Writers: Nick Spencer & Matthew Rosenberg
Artists: Federico Vicentini, Takeshi Miyazawa, & Sal Buscema
Colors: Erick Arciniega
Letterer: VC’s Ariana Maher

Release date December 23 2020
Review by D. Brown (WolfCypher)

Our story opens with scenes taken straight out of the original volume of Spectacular Spider-Man #200. Already, I’m smiling. This is a good start. Back then, Norman Osborn was dead. Well, for all intents and purposes, he was dead. Harry was the Green Goblin, and his feud with Spider-Man had reached its fever pitch. These pages this issue opens with are not reenacted or redrawn pages, these are the de facto original pages from the early 90s story drawn by Sal Buscema. It takes us back to the night Harry brought Mary Jane to the Brooklyn Bridge, the same bridge Norman would bring Gwen Stacy to die.

But its not for the sake of killing her, or to threaten her. Harry is out of his mind, but he knows even in his increasingly volatile state that he loves Mary Jane, too much to ever let anything happen to her. He brings her here to tell her that whatever happens between him and Peter, it won’t come to this.

Its an appreciated opening to the main Nick Spencer and Matthew Rosenberg story, to what I thought would be a story about Mary Jane. You’ll remember that our Sins Free Norman Osborn believes Mary Jane is the key to saving Peter and stopping Harry, as she’s the only one who has a chance to get through to him. As effective as this would have been, that’s not the story we have here. But…the story we do get isn’t bad, I will say.

The previous point LR issue was one I really wasn’t a fan of. As these side issues accompanying the Spider-Man/Kindred story started to ware on, these Spider-Friends and Sin-Eater plots started to feel less connected to the bigger (and frankly better) main story that was going on. Two point LR issues ago and I was starting to feel like these were just the leftovers of the “Sins Risings” arc that preceded our Last Remains story, and just one point LR issue ago I began to wonder if any of this would come back around to the main story.

This issue finds the Spider-Friends going up against the Morlun powered Sin-Eater. Thankfully we finally get a clear answer to whether or nor the Sin-Eater has lost all of his supernatural abilities and whether he’s a normal man again or still able to siphon super powers. This was so unclear in previous issues, but its spelled out perfectly clear here that he’s still capable of stealing powers, and its actually used against him to take him out once and for all.

The story doesn’t move anything of note forward, and it really comes across as the proper and true finale to the Sins Rising story. The Sin-Eater is finally taken down for good (egg on my face if he shows up again next issue) and the Spider-Friends look to be drawn into the Kindred’s tangled web by the end. So with the B-plot resolved, all that’s left is the conclusion of the Kindred story.

I was wondering how this one issue would fit in Morlun, the Sin-Eater and the Spider-Friends, and Mary Jane into one book, and it turns out it didn’t really bother. While prior issues pointed at this issue being the point were all those characters would converge, the actual story itself took to only zero in on the Sin-Eater and the Spider crew, and I think it was for the better. Still, with an opening so central on Mary Jane and Harry Osborn, it does feel like a waste. But as it stands, it was an enjoyable issue, and thankfully the last time we’ll have to refer to these numbered issues as point LR issues…

Final Thoughts

This issue may look like a tie-in for the events happening around Peter and Kindred, but it really serves as the true conclusion to the previous story arc “Sins Rising” as the Sin-Eater plot is given its proper resolution. That said, its a solid issue that continues to give the Spider-Family (sans Peter himself) the spotlight.

7.5/10