- Written by: Joe Kelly
- Art by: Ed McGuiness, Mark Farmer
- Colors by: Marcio Menyz
- Letters by: VC’s Joe Caramagna
- Cover art by: Ed McGuiness, Cliff Rathburn, Marcio Menyz
- Cover price: $4.99
- Release date: March 12, 2025
Amazing Spider-Man #69, by Marvel on 3/12/25, marks the beginning of the end for the 8 Deaths arc when Cyra learns the meaning of life and death through the demonstration of love.
Is Amazing Spider-Man #69 Good?
Recap
When we last left Peter Parker in Amazing Spider-Man #68, Peter finally snapped out of his multi-issue pity party when he witnessed the Blight-infected Callix killing Peter’s friends, loved ones, and bystanders. Peter swung into action with Cyra to stop Callix but to no avail. Callix, satisfied that his goal of infecting the Earth with Blight was done, returned to his home dimension to overthrow his father. The issue ended with Spider-Man dying by Callix’s hand when he and Cyra followed Callix home.
Plot Synopsis
In Amazing Spider-Man #69, love finds a way. Callix gloats over the deceased Spider-Man while Cyra kneels in grief. Cyra tries to convince Callix to stop, but he believes the Blight was hidden from him by Cyttorak so that the god could maintain his stranglehold on power over his offspring. Callix offers Cyra a chance to join him, but she only has enough time to choose until Callix kills Cyttorak.
Phil Coulson, the Avatar of Death, appears to claim Peter Parker’s soul. Cyra is surprised by the sympathy and sadness she feels because she never understood until now how one human could love humanity so much that he would be willing to give his life to save it… or something to that effect. With a newfound sense of love, Cyra strikes a deal with Coulson to offer her immortality in exchange for Peter’s resurrection.
The issue ends with Callix attacking Cyttorak to claim his father’s throne and Spider-Man returning from the dead better than new because Cyra granted him life and the unstoppable power of the Juggernaut.
First Impressions
Amazing Spider-Man #69 marks the penultimate issue in the 8 Deaths arc, so it makes sense that Joe Kelly would return to bring the adventure home and try to make sense of the senseless. Does Kelly succeed? No, not really, but this issue is a marked step up from Justina Ireland’s turn on the title.
How’s the Art?
Ed McGuiness and Mark Farmer do their level best to make a (almost) dialog-only issue look as interesting as possible. Cyra is the focus of the story, so the burden rests on McGuiness and Farmer to make Cyra’s emotional journey worth the cover price. The art isn’t good enough to warrant $4.99, but the art team makes the most of what they have.
What’s great about Amazing Spider-Man #69?
If nothing else, Joe Kelly infuses a fair amount of emotional depth and high-brow concepts into Cyra’s character growth. She experiences love and empathy by recognizing it in others, so readers may not have expected this arc to turn into the journey of one of the scions of Cyttorak, but it surprisingly works out.
What’s not great about Amazing Spider-Man #69?
Joe Kelly’s high-brow explanation about the nature of life, love, death, and existence in the universe comes off as a lot of hand-waving nonsense to try and make the penultimate issue rise above the garbage of the previous issues. This arc isn’t important because none of it matters, so to come in at the last minute with an afterschool special lesson of a message seems performative and out of step with the rest of the arc. In short, the issue reads as, “Yeah, we messed up the challenge, so let’s try and make it sound like something more important was happening going into the finale.”
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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Final Thoughts
Amazing Spider-Man #69 is an improvement over the past several issues when Cyra becomes the focal character who undergoes a significant journey of growth. That said, Joe Kelly’s high-brow explanation of life and love comes off a philosophical hand-waving to make a terrible arc seem meaningful at the last minute. File this one under “too little, too late.”
5.8/10
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