Amazing Spider-Man 23 featured image
Reviews

Amazing Spider-Man #23 Review: Killer Stakes, Uneven Execution in Marvel’s Death Spiral

  • Written by: Joe Kelly
  • Art by: Ed McGuinness, Mark Farmer, Cliff Rathburn
  • Colors by: Marcio Menyz
  • Letters by: VC’s Joe Caramagna
  • Cover art by: Ed McGuinness, Marcio Menyz
  • Cover price: $4.99
  • Release date: March 4, 2026

Amazing Spider-Man #23 (Marvel, 3/4/26): Writer Joe Kelly and artist Ed McGuinness pit Peter Parker against Mary Jane’s Venom in a kinetic serial killer thriller, as Carnage’s knowledge of Spider-Man’s identity turns every family tie into a target in a murder‑mystery chase. The execution is energetic but uneven, mixing sharp character drama and big‑swing spectacle with clumsy exposition and event‑setup clutter; Verdict: For die‑hard fans only.

First Impressions

This issue opens like a hangover from a bad year, with Peter trying to smile through small talk at Aunt May’s apartment while mentally counting all the ways Carnage could ruin his life one relative at a time. The tension between the mundane scene and Peter’s spiraling inner monologue lands hard, and Joe Kelly leans into that contrast so the book feels like a sitcom bottle episode that keeps cutting away to an unseen slasher checking off victim lists.​

Once Mary Jane literally peels out of the Venom form, the comic finally hits the premise the marketing promised, and Ed McGuinness responds with big expressive shots that sell both the absurdity and the hurt. The flip side is that chunks of the back half read like a rush to catch Marvel Unlimited readers up on Death Spiral lore, with Eddie’s flashback, Torment’s Shocker scene, and the “to be continued in Venom” tag all crowding out room for the new Spidey/MJ status quo to breathe.​

Recap

In Amazing Spider-Man #22, Peter crashed back to Earth from deep space, saying goodbye to allies like Rocket Raccoon and Raelith before Glitch ported him home, only to find his life in shambles after Ben Reilly’s stint as a fake Peter. He discovered that Ben had ghosted Aunt May, mishandled Mary Jane’s Venom reveal, and ignored desperate calls from Eddie Brock, leaving Peter to piece together wreckage instead of enjoying a triumphant return. The issue stumbled through check‑ins and clone drama without landing a clear emotional payoff, closing on the ominous revelation that Carnage now knows Peter Parker is Spider‑Man and is coming for everyone in his orbit.​​

Plot Analysis (SPOILERS)

Peter narrates how he spent his time in space imagining impossible best‑case scenarios, like Aunt May winning the lottery and housing him and his alien friends, because denial was easier than thinking about who might be dying back home. Back in New York, he visits May as she packs up to move in with Ric, trading banter about aging and relationships while quietly blaming himself for the shoulder injury she suffered during the Goblin Slayers attack. May finally drops the cheerful mask and spells out how much his months‑long silence hurt her, explaining that she could only forgive him by assuming he had gone through something terrible, and begging for one answer: whether it is truly over.​

Peter cannot bring himself to tell her the truth that it is not over, so he fumbles a clumsy exit instead, deciding he has to protect her without confession, then immediately swings out to find Venom because Eddie’s old voicemail about Carnage knowing his identity will not leave his head. The narrative cuts to Lady Octopus hijacking stock‑market terminals while Spider‑Man quips from the sidelines, treating her as a potential lead on larger criminal moves, only for Venom to barrel into the scene as a supposed ally. Their uneasy team‑up barely starts before Shocker shows up with upgraded sonic gear that wrecks the symbiote and rattles Peter, and Kelly uses Peter’s thought balloons to underline how much worse the sonics must feel to his partner.​

Venom and Spider-Man scramble for a plan as Shocker brags that Tombstone is a surprisingly reasonable boss, only for Lady Octopus to yank him out and retreat when things go sideways, content to live and fight another day. When the villains bolt, Peter tries to pin Eddie down for answers, but Venom says they need to talk, then literally peels back the symbiote to reveal Mary Jane underneath, triggering Peter into a full hyperventilating panic as he questions if he is drugged, dead, or trapped in some alternate reality. MJ and the symbiote remind him that “he” told them they deserved each other and slammed a door in their face, forcing Peter to confront that Ben Reilly is the one who did that while wearing his life, not him, which does nothing to blunt MJ’s anger in the moment.​

