Writer: Nick Spencer
Artist: Mark Bagley
Colors: Rachelle Rosenberg & Edgar Delgado
Letterer: VC’s Joe Caramagna

Release date January 6 2021
Review by D. Brown (WolfCypher)

The sinister alliance between Norman Osborn and Wilson Fisk has resulted in the capture of Kindred. Secured at Ravencroft, we learn exactly why Fisk has such an investment with Kindred, and we discover that Osborn may not be on the up-and-up about his true intentions.

This book has a lot of dialogue. I mean, you will not be able to speed through this one. That is neither a negative or a positive, just a fact that I’ll get use to get to my point. With so much narrative and script, I was very upset to find that none of it really gets us any closer to the mystery of Kindred’s origins or how Spider-Man is responsible for him. We still don’t get any answers or even suggestions, hints, a tease of what made Harry Osborn into Kindred. Instead, we get this issue that takes what was doing a good job of coming off as a heavy and deep story and derail it with a lighter feeling tone plus some unnecessary subplots that just leave me deflated. This arc gave me a good buzz prior to this issue, but alas, this issue is sobering me up.

This arc is really losing its tone. When we started this story, we had established a very sinister, dark, creepy atmosphere, all thanks to Kindred. He permeated this arc with dread and anxiousness. He also made this arc feel like it was going somewhere forbidden, that it was going to bring up and tackle one particular controversial story that it felt like for years Marvel would not allow anyone to seriously mention or call back to. This story felt important. But its starting to fall apart for me. We removed the likes of Morlun (it would seem) and the Sin-Eater from the plot (who was seriously risking overstaying his welcome), and even the multiple Spider-friends look as if to be done with their involvement (and still Doctor Strange is just up in the air…is he still relevant to this story?). This should make the story feel even more streamlined and focused than before, right?

Only we now reintroduce Carlie Cooper and Overdrive back into the book, and Aunt May (where have YOU been?) and Martin Li (Mister Negative) show up…is this to prep us for the next series of arcs? We’re still not addressing the bigger issues and questions that have been painfully lingering since this story kicked off, and we’re playing around with a Carlie and Overdrive B-plot while planting seeds for the next story. Wow…

It had been so long, I forgot this was Nick Spencer’s M.O. I guess Spencer is back to his old habit of drawing out stories by juggling multiple new and old plots and characters, something I used to criticize him for during his Doctor Doom/Chameleon/Spidey 2099/Tablet of Life/Kingpin/Robbie dating a supervillain days.

Final Thoughts

The writing and the pacing of this story is now wearing on my patience, as Nick Spencer has shockingly gone back to his frustrating habit of drawing things out much longer than they should be. It’s a shame that what was a really engaging story is now being halted with an issue more interested in teasing upcoming stories and bringing in more ancillary characters with nothing to do with what we’ve been following in Last Remains. If you add up both the main issues and the point issues of Last Remains, this is effectively Last Remains Chapter 12, and its still…going…on…with no new answers or revelations.

6/10