Deron Generally
Deron Generally
The Amazing Spider-Man #796
Marvel Comics
Written by Dan Slott and Christos Gage
Art by Mike Hawthorne
Inks by Terry Pallot and Cam Smith
Agent Anti-Venom aka Flash Thompson has reacted to an alarm and stopped Boomerang in the midst of a robbery. He stays to help and treat and injured police officer as well before Spider-Man shows up just in time to see Flash get all the accolades and positive attention that Peter doesn’t get at all. It also doesn’t help that he gets a call from Jonah immediately afterwards chiding him for the same thing. Flash meets with Liz Allen later and she reveals that she knows his secret and is asking for a favor.
Alchemax is having a party to unveil a new power source and Peter will be there along with other reporters from the Bugle and all of them have their suspicions. As they make their way into the facility, Peter runs into an old friend. As Liz announces the project and they prepare for the demonstration, they are attacked by the Goblin King and his army. As Spidey and Flash go after the Goblins, the mercenaries Norman Osborn hired to steal the Carnage symbiont have their own problems to deal with.
As Flash and Spider-Man continue to battle the Goblin King and his army, Flash makes a decision that challenges he and Peter’s team up. Peter gets distracted during the fight, giving the Goblin King an opening he shouldn’t have. Jonah decides to take a more active role in Peter’s adventures as Spider-Man and the old friend of Peter’s finds out that helping the wall-crawler unlocks some natural instincts that might lead the two down a familiar and possibly world-changing path.
There are a lot of great moments in this issue that reinforce the things I love about Spider-Man and Peter Parker as characters. I enjoy how Peter continues to deal with the new circumstances that he finds himself in and his supporting characters help him see what’s really important. There are some great moments where there is a sliver of hope and happiness for Peter amidst all the chaos around him and that is tempered with the knowledge of what’s coming next from his greatest foe. Overcoming personal and professional issues for Spider-Man always make for interesting stories and the fact that Osborn always finds a way to attack both makes him a unique threat.
