Amazing Spider-Man #22: Crashing Back

After seventeen issues abroad, Peter Parker has finally returned to the streets of New York in the admittedly disappointing pages of The Amazing Spider-Man #22. From inconsistent penciling, the rubber-banding of character growth, and a crossover event taking precedent over the marketing for the title, it seems as though the team on this title has once again fallen into the same bad habits that have been hindering this book for years now. There are still some real positives in the writing, but this felt like the quiet epilogue to an adventure that still hasn’t had its conclusion, deflating all of the excitement that Joe Kelly’s galactic Spider-Man saga managed to inspire.

Thankfully, this was the issue to finally explain exactly how and why Ben stepped into Peter’s shoes without really having any clue as to where he was during this time. While “clone sense” is somewhat of a cop-out, there is some nice reconciliation between the two that is undercut by how Ben has continued to be characterized since his transformation into Chasm, save for the bright spot that was Chasm: Curse of Kaine. The confrontation between the two is also rushed and a bit nonsensical. We don’t spend any time with Peter actually trying to find out what happened in his absence, or following up on his meeting with Norman teased at the end of the last issue.

His ballistic attack on Ben for Aunt May supposedly being missing is played with such dramatic stupidity that it ripped me right out of the promise this story had made with Kelly’s brilliant writing of May and all the changes Peter underwent whilst in space. Really, this whole finale is completely absent of anything interesting with regards to the consequences of Peter’s disappearance. So much is ignored or handwaved away, with any developing notes of tension in this issue immediately being dumped on others as Peter rushes around like a headless chicken after immediately being regressed to his college days with the amount of conclusions he jumps to. For this book to be derailed only five issues in for a massive arc like this, having no true resolutions in its supposed ending really burned me.

There are some strong moments too. Peter saying goodbye to Rocket and the gang was pretty fun, loosening my guard for an explosive return home that never came. The moments with Glitch and Raelith on Earth were charming, especially when they were left with the fabulous Fantastic Four. We also got some more insight into Maira, but that’s kind of where my positives end. If this issue was being followed up on with a greater exploration of the threads laid out by recent events, this soft return may have worked better. However, this is immediately dovetailing into a crossover that hasn’t had the proper kind of setup in the pages of this title or Venom to drive the kind of distracting hype to paint over everything missing in this issue. It’s made all the worse when Ben really didn’t do anything to mess up Peter’s life. A confrontation with Norman, whose sheer presence brought danger to May and Peter’s new workplace, would’ve been way more thematically satisfying and sensible for all the rage Peter is blinded by here.

The art, while not bad, is an inconsistent stitching of pencillers that are great on their own, but had no real presence tying up this story visually. Peter switches costume designs at random with no real continuity with the previous issue. The pages are a crowded mess of text boxes and overly detailed backgrounds that devolve into noise over time. The intricacies of these pages have no impact, even when the art does a good job laying them all out.