Amazing Spider-Man #56: Justify My Love

First thing’s first, I have to tell you that about five pages into this book you’re gonna be mad because you’re gonna think that you missed an issue, but trust me, you didn’t. I was seriously about thirty seconds from going to double-check if there were maybe two issues shipping this week when I found out that I hadn’t missed anything, it’s just the way author Nick Spencer frames this story. And what a story it is!!! Even though it’s a “post mortem” for the “Last Remains” story-arc, it’s really the final chapter where everything is laid out for you and you get to decide what exactly happened. Me saying any more would be dipping my toe into spoiler material, and I don’t do that. What I will tell you that the book is pretty awesome. It ties up all the threads in the story and starts almost as many new ones. It’s obvious that some of the new stories we’re going to see played out right away, while others might not be touched on for a while. One thing Spencer totally delivers on is the resolution of the main conflict between Spidey, the Green Goblin, and Kindred. It sets up a new status quo for a couple of them that’ll have you watching this book really closely in the future. Spencer gives us a very satisfying ending yet has us begging for more by the book’s end.

Mark Bagley is the artist for this issue. I could just stop with that sentence, but I won’t. Did you know that this year marks (no pun intended) Bagley’s 30th anniversary of his first Amazing Spider-Man issue? Where’s the birthday plans, Marvel? Bagley changes his style at least three different times during this issue to fit the stories as only he can. His art takes you immediately to a different time and place, and he gets some great assistance from inkers Andrew Hennesey and John Dell and the colorists Rachelle Rosenberg and Edgar Delgado. VC’s Joe Caramagna does a fantastic job letting this issue, but you be sure he’d rather be eating exotic donuts. This isn’t a team book, but on the creative side, it’s definitely a team book and this great team puts out a great book!