ICYMI! The Amazing Spider-Man #31: The Talk

So continues the road to #1000, a soon-to-be seminal moment in the wall-crawler’s history that is poised to go down in potential infamy. With “world-shattering” reveals that have come completely out of left field and truly overblown cover controversy, getting to this point has not been easy. The Amazing Spider-Man #31 is the first issue in the run-up to the book’s biggest milestone to tackle Peter’s cousin in full, and it manages to do so with mixed results.

The biggest positive takeaways from this issue are the return of Patrick Gleason on art and Joe Kelly’s approach to folding such a soap opera development into the character’s canon with grace. Gleason has been a shining star on The Amazing Spider-Man for a while now, and his pencils in this issue excel in both the action sequences and the character drama at its core. He bends the titular hero in ways that feel uncanny yet exciting, with a brilliant sense of characterization in his facial work that always impresses. His work with Vulture is nearly distracting because of the detail given to every expression, but it is such a blast of fresh air, even from a veteran illustrator like himself. The color work from Marcio Menyz pops alongside Gleason’s pencils, leading to an overall reading experience that spoils the eye.

The backstory behind Crane and his conception is more thoughtful than I expected, given the tacky cliché his character spins out of. Kelly approaches May and Ben’s struggle to conceive a child with a depth that never revels in the misery of the experience. Instead, he highlights the strength of both characters as they continue persevering alongside one another in the face of tragedy, a struggle that only strengthens the parental bond between the two of them and Peter. It is emotionally vulnerable, rooted in the characters, and thematically meaningful. Giving May agency over the development without having Peter act out in jealousy, rage, or paranoia avoids undercutting it entirely. The character writing, and every page devoted to May coming to terms with this development, is some of the best writing for her that I have read in a long while.

Undercutting this, though, is an awkward back-and-forth set in the present as Peter takes on an underground supervillain fight ring. On its own, it is full of classic Spidey action and emotional muddiness, but it breaks the flow of May’s story in a way that betrays the reader. Did editorial or Kelly not trust readers to sit through an issue that delved into its characters without costumed violence? This is the kind of Spider-Man story we have been begging for, one that places an emphasis on emotional vulnerability and interpersonal responsibility.

This section of the issue could have worked better if it were not playing Peter’s emotional reaction to all of this news so close to the chest, as though it were building toward some sort of shocking reveal. There are nice touches with Tombstone, and with Peter diving into the ring to win Shocker’s gloves in the wake of his recent death, but none of it fits the rhythm of such a somber issue in the way it is penned.