AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #59 - Fisk's Scheme Revealed?

 This story was written by Nick Spencer, with pencils by Marcelo Ferreira.

It is just so nice to see old Willy Fisk going back to his roots, once again becoming a thorn in the side of Spider-Man, taking a little break from harassing poor Daredevil for a little while. By that statement, I have kind of made it sound as though Fisk hasn’t appeared at all throughout this run, when in fact he has actually been featured quite a bit, mostly in background roles, doing what he does best, and manipulating events from behind the scenes, while still occasionally poking his nose in, palling it up with Spider-Man, all while still having a malicious little grin on his chubby little face. When it comes to my grading sheet, I have three different sections for the writing of a story, with the final one being an average between the prior two categories (Story, Character), which often tends to get rounded up or down depending on whether it fell on an odd number or not. For the most part, I have always rounded the score down, but I think that this book was the first time that the “Overall Writing” section has been rounded up.

While many people will likely be quick to jump on to the Nick Spencer Hate Train, due to an oddly low opinion of this run for some reason, I am certainly not one of these people, and am perfectly content to give him credit when it is due. These last two instalments, despite being chapters within a short filler arc, have been totally tremendous. After the emotional rollercoaster that was the “sins Rising” and “Last Remains” period, I wouldn’t have been surprised if Spencer had basically given up for this breather, but it seems that he is still as determined as ever to tell his story to the best quality that it can be. This isn’t quite like when Tom King was writing “Batman” over at DC, where it seemed that he was going to tell the story he wanted to tell, no matter if the fans totally hated it for all 70 or 80 issues of it, with many of those arcs having been pretty mediocre to say the least. Many people of the internet (Twitter mostly from what I can gather), seem to think that this Nick Spencer run has completely ruined the concept and character of Spider-Man for evermore, claiming that they have stopped reading now, despite the fact that you would go back a couple of issues later and see those same idiots saying the same thing over and over again. Weirdly, these same things were also levelled at Dan Slott during his time on the title, so I think people really should just take their own advice and stop reading, because neither of these runs have been as bad as people have been saying for the last decade or so.

I apologise for that little rant there, I guess I just really had to get that off of my chest or something, so what say we get on to some stuff that actually took place in this issue, shall we? In this instalment in the Post-Last Remains landscape of Spider-Man, many things have changed, while others have stayed the way they were beforehand. This issue gave us a pretty decent look at a version of Norman Osborn who seems to want to make a change for the better, with some actual time being spent on the progression of his character, although of course we still cannot rule out the possibility of Stormin’ Norman having some sort of ulterior motive. This was most evident when he joined his grandson Normie on the roof of the building where Kindred is being imprisoned, and the two basically have a heart-to-heart discussion about the current state of the world. Norman states that, at their heart, really everybody in the world wants to change, but often they cannot do so due to their circumstances. After handing his grandson a picture of he and Harry at Coney Island from many years ago, the elder Osborn claims that Normie is a whole lot like his father was at that age, and considering the things we have witnessed the kid do over the years, is kind of a worrying thought, if we are all being totally honest with ourselves. Norman even goes so far as to offer to take his grandson to Coney Island, as long as his mother permits it, which is the biggest piece of evidence to this change of attitude from the infamous character. The big thing that makes me think Norman may have ulterior motives, however, is present at the end of this scene, when he sees that Spider-Man had been watching them this whole time, giving him a bit of a grimace, from what I could tell, although it could have also been a sneer of some kind. Someone who was not up to something likely would have reacted in a different way, although this could have simply been some sort of disappointment on Norman’s part, perhaps due to believing that his nemesis could at least trust him to talk to his own grandson alone at the top of a very high building (although, with that said, Norman doesn’t have a great track record with tall structures).

Another interesting development to come out of this issue was the detail that was placed in explaining what Wilson Fisk’s current ongoing scheme is. Previously, we have seen him hunting down the Tablet of Life and Destiny, often being thwarted in his attempts by Spider-Man and Boomerang (welcome to the big leagues kid). Now, however, he has enlisted the aid of the newly reconstituted Mr. Negative (along with literally ever other Marvel mob character that you can think of) to track down the other half of the Lifeline Tablet, that being the Tablet of Death and Entropy. We are told that the person who wields the power of both halves of the main tablet will be given power over resurrection. This is where I realised that Fisk has entered into another scheme only thinking of himself, and not the consequences of his actions, as he is clearly going to use this newfound power to resurrect his long-deceased wife, Vanessa, who we most recently saw as a clone during the lead-up to the “Clone Conspiracy” event a couple of years ago, where Fisk himself killed this cheap knockoff of the woman that he loves. I shudder to think what somebody as self-absorbed and self-serving as Wilson Fisk could do with such power (other than resurrecting his dead wife), and it will be truly interesting to see where we go from here, as the plot begins to slowly unfold before our very eyes.

My final point for this review regards the whole situation with Aunt May. From what we saw in this story, I have a feeling that Nick Spencer is now beginning the build-up to Peter’s loving guardian once again discovering his activities as Spider-Man, for what feels like the one billionth time. This was teased here following the conflict at the F.E.A.S.T. Shelter, when Pete unmasked and came running back in his civilian guise, with May noticing that he seems to have badly cut his arm. Considering how careful Peter usually is, I find it quite strange that in this one instance he would neglect to cover up such an obvious wound, to spare his Aunt any more heartache than she already does. I have a feeling that when she does eventually find out the truth, all of her memories of the past reality (before the deal with Mephisto) will come flooding back, which is likely to be a very traumatic moment for all involved, in-universe characters and real-world reader alike. Quite honestly, I pray that Nick Spencer does not go that route, because I really do not think that I will be able to take it, considering that I am pretty sure her last memory of that universe is going to have been that she was shot and killed by a sniper, which is just such a happy thing to recall for a one-million-year-old woman, with a history of heart issues.

To conclude, I greatly enjoyed this arc, as it stayed pretty consistent over the course of both of its chapters. Nick Spencer’s writing was excellent given the circumstances preceding the story, and I thought he did an excellent job of building up the new status quo for many of these characters. Marcelo Ferreira had an excellent turn as the penciller for the title while it lasted, and I honestly hope that he gets a few more opportunities on this, or indeed any other, title in the near future, as any book would be lucky to have him.

THIS ISSUE OF "THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN" RECIEVES A "B" GRADE, ACCORDING TO MY GRADING CRITERIA.