Amazing #35 is the continuation of our Chameleon/Dr. Doom/2099 tie-in arc that feels like its been going on for an eternity. This latest issue feels like it has so little going on, I cannot promise much for my review, but I’ll try.

After the failed assassination of Dr. Doom on American soil, Doom has declared war on New York City. Spider-Man and his sister Teresa track down the Chameleon and argue on about whether they should keep him alive or not (The Chameleon murdered Teresa’s partner, and she’s not happy with that at all). The Chameleon explains that the hitman he hired…aka the Hitman…which they all find dead, was actually a clone of the original Hitman. Spidey remembers he has a device called Clairvoyance (a school project that allows him to…travel, apparently, into a multiversal slash future limbo) and uses it to find a solution for handling Dr. Doom. They enact their plan, Spidey, Teresa and the Chameleon, but Doom is not pleased and seemingly blasts them to death.

Yeah, that’s the gist of it. This story hadn’t been lighting my fire, and this latest issue only continues the trend of being another dud. There really isn’t much that goes on in the issue. A lot of the pages are just filled with heavy exposition until we get to end. Dr. Doom’s attack of the city is nothing more than a giant projection of himself (I’m guessing) whining for his assassin to come forth, while the actual crisis is never detailed enough. You get a few panels where we see the other heroes taking on the Doombots running through the city, just to remind you that there is panic in the streets, but that’s not the part of the story focused on here. What we get is just more of Spencer slowly moving towards the next act in the story’s conflict, and eventual conclusion. One pro I can give Spencer in this issue is that he doesn’t try to introduce any new story seeds. This issue is pretty much all about Doom and the Chameleon, and we don’t get Spencer trying to tie into all this yet another new story development.

This story arc is still being touted as a lead-up into the next Marvel 2099 initiative, and I couldn’t recommend this to anyone who would be excited to jump on board for the 2099 books.

Final Thoughts

Nick Spencer’s Chameleon/Doom/2099 arc reaches its forth chapter, and it may be the worst of the arc. This issue slowly drags us towards an indiscernible solution thought up by Spider-Man, until it just ends. How on earth does one make a Spider-Man/Dr. Doom story so boring is beyond me…