US Shipping Date: July 9, 2008

Previous Issue: Amazing Spider-Man #564 Next Issue: Amazing Spider-Man #566

Synopsis
Spider-Man wakes up and finds himself chained upside-down in a sewer. Standing beside him is his captor, a young, blond-haired girl dressed in leathers similar to Kraven, who announces herself as the girl who is going to kill him…!

Two Weeks Earlier: Spidey and Daredevil battle Fracture (a villain capable of shattering everything he touches) whilst the young girl patiently watches her prey. She follows Spidey and is able to work out which apartment block is his and, through a little extra work using ultraviolet sensors, which is his apartment! She returns home and discovers a name connected to the apartment… Peter Parker! She wants him dead but vows to be patient and take away everything he loves first!

One Week Later: Peter is working part-time in a comic book store when shots are fired at him! He drags the owner from the shop and down to the subway for shelter. In order to explain his ability, he lies to the shopkeeper telling him that he is a Skrull!

One Week Later: Vin Gonzalez is called into Palone’s office and suspended because his off-duty gun was found at the scene of a murdered drug-dealer! On his way home, the young girl runs a car into him which knocks him off his feet and leaves him a bloody but conscious mess! Meanwhile, Peter receives a subpoena from Maxwell (the construction worker who fell in Amazing Spider-Man #549) and is told to tell Spider-Man.

The Next Day: Vin, Peter and Harry Osborn hang out at Zeck’s Billiards and Bar and discuss Vin’s hard luck. Depressed, Vin heads home leaving Peter worried about him.

Back at the apartment, Peter is ambushed by the young girl and told to put on his Spider-Man costume. He does so and she knocks him out…

…and he wakes up with her standing beside him. Spidey tells her that she is making a mistake but she ignores him. She cuts him down and tells him she has dreamed about ruining his life! She unmasks him… to reveal not Peter Parker… but Vin Gonzalez!

Highlight
The well-planned switch!

Comments
When I first heard that there was going to be new Kraven I wasn’t that interested. It had been done before and done badly. But this is different. Marc Guggenheim manages to create a character cloaked in mystery, dignity and who doesn’t run around pretending to be Kraven which makes her suddenly all the more interesting! His clever use of setting the issue over two weeks and allowing the reader to know her thoughts allows for a development throughout her pursuit of Spider-Man and plenty of small clues to be given away through her actions and how she thinks. I love spotting the little details like her comparison to “the others” and falling into the “same old traps” and its down to Guggenheim for creating this depth and intrigue. The sense of dignity and destiny fits well with the Kraven tradition but there is something about her that signifies she is a rookie (apart from the obvious “getting the wrong guy” thing!). She fails to kill Peter at the comic store, she seems to be following to book to the letter, she clearly didn’t double-check the lease on the apartment and seems to have only been considering Spidey’s demise for the last two weeks. All very odd and, as you can probably tell, this is the most interested I have been in a villain since Brand New Day began.

Although the mistaken identity plot has been done before, I genuinely didn’t see this one coming and again it all boils down to Guggenheim and his use of thought bubbles. It isn’t until the end that you realise the narrative has not quite matched the images most of the way through the issue and that you have been happily falling for the compelling narration as it stands. Going back and reading it again throws up so many other questions but the really clever thing, the thing that makes Guggenheim stand out as a great writer is that both readings (before knowing the end and after knowing the end) entertain and capture the reader.

The three other characters that play parts in this issue are Fracture, Daredevil and Vin. Considering the first two separately, their appearances seem a little pointless and they actually form a fairly awkward scene that confuses happy-go-lucky team-ups with banter that lacks bite and doesn’t touch on any real continuity which, at this stage, it probably should a bit. Vin is very quickly becoming interesting. After the difficult last issue, here his life is turning into the hard luck case we’re used to see in Peter and there is some incredible motivation and emotion building up in him that I can’t wait to explode. I could mention the comic book store owner as another character but that whole scene is utter shash!

Phil Jimenez works a lot better with Guggenheim than he did with Gale. Whilst he does maintain this excellent ability to detail tiny panels that add layers and depth to the story, he is also given some space to have blank areas, black panels and produce cleaner images. I didn’t appreciate the detail as much before but I think that because both creators have worked closely on this arc the story is more epic, the detail adds so much more to the settings and the whole atmosphere of mystery and threat is carried through the pages that echo with silence on Kraven’s part and depression with Vin and Peter.

A pity that Jimenez’s grasp on the characters, detail and all round great storytelling does not translate to the dull, barely-connected-to-the-story cover.

Rating
Cover –
Overall –

Reviewed by Adam Rivett

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Previous Issue: Amazing Spider-Man #564 Next Issue: Amazing Spider-Man #566