Finally after building up a big event-style story around the Kindred villain Nick Spencer is ready to tell the story he has been building towards since he started his run with Amazing Spider-Man #1. “The Last Remains” will show if all the build up for who Kindred is and what the villain wants was all worth it. There are high expectations going into this event that were made even higher by how things turned out in the recent “Sins Rising” arc. Can Spencer live up to expectations with “The Last Remains”? Let’s find out with Amazing Spider-Man #50.
Writer: Nick Spencer
Artist: Patrick Gleason
Colorist: Edgar Delgado
Story Rating: 7 Night Girls out of 10
Art Rating: 8 Night Girls out of 10
Overall Rating: 7.5 Night Girls out of 10
Synopsis: At a graveyard Kindred digs up George Stacy’s grave while proclaiming that soon it will be time for Peter Parker to meet with him as he is ready to understand what is to come.
Across New York City, Spider-Man tries to swing through the city but quickly loses control and crashes in a dumpster. Spider-Man knows he is off his game and blames himself for what is coming.
Flashing back to earlier, under Ravencroft, Norman Osborn rises from some water smirking that Peter finally grew a pair to throw him out of the vessel (Amazing Spider-Man #49). Sin-Eater appears back in his normal form and says that it is time for him to put an end to Norman’s sins. Norman knows that Sin-Eater’s boss is Kindred and tries to get Sin-Eater to change sides and be his partner, while calling Kindred a weakling.
When Sin-Eater does not respond Norman breaks down and begs Sin-Eater to exorcise his demons. Norman is unable to keep up the act and starts daring Sin-Eater to shoot him while holding up his Green Goblin mask. Sin-Eater does not hesitate and shoots Norman with his cleansing shotgun.
In the present, a heavily injured Spider-Man walks to Doctor Strange’s place to get help in fighting Kindred. Before he can ask for help Spider-Man passes out when Doctor Strange opens his door.
Flashing back to Ravencroft, Kindred appears before Sin-Eater. Sin-Eater says he finished his mission. Kindred knows and rewards him by reminding Sin-Eater that he still has not repented his sins. Kindred has Sin-Eater pay the price by having demonic energy beings in the shape of Green Goblin, Juggernaut, and others consume Sin-Eater.
Continuing the flashback we see Spider-Men (Miles Morales and Peter), Ghost-Spider, Silk, Spider-Woman, Spider-Girl, and Madame Web talking about what just happened. Suddenly their vessel is attacked by Kindred’s energy demons. Madame Web says that there is nothing they can do to stop what is coming. The energy demons then attack everyone in the vessel.
In the present, Peter wakes up in Doctor Strange’s place and admits he screwed up. Peter goes on to reveal his whole deal with Mephisto and what happened with Kindred. Doctor Strange gets pissed by what he hears and asks where Spider-Man’s friends are.
Peter then remembers waking up injured on the vessel alone. As he looks around Spider-Man is terrified when he sees what the others turned into when they suddenly appear.
In the present, we see a demonic version of Silk bust into the Sanctum Sanctorum to attack Spider-Man and Doctor Strange.
Elsewhere Kindred prepares a dinner tables as he says he wants to make the setting where Peter will meet him have the right atmosphere with the people Peter loves. We then see that Kindred has placed the corpses of George and Gwen Stacy at the dinner table.
Under Ravencroft, workers are able to dig Norman out. Norman shows great concern for what happened and if everyone in Ravencroft is okay. Norman then says he does not deserve help. Doctor Kafka appears and agrees with that sentiment.
Norman reveals that Sin-Eater cleansed him and wonders where Sin-Eater is. Doctor Kafka says Sin-Eater is gone but they have arrested his followers. Norman freaks out saying Sin-Eater was just the beginning and he wants to help finding what is coming
Doctor Kafka wonders what Norman is trying to help whoever is coming. Norman says it is because the person coming is his son.
We then see an image of Kindred looking at his reflection that turns out to be Harry Osborn. End of issue.
The Good: Well Nick Spencer set out to make a statement with how he started “The Last Remains.” He certainly accomplished that with the reveal at the end of Amazing Spider-Man #50. While the ending was very telegraphed if you’ve been reading Spencer’s run it worked none the less.
From the moment Kindred appeared Spencer made it clear that this villain had connections to past Spider-Man continuity that existed pre-One More Day. There has been references thrown in that Kindred is aware of the deal Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson made with Mephisto in One More Day. We’ve also seen in more recent appearances, such as in Amazing Spider-Man #31, that Kindred is also directly connected to Norman Osborn.
The final page of Amazing Spider-Man #50 confirms all those suspicions as we see that Kindred’s reflection is that of Harry Osborn. The question is now if this version of Harry Osborn is the same as the one we’ve seen with Peter in the post-One More Day continuity. Given the way that Kindred has talked throughout all of his appearances and the fact he claims to have dug himself out of Hell this could very well be the Harry Osborn that died in the pre-One More Day continuity. That would further connect “The Last Remains” story to the events involving Mephisto since Spencer brings that up when Peter talks with Doctor Strange.
Making the entire reveal even more impactful was how truly creepy Spencer makes Kindred. Every time we get his inner monologue you get a sense of unease with everything he says. That is only furthered by how Kindred sets up a dinner table with the corpses of Geroge and Gwen Stacy. That entire visual took Kindred from creepy to utterly terrifying as we don’t know what his endgame is. Which is all good set-up for getting the reader invested in what is to come.
Separating Spider-Man from the rest of his allies further shows that this battle with Kindred is going to be a personal one. What made this move interesting is that Kindred separated Spider-Man from the rest of his Spider-Man Family by turning them into his demonic puppets. This was definitely unexpected but plays in well to how Kindred is a supernatural threat that Spider-Man can’t deal with normal means.
Which made the fact that Spider-Man went to Doctor Strange a move that shows that Peter is thinking. Doctor Strange is really the only other hero that can provide help in this supernatural situation with Kindred. Spencer does a good job in establishing the dynamic between Spider-Man and Doctor Strange as they are both dealing with a threat that they are still learning about.
Spencer also did a good job in setting up Norman Osborn as a major wild card for “The Last Remain.” Having Sin-Eater cleanse Norman puts him in a spot where you do wonder if this is a fresh start for him. It also sets up for us to look at how permanent Sin-Eater’s cleansing powers are. Because we did see Sin-Eater back in his normal form after turning into the Juggernaut into the previous issue. That may mean that the whole cleansing thing is part of Kindred’s plan to get at Spider-Man more.
Patrick Gleason stepped in to provide the fantastic artwork he is well known for to Amazing Spider-Man #50. With this being about drawing out so much emotion from character’s reactions, including Peter while he is Spider-Man, Gleason got that over through his artwork. He did an especially great job getting over how terrifying of villain Kindred is with every act he does. Kindred with George and Gwen Stacy’s corpse was an truly chilling visual.
The Bad: The one spot that did not work as well was how Kindred eliminated Sin-Eater. The whole way Sin-Eater was taken out felt like a disservice to the character. It was also odd that Spencer did not explain why Sin-Eater was back to his normal non-Juggernaut form. Spencer could’ve had Kindred drop a reference to this with his long monologue but it did not happen. Overall it was just a miss when it comes to how Sin-Eater was used in Amazing Spider-Man #50.
Overall: Amazing Spider-Man #50 got “The Last Remains” off to a hot start. This entire issue was built around how effective the reveal in the final page was executed. To Nick Spencer’s credit he succeeded in the impact of Amazing Spider-Man #50’s ending. It sets up a lot intrigue for what will happen next as “The Last Remains” continues.
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