The Amazing Spider-Man #10
The Story So Far:
The Amazing Spider-Man #10 is part three of the Heist arc. Previously, The Thieves Guild had emerged from relative obscurity and announced their presence with a PR stunt to end all PR stunts. They’ve stolen the unstealable – Captain America’s Shield, Thor’s Hammer, Iron Man’s Armor, the Fantastic Four’s car, Dr. Strange’s Amulet… you get the idea. Spidey heads to help out only to discover in mid-air that his web-shooters have been stolen.
Fortunately, The Black Cat happened by due to some unfinished business and rescued him. Then she clobbered him. After some intense back and forth, the two team up to “Pull off the Heist of the Heist of the Century”. Thanks to her being in with the Thieves Guild (apparently Black Cat/Felicia’s a member in good standing), Felicia is able to locate where all the super stuff is hiding but time is running out and the Thieves Guild has them trapped.
Mary Jane, (MJ) meanwhile, has taken Carlie’s advice and goes to a meeting of The Lookups, a support group for Friends, Family, and Lovers of Superheroes. It turns out Jarvis (yes, THAT Jarvis) is the one who started The Lookups so MJ stays for the meeting.
Warning: If you have not read ‘The Amazing Spider-Man #10’ There May Be Spoilers Below
Written by Nick Spencer
Art & Cover by Humberto Ramos
Series Rating: 5/5 Pull List Material
Break Out the Tissue
There’s a lot of feels in this comic. If you’re a long time Spidey fan, just go ahead and break out the tissues. The Amazing Spider-Man #10 comes with ninja onions and some super cute moments. While our adorable web-head is teamed up with Felicia, his ex, and facing down Odessa Drake and the Thieves Guild. MJ finally opens up to The Lookups and talks about her feelings for Peter. She explains all that she loves about him and the stress of being with him. She explores how the biggest reason she is sad about the loss of her job at Stark industries is the feeling that she’s no longer tangentially in his world. She’s a normal, simple human – not that anyone would call MJ simple.
We watch Felicia and Spidey move through the waves of Thieves Guild Members like a perfectly choreographed team, as MJ expresses her insecurities about not being able to be right there with him, fighting at his side. She considers whether Peter might be happier with someone more on his level in terms of superpowers. Watching Felicia and Spidey eat through their adversaries it’s hard not to think that maybe MJ’s right.
For those who have always felt torn between Spidey/Felicia and Spidey/MJ, this is pure torture.
It’s Simple Really
Thankfully, Spencer balances all these feels with some great humor. My favorite moment of The Amazing Spider-Man #10 is watching Ms. Marvel & Spidey collaboratively own all the “geniuses” at the meeting. Spidey is not even there. He’s busy with Odessa, who has decided she is done fighting with him and Felicia. Oddessa pulls a nasty trick that causes a domino effect. With everything in the room levitating, Spidey notices something in the midst of all the super stuff. He snags it and hits a button. This allows Ms. Marvel to beautifully embarrass both Reed Richards and Tony Stark by locating everyone’s stuff via normal human means – an app.
The brightest minds in the galaxy whipped out the advanced tracking drones to scan the city for unique energy signatures, while Dr. Strange scans the mystic planes, and Jean Grey telepathically monitors criminal hotspots.
Then they all got owned by a tech-savvy teen.
Relationship Changes
After The Lookups meeting, Jarvis talks with MJ privately. He shares something with her that completely changes her perspective on who she is and her relationship with Peter. It’s a touching moment that restores a lot of MJ’s confidence in herself. She is reminded of what it is that she brings to the relationship. I’m interested to see how this affects things long term.
After being found in a bit of an embarrassing state by a crowd of heroes, intent on recovering their purloined goods, Felicia and Peter hang out on the rooftop. The small talk turns to a pretty discussion of their feelings for each other. There’s a lot to unpack here and Felicia does a great job of laying it all out. She’s hurting in a way Peter never expected. Yet again Peter is learning that his actions have unintended consequences. Peter makes an irrevocable decision. When he gets home and confesses it to MJ that night, expect to get a tad misty-eyed.
Yeah, I’m not giving you details – The Amazing Spider-Man #10 is so rich in character development and real human emotion that it’s worth a re-read of the full arc. Unexpectedly, Mr/Ms. Ugly from several issues back has a little monologue. They are apparently stalking Peter. For some reason, the sight of Felicia and Spidey sets this cranky creature into a rage. Whoever this centipede-wearing nut bag is, they are obsessed with Spider-Man.
Art & Writing
Spencer’s writing is powerful and he yanks your heart all over the place. Just as you feel like it’s getting too heavy – Boom– he hands you a dose of that snarky humor Spidey rocks. The writing is made more powerful by the art. In a comic with this much emotion, the art can make or break a moment. Ramos’ art is as powerful in this issue as Spencer’s writing. The monologue by MJ where Spidey and Felicia were fight felt like something out of a movie thanks to perfectly rendered action scenes. The art and the writing make this series a long-running favorite on my pull list.
Best Line: “That’s not exactly fair. It’s wall-crawling – not as pathetic looking.”
Odessa tells Felicia to give up Spidey. Felicia refuses saying she’s tried but he keeps crawling back. There’s a lot of fun snarky back and forth between Felicia, Odessa, Spidey.
Predictions: None for now because Ugly hasn’t made a move in several issues so we are still not clear on their motives. If you know who Ugly is, where they are from, or why they’ve got such a Spidey fixation then please let me know in the comments section below.
Next Issue: The Amazing Spider-Man #11 will be available Dec. 12, 2018
Love the chemistry between Spidey and Black Cat.