develops links with Connors (who fits in nicely here but says nothing new), Gonzalez and O’Neil, Crowne comes across as a bold candidate who puts others before himself and Peter’s feelings for Lily begin to crop up again.

The major downside to this issue is the end. Gale does a pretty good job of juggling the characters so that they converge towards the end, even re-introducing Raymond who is bound to play a part next issue, but then spoils it all with a cliffhanger that relies on another another another webshooter malfunction (so this is why they brought them back!) and a badly laid out series of panels which make the actual threat look static and non-existent.

Apart from this one blunder at the end the art is ok, still as busy as last issue, but somehow easier to take in. I think the variation in panel, use of silhouette and bolder use of shadow helps this. Jimenez manages to convey an awful lot of detail and his portrayal of death, rebirth, appearance and power of Freak is excellent! His Spider-man is growing on me as well but it is still a slightly throw-back style that clashes with the other representations seen in Spider-titles for a long time.

In all, a better issue.

Rating
Cover –
Overall –

Reviewed by Adam Rivett

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Previous Issue: Amazing Spider-Man #552 Next Issue: Amazing Spider-Man #554