From there, the narrative jumps to a flashback at the Bronx Zoo, where Eddie and the Venom symbiote investigate a zookeeper devoured by a python marked with Torment’s spiral, bickering over his no‑killing streak and hinting that the symbiote has been moving behind his back, including swiping his phone. The comic then cuts to Herman Schultz reflecting on Tombstone being the best boss he has ever had before a shadowy figure recites his family tree, traces it to the Watsons, and murders him while telling him he is “very loud,” firmly tying Torment’s killings to Mary Jane’s extended family. Back in the present, MJ explains Peter’s space death and clone replacement in clipped dialogue while the symbiote snarks about her breakup with Paul Rabin, and she lays out that she chose to bond with Venom on her own terms and did not tell Peter because she knew he would make it about him. The issue closes with MJ and the symbiote reassuring Peter that he is not alone anymore as he finally confesses Eddie’s message that “Carnage knows I’m Spider-Man” and is coming for him and everyone he cares about, capped by the “Carnage Rules” banner and a directive to continue into Venom #255.​​

Writing

Kelly’s pacing is cleaner here than in the previous chapter, front‑loading the Aunt May confrontation so the emotional stakes are on the table before the crossover machinery starts whirring in the background. The May scene unfolds patiently, with Peter’s guilt‑ridden captions counterpointing her calm but cutting speech, and that measured rhythm gives the issue a solid spine the later action beats can hang from. Once the book shifts to Lady Octopus and Shocker, though, the tempo becomes choppier, jumping from heist to brawl to unmasking to flashback with minimal transition, which makes the second half feel more like a checklist of required story beats than an organically escalating thriller.​

Dialogue is mostly sharp and character‑true, especially in the May sequence, where her words land like a quiet intervention instead of a melodramatic blowup, and in MJ’s refusal to let Peter center himself in her Venom decision. Spider‑Man’s jokes during the Lady Octopus scene hit that familiar mix of nervous deflection and pointed commentary, even as he is clearly distracted by Carnage anxiety, which sells his mental overload without heavy narration. That said, the Eddie flashback leans on slightly over‑explained banter that undercuts the horror, and Torment’s scene feels written like a teaser trailer, all ominous genealogy and whispered threats without enough specificity to make the villain scary yet. Structurally, the issue tries to balance a personal reckoning, a partnership reset, and the launch of a nine‑part event, and you can feel the strain in how quickly Kelly has to pivot away from Peter and MJ’s fresh wound so the script can advertise Venom #255.​​

Art

Ed McGuinness gives the issue an immediately readable, big‑screen clarity that pairs well with a crossover, using bold shapes and clean silhouettes so you never lose track of who is doing what even when sonic blasts and tendrils fill the panel. The Aunt May apartment pages are laid out with grounded, conversational staging and expressive faces, letting small gestures like Peter’s awkward coughs or May’s softened eyes carry emotional weight without needing overacting. When the fight kicks in, McGuinness pushes into wide shots of Spider‑Man and Venom in mid‑swing that feel like promo stills in the best way, with panel compositions that guide your eye from impact to reaction smoothly.​​

Inkers Mark Farmer and Cliff Rathburn keep the line weights crisp so characters pop against busy city backdrops, and Marcio Menyz’s colors do a lot of heavy lifting in differentiating moods, from the warm, lived‑in glow of May’s place to the harsher, saturated hues of the street‑level brawl. Sonic effects around Shocker are rendered with vibrating gradients that visually sell the low‑frequency gut punch Peter describes, and the gold accents on MJ’s Venom design stand out without clashing, reinforcing her as a distinct iteration of the symbiote. The only real drawback is that some background figures, particularly in the zoo and Tombstone office scenes, flatten out into generic shapes, which slightly blunts the menace of Torment’s arrival when you want that sequence to feel chilling rather than just stylized. Overall, the visual storytelling is clear, kinetic, and mostly in sync with the script’s tonal shifts, which helps smooth over some of the structural bumps.​

