Written by: Zeb Wells
Art by: John Romita Jr., Scott Hanna
Colors by: Marcio Menyz
Letters by: VC’s Joe Caramagna
Cover art by: John Romita Jr., Scott Hanna, Marcio Menyz
Cover price: $3.99
Release date: July 6, 2022

Amazing Spider-Man #5 forces Web-Head to deal with the aftermath of Tombstone’s deception. What’s a Spider to do when he accidentally eliminates a mob boss’s competition?

Was It Good?

There’s a principle in dramatic writing called “Chekhov’s Gun.” It goes something like this – Never introduce an object or plot point into a story without making it pay off later in the same story. The moral of the principle is to avoid making false promises and thereby irritating your reading audience. Zeb Wells is violating “Chekhov’s Gun” (multiple times) in this issue and predictably causing a significant amount of irritation.

Why? Because this is the end of the arc. Wrap it up, put a bow on it, and seal it with a kiss. And within this arc’s finale, no mention is made of whatever cataclysmic event happened in Pennsylvania, where Peter disappeared to for six months, or how/why/when M.J. wound up a mommy with two elementary-aged children. Wells dropped those confusing, frustrating bombshells in the first issue, never to be addressed again.

What do you get in this issue? Talking. Lots and lots of talking as Peter finds a way to use Tombstone’s bait-and-switch to create a truce of sorts while manipulating Digger into making sure Tombstone doesn’t get away from his misdeeds free and clear. In effect, the issue is almost entirely wheeling, dealing, and manipulation without any clear resolution other than everyone agreeing to leave each other alone.

So, the painful downside of this issue is a monumental lack of resolution and disappointingly odd-looking art from Romita Jr.. If this era was meant to usher in a fresh, new era, for our friendly neighborhood Spider-Man, Wells and company missed the mark by a country mile.

---

About The Reviewer: Gabriel Hernandez is the Publisher & EIC of ComicalOpinions.com, a comics review site dedicated to indie, small, and mid-sized publishers.

Follow ComicalOpinions on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter

---

Bits and Pieces

Amazing Spider-Man #5 concludes the arc with a shockingly unsatisfying finale. The multiple bombshells dropped in the first issue are all but forgotten, Romita Jr’s art is becoming more distorted with each issue, and any of the dramatic tension Wells successfully created in the last few issues is entirely gone with a relaxed and dialog-heavy chapter. It’s hard to imagine a worse possible ending for a first arc from a new creative team.

4/10