Amazing Spider-Man Annual #1 (2023) Review

Written by: Erica Schultz
Art by: Julina Shaw
Colors by: Andrew Dalhouse
Letters by: VC’s Joe Caramagna
Cover art by: Corin Howell, Brian Reber
Cover price: $4.99
Release date: August 2, 2023

Amazing Spider-Man Annual #1 (2023) recounts Hallows’ Eve’s attempt to break Ben Reilly out of Queen Goblin’s embassy prison in the heart of NYC. Can Spider-Man stop the mask-wearing jailbreaker before she creates an interdimensional incident?

Is It Good?

I’m not sure what it means when Marvel starts developing a pattern of using ASM Annuals to tell silly, jokey stories that don’t go anywhere or accomplish anything, but here we are. This time Erica Schultz takes over ASM from the much-reviled Zeb Wells to present a tale of forbidden love, demons, and chicanery.

Schultz’s script begins with Spider-Man intercepting a demon “harassing” a woman on the street. “Harassing” is in quotes because you never see the demon say or do anything to the woman except stand in front of her. Hearing the woman’s screams for help, Spider-Man attacks the demon and sends it scurrying in the direction of Queen Goblin’s demon embassy, where the fight spills into the embassy’s main hall.

The demon signals fellow demons for help, pitting Spider-Man against a small group of demons while the first demon sneaks off into the bowels of the embassy. Surprise! The first demon is Hallows’ Eve in disguise. She created the distraction to keep guards occupied while she breaks into the embassy prison to rescue Ben Reilly. The two escape Ben’s jail, only to be captured when Queen Goblin s interrupted by the noise and casts a spell to put everyone back where they belong.

Schultz’s story is meaningless fluff. Nothing about Spider-Man, Ben Reilly, or Hallows’ Eve changes as a result of the story. Any angst or drama Hallows’ Eve wrestles with is undercut by the slapstick humor. And Julina Shaw’s cartoony art makes this annual feel like a silly adventure you’d find in a Scholastic book, not the main ASM title.

Does that mean it’s terrible? In isolation, no. It’s fine, but it’s woefully out of place with the main ASM series, and the slapdash creation and continued presence of the demon embassy are becoming a running gag instead of a new element worth exploring in Marvel’s version of NYC. The creators are treating ASM like a joke, so you can either choose to laugh along with it or wait for a new creative team/editor to come along.

Untitled Backup Story – Written by Celeste Bronfman, Art by David López, Colors by K.J. Díaz, Letters y VC’s Joe Caramagna

Paul, MJ, and Peter Parker are hanging out to celebrate Aunt Anna’s birthday. Suddenly, Aunt Anna snaps due to the presence of Krakoan Miracle Drugs in her system (see X-Men Hellfire gala 2023 #1 for the reason why, but not exactly), ending Aunt Anna on a rage-filled rampage. Thanks to the coincidental arrival of Spider-Man and quick thinking by MJ, Aunt Anna is knocked out and hauled off to Ravencroft Institue for help.

Well, okay. David López’s art is solid, and the short is a timely addition by looking at the human consequences of the recent Hellfire Gala, but this short and a side comment made by the Queen Goblin in the main story reference the Hellfire Gala for context while misunderstanding what happened in the Hellfire Gala.

First, Queen Goblin makes references to providing asylum for mutants in the demon embassy. Orchis and Dr. Statsis made no such allowances. They wanted every mutant off the planet or dead.

Second, Aunt Anna experiences a rage reaction from the Krakoan medicine, but the Hellfire Gala shows that reaction only when MODOK activated his kill switch, and even then, the reaction affects every human within range of the signal. Aunt Anna wouldn’t have snapped at random and by herself, and there was never any indication the activated medicine would give the victim acrobatic superpowers(???)

In both cases, the references were made by Nick Lowe. Make of that what you will.

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

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Bits and Pieces

Amazing Spider-Man Annual #1 (2023) repeats last year’s annual by turning in a jokey, silly story about nothing when Hallows’ Eve tries to break Ben Reilly out of NYC’s demon embassy prison. The slapstick tone and cartoonish art are fine in isolation but strangely out of place for the main title. The backup serves as a potentially interesting epilogue to this year’s Hellfire Gala, but it gets the details of the Gala wrong.