Character Development

Peter’s characterization is the clear highlight, caught between survivor’s guilt from space, shame over Ben’s impersonation, and raw fear that Carnage has turned his entire support network into a to‑do list. His inability to answer May’s simple “is it over” question without lying tracks perfectly with decades of Spider‑logic, and Kelly uses that moment to underscore how the hero complex can be as much about control as altruism. The internal narration about wanting to spill everything versus choosing a “clumsy exit” lands as painfully human, not heroic, and that vulnerability makes his later panic attack when MJ unmasks feel earned instead of slapstick.​​

Mary Jane gets a much‑needed re‑centering here, speaking with a voice that is frustrated, independent, and very aware of Peter’s patterns, which helps sell her decision to bond with the symbiote as agency rather than victimization. Her read that Peter would find a way to make her transformation about him is harsh but consistent with their history, and the script wisely lets that accusation sit without immediate absolution. The Venom symbiote itself functions as a sarcastic Greek chorus, pushing MJ toward bolder choices while also offering unexpected emotional support, which gives their merged persona a personality that feels distinct from the Eddie era. Torment is still more concept than character at this stage, but the methodical targeting of Herman Schultz through family connections sets up a motivation rooted in lineage, which could pay off if the series actually follows through instead of leaving him as another event prop.​​

Originality & Concept Execution

The core hook here, Peter forced into an alliance with Mary Jane as Venom while a new serial killer uses symbiote lore and family trees as weapons, is genuinely fresh for a mainstream Spider‑event. Making Carnage the one who knocks over the first domino by learning Peter’s identity and then seeding Torment into the ecosystem gives the crossover a tighter conceptual spine than the usual “everyone punches a new big bad” structure. Where the issue stumbles is in execution pacing, since it feels like the book is trying to both be the big shocking reveal chapter and a handoff chapter to Venom #255, which dilutes the sense of a complete dramatic movement.​

Still, the emotional angle of tying the horror to Peter’s greatest strength and weakness, his attachments, lands harder than a generic city‑wide threat because the story literalizes the fear that anyone who ever hosted him for dinner now has a target on their back. MJ’s repositioning as a willing, even proud, Venom who saved herself without Peter’s input is a smart twist on familiar symbiote dynamics, and it opens the door for more grounded conflict than yet another “possessed and rescued” arc. If future chapters slow down long enough to mine those character tensions instead of sprinting from kill to kill, Death Spiral could end up more memorable than its “nine‑part crossover” branding suggests.​

Pros and Cons

What We Loved

  • Aunt May’s confrontation scene delivers quietly devastating emotional clarity.​
  • McGuinness’s bold layouts make the Spider-Man and Venom action instantly readable.​​
  • MJ reclaiming Venom as a chosen identity adds real conceptual bite.​​

Room for Improvement

  • Event handoff structure undercuts a satisfying self‑contained climax.​​
  • Torment remains a vague teaser rather than a fully realized menace.​​
  • Eddie’s Bronx Zoo flashback leans on overlong banter that blunts the horror.

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

The Scorecard: (Measurable Value Assessment)

Writing Quality (Clarity & Pacing): 2/4
Art Quality (Execution & Synergy): 3/4
Value (Originality & Entertainment): 1/2

Final Verdict

Amazing Spider-Man #23 finally delivers the promised MJ‑as‑Venom reveal and pairs it with a raw, uncomfortable reckoning between Peter and Aunt May, which gives this chapter more emotional traction than the wobbly #22 lead‑in. The art hits the sweet spot between bombastic and legible, and the core premise of a family‑targeting serial killer forcing Peter and MJ into a fraught alliance is strong enough that you can see the great story this could become if the pacing ever stops sprinting. The catch is that this issue is structurally dependent on Venom #255 for payoff and front‑loads a lot of crossover logistics, so if your pull list is tight and you are not ready to follow Death Spiral across titles, this is more an intriguing sampler than a complete meal.

6/10

We hope you found this article interesting. Come back for more reviews, previews, and opinions on comics, and don’t forget to follow us on social media: 

Connect With Us Here: Weird Science DC Comics / Weird Science Marvel Comics

If you’re interested in this creator’s works, remember to let your Local Comic Shop know to find more of their work for you. They would appreciate the call, and so would we.

Click here to find your Local Comic Shop: www.ComicShopLocator.com

As an Amazon Associate, we earn revenue from qualifying purchases to help fund this site. Links to Blu-Rays, DVDs, Books, Movies, and more contained in this article are affiliate links. Please consider purchasing if you find something interesting, and thank you for your support.

Leave a comment