- Written by: Justina Ireland
- Art by: Andrea Broccardo, Scott Hanna
- Colors by: Marcio Menyz
- Letters by: VC’s Joe Caramagna
- Cover art by: Patrick Gleason, Richard Isanove (cover A)
- Cover price: $4.99
- Release date: February 19, 2025
Amazing Spider-Man #68, by Marvel Comics on 2/19/25, snaps Peter Parker out of his depression when he sees the deadly toll a Blight-infected Callix takes on NYC.
Is Amazing Spider-Man #68 Good?
Recap
When we last left Peter Parker in Amazing Spider-Man #67, Spider-Man decided to sit out the third issue in a row for this arc. Instead, Juggernaut and the Alaska-based X-Men arrived in NYC to battle the next scion of Cyttorak. The X-Men win the battle easily (???), but the day is far from over when a previous scion, Callix, arrives, possessed by an unstoppable force called the Blight, to tear the Earth apart.
Plot Synopsis
In Amazing Spider-Man #68, the Inevitability of Death takes its toll. The issue begins with Cyra reeling from the death of her brother, Cradios, at the hands of Callix. She decides Peter’s time for moping is done, so she shows him that his friends, loved ones, including Aunt May, and random citizens died from attacks by Callix’s Hell Hounds. Peter is shocked because their deaths were not what Cyra foretold during her challenge. She explains circumstances have changed, and his inaction led to their premature deaths.
Peter decides to suit up and continue the fight, but before Spidey joins the X-Men in battle, he gives Phil Coulson, the Avatar of Death, his remaining Resurrection Reeds to bring back the innocent people who died. Now, if Spidey dies in battle against a scion of Cytorrak, his death will be permanent. (You already see where this is going).
The X-Men barely hold their own against Callix’s never-ending pack of Hell Hounds. Cyra prompts Spidey to attack Callix directly to stop the destruction because she senses his power is somehow corrupted. Spidey unleashes a magic spell he learned from Doctor Strange as a weapon of last resort, but the spell accomplishes nothing. Callix infects the X-Men with the Blight, which spreads to everyone nearby like a virus. Concluding the situation on Earth is in hand, Callix returns to his home realm to take over.
Cyra pulls Spidey into a liminal space to prevent his infection and assess the situation. She concludes their only hope is to follow Callix back to Cytorrak and use their combined powers to stop Callix and the Blight at the source. The issue concludes with a killing field of scions, an immobile Cytorrak, and Callix turning into a lethal pain in the neck for Spider-Man.
First Impressions
Man, this arc sucks. Yes, I know that’s not a very thoughtful way to put it, but you have to conclude that more energy and thought went into writing this review than anyone at Marvel put into this story. Peter Parker spent three issues, and a little bit over, moping about the uselessness of life, but everything gets reversed in this issue with a plot device that doesn’t make any sense. Good grief!
How’s the Art?
Andrea Broccardo, Scott Hanna, and Marcio Menyz do their level best to make a stupid story look interesting. Broccardo’s pencils look solid, elevated by Scott Hanna’s inks, and the coloring choices are bright enough to catch your eye. That said, the character designs brush a little too close to cartoonish.
What’s great about Amazing Spider-Man #68?
Justina Ireland finally snaps Peter out of his multi-issue pity party to do something heroic. It’s not much, but at least it’s something.
What’s not great about Amazing Spider-Man #68?
How? How did Justina Ireland and Joe Kelly come up with a plot this boneheaded?!? The entire crux of this issue depends on Peter snapping out of his doldrums by seeing the death of his friends and family, but Cyra already showed him the future deaths of his friends and family. When he questions why they’re different, she says circumstances have changed, but the circumstances that changed had nothing to do with Peter’s actions or inactions. It’s all Callix. What on Earth is this plot hole? How many random developments are readers supposed to endure?
Why didn’t Cytorrak intervene when Callix went haywire? How and when did the X-Men get infected (you never see the infection take place)? Why is it that the only people who died from Callix’s Hell Hounds happen to all be standing in front of the F.E.A.S.T. offices that Marvel keeps obnoxiously shoehorning into every issue?
Except for the art, this story is just plain dumb.
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 YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter
Final Thoughts
Amazing Spider-Man #68 continues to demonstrate that Marvel has no intention of writing a good Spider-Man story anytime soon. Justina Ireland’s plot is sloppy and boneheaded, buoyed only slightly by decent art. If Joe Kelly can’t turn this ship around when he takes over, Amazing Spider-Man will be Marvel’s flagship title no more.
4/10
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