Web of Spider-Man (Vol. 1) #65

 Posted: 2005
 Staff: Kerry Wilkinson (E-Mail)

Story 'The Last Act Of Vengeance'

As he's falling, Spider-Man latches onto a plane and lands at JFK. Back at the Chameleon's base, the villains have gone to collect their bounty. There is no- one there but they find a note apparently implicating Kingpin in swindling them out of their cash. They go of to get Kingpin while Chameleon watches from afar.

At Harry and Liz's, MJ is babysitting little Normie while he goes crawling off and MJ discovers a Green Goblin costume!

The Bugle's building is apparently a wreck because of Graviton and Fireheart is told it can no longer be occupied.

Spidey spots Goliath heading towards Kingpin's tower (hard to miss, I guess). The villains try to get their money from Fisk, who has no idea what they're going on about. Spidey shows up and once again battles away. He is victorious and he gets an on-looking kid to take his picture as he stands over Goliath.

The picture makes the front of Jameson's new news digest which, in the final panel, Chameleon is reading. He says that when the Maggia find out Kingpin needed Spidey to help him, his days as crimelord will be over.

General Comments

The best bits in this two-parter are the side stories. Firstly, Pete losing his job at Jonah's newly-launched publication. Katzenberg's treachery reads excellently and the division it puts between Pete and Robbie could be really interesting. It's also a nice touch for Jonah to stick up for Pete and almost swap roles with Robbie. It shows how the characters have developed and not turned into two-dimensional caricatures of themselves.

The other good part is the Green Goblin hints. Him flying in the background of a panel in issue 64 and then Mary-Jane finding the costume in 65 could potentially turn into something very good.

The downsides are, once again, the villains who have nothing to do with Spider- Man. It's good to see our hero win without the cosmic powers this time around but it's all so “been-there, done-that”. Thankfully, this really is the end of the Acts of Vengeance nonsense this time and we can get back to the proper business.

Overall Rating

Annoying story, good background … again.

 Posted: 2005
 Staff: Kerry Wilkinson (E-Mail)