Amazing Spider-Man had an odd start to the new storyline that crossover with the 2099 brand that Marvel is relaunching. Spider-Man 2099’s integration to this series was not well handled. It came across rushed rather than intriguing. That said, Nick Spencer created enough interest in the plotline around Spider-Man and Teresa Parker hunt for Chameleon to at least give us some positives for the first part of this new arc. The key will be in making this new storyline be to integrate Spider-Man 2099 approrpriately in the story. If not then this crossover between two different Spider-Men will fall apart. Let’s find out how things turn out with Amazing Spider-Man #33.
Writer: Nick Spencer
Artist: Patrick Gleason
Colorist: Matthew Wilson
Story Rating: 6 Night Girls out of 10
Art Rating: 8 Night Girls out of 10
Overall Rating: 7 Night Girls out of 10
Synopsis: Spider-Man 2099 wakes up on the streets with a large crowd surrounding him to take pictures. Spider-Man 2099’s vision becomes distorted and he is unable to contact Lyla.
Roxxon’s Beserker squad appears and attacks Spider-Man 2099. Spider-Man 2099 is able to quickly defeat the Beserkers. He then runs to find Peter Parker.
Elsewhere Spider-Man tries to talk Silver Sable out of shooting him point blank with a sniper gun. Teresa Parker shows up and holds Silver Sable up at gunpoint from behind. The Foreigner tells Silver Sable (who he calls “Darling”) he can handle Teresa. Teresa proves that wrong by shooting Silver Sable, revealing that she was actually a LMD robot.
Foreigner tells Teresa she has no idea the damage she caused.
Suddenly a van pulls up with a heavily injured Silver Sable being treated by doctors in the back. Silver Sable tells Spider-Man the truth about what really happened in Otto Octavius ship. She reveals that while she was able to escape Rhino’s grasp with her cloaking tech she was unable to escape in time before getting caught in the explosion. While dying in the water due to her injuries the Foreigner found her and was able to save her life.
From there Foreigner was able to get an LMD robot that Silver Sable was able to control with her mind. She used the LMD robot of herself could save her homeland of Symkaria from Norman Osborn and Countess Karkov. Silver Sable mentions that even after Norman was defeated (Amazing Spider-Man vol 4 #28) Symkaria is still dependent on arms manufacturing for money.
Spider-Man wonders why Silver Sable isn’t in charge like he thought she was when he left Symkaria. Silver Sable says that due to Latvaria not taking kindly to Symkaria’s military power. Because of that Doctor Doom and Victorious have taken violent action against Symkaria.
Silver Sable and Foreigner then reveal that her injuries are fatal and that they want to use the Infinity Formula so she can regain her prime form.
Teresa reminds them both of the risk of Silver Sable not surviving the injection of the Infinity Formula. Teresa goes on to berate them for making a deal with Chameleon, who stole it by killing her friend/love interest. Silver Sable states she is willing to take Chameleon’s help if it means she can save her country.
Pissed off by all this and seeing that Chameleon escapes Teresa walks away, leaving Spider-Man and the others behind.
In Symkaria, Chameleon pisses Countess Karkov by dressing up as Norman Osborn. After taking off the disguise, Chameleon reveals the fatal state that Silver Sable is in. Countess Karkov is not happy that Chameleon gave Silver Sable the means to recover. Chameleon says that while he couldn’t pass up the business deal, using the Infinity Formula will mean that Silver Sable is fully out of commission for several weeks while it goes into effect. Countess Karkov realizes that this is her chance to regain her full power.
Countess Karkov says she is sending her “courier” for him. Chameleon already knows as Hitman is standing right new to him. Chameleon then changes into a bureaucratic disguise.
Back in New York City, Spider-Man swings over to Empire State University as he is late to class. When he gets to class he finds Jamie already giving their presentation for their project. Jamie reveals that Peter being late to class was all part of their presentation. He goes on to reveal that he used the Webware he reconfigured to scan Peter’s face and then write details about what would happen that day and put it in an envelope he gave to Dr. Connors, Kel and Derrick.
Dr. Connors, Kel and Derrick each open their envelopes that show he perfectly predicted when Peter would show up to class, what he would be wearing and the excuse he would give for being late. To further prove that his tech predicted what would happen during the presentation Jamie has Dr. Connors turn his note around to show he predicted what Dr. Connors’ would say.
Jamie reveals that he turned the Webware into a completely new device he is calling Clairvoyant that can predict the future. Jamie says he based it on Reed Richards work on the Multiverse. While limited due too needing a better power source Jamie believes his new tech is game changing in making the future less scary.
Over at the United Nations in New York City, a large crowd of people gather to protest Doctor Doom and Latveria, who are conducting an emergency session with other nations.
Inside Chameleon as a politician argues that they must take action against Latvaria, going over all their transgressions. The Latvaria representative takes offense to this. They end up going back-and-forth in front of the other nations representatives.
Outside a limo pulls up to the United Nations building. Nearby, Hitman is standing on a rooftop getting ready to take his shot out of the person that is coming out of the limo.
As the limo parks Doctor Doom steps out for the meeting with the United Nations. End of issue.
The Good: Amazing Spider-Man #33 is unable to avoid the things that hindered the previous issue when it came to the plotline around Spider-Man 2099. The disconnect between that and everything else occurring in Amazing Spider-Man #33 is visible. That said, there is enough development with the main story of this issue that Nick Spencer and Patrick Gleason nail to keep things moving forward.
