Marvel Comics FINALLY Announces The End Of Zeb Wells’ Terrible ‘Amazing Spider-Man’ Run
Spider-fans, the pain is finally, finally, almost over – Marvel Comics has officially announced that the next major Amazing Spider-Man story arc will be the last of writer Zeb Wells and artist John Romita Jr.’s absolutely painful run on the title.
Kicking off in the book’s upcoming 58th issue, this final arc will see the wall-crawler coming to a “final showdown with Tombstone” as the current Kingpin of Crime seeks to make good on his previous, post-Gang War promise to “beat him to death with my bare hands, loud and in broad daylight, where everyone can see.”
Sadly, though Marvel Comics has confirmed that Wells’ time as Amazing Spider-Man‘s lead writer will in fact be coming to an end following the conclusion of what they’re describing as “Spidey’s most brutal battle”, the publisher has not yet specified just how many issues it will take him to wrap things up.
As such, not only is it currently unknown which exact issue will see the book receive a desperately needed refresh of its creative team (or who its members will be, for that matter), but it’s also unlikely to happen any time soon.
In light of this announcement, it feels apt to take a moment to say – and I think I speak for readers everywhere here – Thank God, as Wells’ time on Amazing Spider-Man has been nothing short of absolutely terrible at best and blatantly insulting at worst – so much so that many readers consider it among one of the web-head’s worst runs of all time.
And while that seems like a particularly tall accusation, it becomes more reasonable once one reviews just what disasters have transpired in Peter Parker’s world since he took over the book:
- Mary-Jane and Peter broke up yet again, in the process undoing all of Nick Spencer’s previous-volume-long attempt to undo the infamous ‘One More Day’ story.
- Not only did they break-up, but they did so because Mary-Jane both lost faith that Peter would ever save her from a particularly desolate alternate dimension (after just a few months, mind you) and because she wanted to date a local resident named Paul – also known as the man responsible for the mass extinction of the dimension’s residents and its resulting ‘FUBAR’ status.
- Paul.
- Ben Reilly had his entire character destroyed, his identity as ‘who Spider-Man could be if he was able to healthily move past his guilt’ thrown out in favor of a new role as ‘another generic evil Spider-Man’.
- Norman Osborn was given a redemption arc, the entire premise of which was unbelievable from the start due to the Western comic book industry’s general refusal to allow their characters to deviate too far from the status quo.
- Introduced a demonic, ‘mid-2000s lol so random’ version of Peter known as Rekrap – and continued to push him on annoyed audiences.
- Paul.
- Admittedly a personal grievance, but Peter was also given one of his worst alternate suits ever, receiving an Oscorp-tech-infused, ‘random-bubble-sporting’ suit from Norman at the start of his time playing hero.
- Peter experienced his own, uninspired heel turn as ‘The Spider-Man Who Laughs’, in doing so essentially retreading the ‘What if Spider-Man let go of his morals and inhibitions?’ idea previously explored in both the Symbiote and Superior Spider-Man story lines.
- After the previous attempt at subverting audience expectations by turning him evil, Peter was AGAIN subjected to ‘The Spider-Man Who Laughs’ treatment, this time turning full-Goblin courtesy of an unsurprisingly-evil-again Norman.
- Paul.
And honestly, those are just the ones that quickly come to mind. A reread of the series would absolutely bring to light even more of Wells’ questionable creative decisions.
(Did you read Gang War? This author certainly couldn’t be bothered. Imagine what treasures could be waiting inside!)
The beginning of the end for Wells’ Amazing Spider-Man run is currently set – aptly enough – to hit newsstands this September 11th.
Now, who do we need to talk to regarding a switch-up of the Spider-Man editorial team?
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