Writer: Ralph Macchio

Art Team: Chris Allen, Rachelle Rosenberg, VC’s Travis Lanham

Cover Price: $3.99

Release Date: June 26, 2019

In celebration of 80 years Marvel Comics has been putting out various one shot stories, highlighting some of their most popular characters, throughout these summer months. One of the few we were treated to this week was Spider-Man: Reptilian Rage, a story featuring a very young Spider-Man, and the Lizard eventually mixing it up a bit. So how is this throwback tale to Peter Parkers past? Let discuss.

The issue begins by establishing a time and place most of our story will take place. We are in the very late stages of Peter Parker’s senior year of high school, as he takes a visit to E.S.U., eventually bumping into Curt Conners (the Lizard) on his tour just prior to a scheduled interview. Dr. Conners is conducting new experiments on reptiles, that have so far been successful and less scary than his first attempts, thus introducing Peter to his work. It’s a good setup for a throwback story, which is the proper way to refer to this issue as it reads very reminiscent to how older Spider-Man stories did.

Eventually some crooks run into Dr. Conners lab, rough him up then kidnap his pet experimental lizard for their boss, and take off in an attempt to get away. This of course triggers both Dr. Conners into the Lizard and Peter into action as Spider-Man, possibly contributing to him missing his scheduled meeting … oh that Parker luck. It all comes off very Silver Age leading to a three party chase, but if that’s the type of story you’re missing, instead of the normal decompressed super hero fare, this is straight up your alley.

Overall there isn’t a whole lot to say to summarize about this one shot story as a whole. The whole thing moves pretty quickly, involving mostly one long chase scene, with the highlight being the art on the splash pages where a few punches are exchanged between Spidey and the Lizard. Other than that, the issue ends rather uneventfully albeit with a slight emotional twist but if you’ve been enjoying these callouts to the bygone era of Marvel Comics, you’ll find more of that enjoyment here.