Monday, January 23, 2017

Amazing Spider-Man #23 Review


Amazing Spider-Man #23

Writer: Dan Slott & Christos Gage

Art Team: Giuseppe Camuncoli, Cam Smith, Jason Keith
Marvel Comics
Release Date:  January 18, 2017
Price: $3.99

Break-up’s to Make-up’s?

What would you do if you were faced with the prospects of rekindling a long lost love, with the clone, of someone you never thought you’d ever see again?  Well me personally, I would look to comic books for advice, because this seems like the sort of thing these characters have experience in dealing with, and me, well I’m over here and I can’t make a right decision to save my life.  So join me and let’s find out what Spider-man, in this scenario, instructs me to do, you know just in case this situation ever arises, shall we … it is 2017 after all, who knows what’s around the corner.  


This book picks up right in the middle of the events of Clone Conspiracy #4, so if you are reading the main event, and if you’re picking this up, you surely are, then stop at the panel with Spider-Man and Gwen having a conversation and read this issue in that spot. Then go back and continue with Clone Conspiracy #4. 
Still with me? Ok. So basically this issue is Peter and Gwen, mostly all alone, having a talk that’s long overdue since her resurrection at the hands of Jackal-Ben.  It starts off with a few lighter moments between the former couple before Gwen makes it very clear that she has forgiven Peter for the events that lead to her death (back in the early Spider-Man heyday) as well as never revealing his secret life as Spider-Man to her. 

As the talk progresses things get very heavy.  Gwen confronts Peter about his feelings for her after all this time, whether or not he feels she is “the real Gwen Stacey” memories or not, all before out of nowhere Gwen lunges for and kisses our hero.  Surprisingly Peter doesn’t handle the kiss well at all and the moment makes Gwen realize, that Peter also wears “his mask” to protect himself from feeling, as well as others from feeling for him, as their talk concludes and they walk back outside to “Haven”.
That’s really about all we get here, our issue concludes, as it catches up with the third act of the tie-in story that this books has spawned out of, Clone Conspiracy #4.  So jump over to that review if you’re looking for additional thoughts on the events that follow. One thing I will say; the entire back and forth between the two characters feels genuine and emotional, especially if you’re a long time Amazing Spider-Man fan, so it’s difficult to conclude these paragraphs with suitable punchlines, damn you Dan Slott and Christos Gage!
Overall this issue as a whole was solid and took a snippet of time from Clone Conspiracy #4 adding some extra weight and emotion to the event as a whole.  Most tie-ins feel ancillary to the events they take place however these issues of Amazing Spider-Man in accompany to Clone Conspiracy have really felt needed and important, so kudos to the writing team of Slott and Gage.  The art done by Camuncoli is the best of these Amazing Spider-Man tie-in issues so far too, the artist did a great job of showing the emotion on each characters face as they conversation took its turns.

Bits and Pieces

Amazing Spider-Man continues to be the best of the tie-in issues that accompany the Spider event Clone Conspiracy. This issue spotlights a cloned Gwen Stacey and Peter Parker who take the reader through a worthy and enjoyable trip down memory lane. However to see this story all the way through, and make it truly worth a purchase, an investment in the event would be necessary.


7.8/10       

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