Where Spencer has always been most successful with his run on Amazing Spider-Man is with juggling the multiple facets of Peter Parker’s life. Peter Parker is always most interesting when we see how he is trying to juggle multiple different parts of his life. It is what has made him the most relatable character in comics that readers all over the world connect with.
That element of Peter is what Spencer hits best on throughout Amazing Spider-Man #33. Everything from his relationships with Teresa Parker and Silver Sable to his school life is piling up on him. And unfortunately for Peter he is stuck handling all these things at the same time alone. This leads to great challenges to Peter as a person who is just trying to do what he believes is right.
We see that best in the revelation of why Foreigner purchased the Infinity Formula from Chameleon. As soon as Spencer and Gleason unveil the heavily injured Silver Sable the emotional connection to what is going on in this entire scene picks up. Silver Sable is a character we know Spider-Man has a deep connection with. Even when they’ve been on opposite sides Spider-Man and Silver Sable have always fallen back to being friends. Understanding that, Spencer and Gleason immediately show how Spider-Man’s tune turns from helping his sister to concern over a friend’s current condition.
This also made Teresa Parker’s arc stronger in the process. Unlike her brother, Teresa has no connection to Silver Sable. All she knows is that Foreigner made a deal with the devil, as she puts it, by purchasing the stolen Infinity Formula from Chameleon, who killed her love interest. Having her be the opposing view to the concern Spider-Man and Foreigner show for Silver Sable makes her long-term arc in this series much stronger. Walking away from everything was a believable action from Teresa that makes you wonder what she is going to do next and if she’ll come back to Peter for help.
Through all this Spencer is able to make you buy into the Foreigner and Silver Sable’s relationship. That is very impressive since Spencer does all that within the pages he dedicate to their history in Amazing Spider-Man #33. The care Foreigner and Silver Sable came across as believable.
Which made for greater intrigue as to what Foreigner and Silver Sable’s endgame will be since the Infinity Formula takes out the latter out of the equation for a few weeks. It’s clear that Silver Sable at least understood that risk. Having that time away makes you wonder if the risk was worth it as she will be even more behind the eight ball as Countess Karkov will not let this opportunity go to waste.
Speaking of, Spencer provided Countess Karkov the best character development she has received since being introduced. The character comes across as a complete opportunist who will take every advantage she can to claim the powers she feels is rightfully hers. The anger she showed when Chameleon used a Norman Osborn disguise gave Countess Karkov an immediate edge to begin the scene.
Chameleon’s role in all of this drama works well with his conniving-type of character. Even though the character is showing how willing he is to work with both Silver Sable and Countess Karkov he seems to have his own motives. Especially with how Spencer has emphasized Chameleon’s character post-Hunted it would not be surprising if this is all part of a bigger plot he has going. How that involves his new hatred for Spider-Man will be very interesting to see play out in future issues.
The things going at Empire State University for Peter continue be a nice sub-plot for his character. We see once again how Peter is getting humbled. This time it is through a classmate, Jamie, turning his Webware tech into something that impresses Doctor Connors’ in a way he hasn’t yet.
The presentation of Jamie as an antagonist for Peter’s life as an ESU student also works well. Peter needs someone other than Doctor Connors to light a fire under his ass. Jamie can do that as Peter must take getting the degree that was taken from him much more seriously. He can’t just have one foot in the door like he has shown thus far. Hopefully we see more time invested in this part of Peter’s life because it is an element that compliments the Spider-Man adventures well.
Patrick Gleason once again delivers strong, consistent artwork throughout Amazing Spider-Man #33. Gleason gives a great energy to each scene. Even with this issue being light on action Gleason structures every panel to have a sense of momentum. Each character reaction we see is drawn to compliment Spencer’s dialogue as best as possible. There is also a lot packed in to make scenes like Jamie presenting his Clairvoyant tech to be as impressive as the character makes the technology sound.
The Bad: Once again where Amazing Spider-Man #33 falls flat is the story involving Spider-Man 2099. The disconnect between Spider-Man 2099’s appearance in the present and what Peter Parker is doing could not be clearer. Spencer does nothing to connect the stories together. That creates a lack of cohesion for the story.
It doesn’t help that Spider-Man 2099 appears only in the opening few pages and then is a non-factor for the rest of the issue. Something like including Miguel O’hara in the background of at least one scene would’ve helped create a connection between what he and Peter are doing. Without that connection the story Spencer is telling with Spider-Man 2099 comes across as a back-up story that gets in the way of Amazing Spider-Man #33 from starting strong out the gate.
As enjoyable as the political drama that is going on in Symkaria between Silver Sable and Countess Karkov is Spencer losses grasp of the story with Doctor Doom’s involvement. Spencer places too much reliance on the developments from other comics like Fantastic Four to make it easy to lose interest in what is going on with Symkaria. That definitely happened here as all the continuity integration with what Doctor Doom has done in other comics made things a lot more convoluted than they should have been.
Overall: While Amazing Spider-Man #33 struggles to build interest for Spider-Man 2099’s story Nick Spencer succeeds with building a good story around Peter Parker. Spencer layers Peter’s character with multiple storylines that are going on in and out of his life as Spider-Man. The way Silver Sable, Teresa Parker and others play into the multiple stories Spencer is running all create greater intrigue in everything Peter has to deal with. Having Patrick Gleason along for the ride to handle the art duties helps in elevating the story with a consistent flow from panel to panel.
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