The real Peter Parker is back in a seven story giant-sized comic!
This issue sets up the rest of the series – how Peter Parker is cleaning up the mess Doc Ock made as the Superior Spider-Man, the villains he will face this series, and his alliances. If you didn’t already know, in the past 31 issues of Superior Spider-Man, Doc Ock had been possessing Peter Parker’s body, while the real Peter Parker remained hidden inside Doc Ock’s subconscious. Doc Ock decided to take on the challenge of keeping Spider-Man a hero, saying he would be superior to Peter Parker before him. In the past year, Doc Ock had made some improvements to Parker’s life – curing Aunt May’s bum leg, getting a PhD, and opening his own “Parker Industries” for research. However, Doc Ock had messed up a lot of things, too – quitting the Avengers, putting up surveillance all over New York, blackmailing people, and being generally disliked among the neighborhood. One thing that caused a change in Doc Ock was falling in love with Ana Maria Marconi. Ana Maria ends up getting captured by the Green Goblin, and Doc Ock knows the only way to get her back is to let a real hero, Peter Parker, take over his body to save her.
In issue #1, we see how Peter Parker plans on repairing the damage of the past year. He makes a public vow to separate himself from Spider-Man, saying he will no longer provide tech for him. “Recapturing That Old Spark,” shows us that Electro will be a main villain in the series, which is no surprise since he’s the main villain in the upcoming Amazing Spider-Man 2 movie. Another major player is Black Cat in “Crossed Paths,” which shows her getting put in prison by Spider-Man. You can tell she’s going to be around for a long time when she says, “You took everything from me. Now you’re going to pay for it with your life. But only after I’m done playing with it.”
We also get to see previews of upcoming series. In the beautifully illustrated “Homecoming. Sort of,” we get a sneak peak of the new Spider-Man 2099 comic coming out in July. “Kaine” is a tie-in for New Warriors. Two stories also pay homage to vintage Spider-Man – “How My Stuff Works,” will take you back to the days when Spider-Man used to explain his gadgets at the end of each Amazing Spider-Man volume one issue. “Learning to Crawl: Amazing Reality,” gives you the point of view of a boy in the audience of Spider-Man’s old wrestling shows. This story suggests we will see alternate points of view of major Spider-Man events in the future.
Amazing Spider-Man #1 has raised some questions for me, though. How is Peter Parker going to handle Ana Maria – especially now that she knows his secret? Also, is Spider-Man going to make his way back into the Avengers? This issue has opened up many new stories in the Spider-Man universe and has grown it exponentially. I can’t wait to see what more Marvel has in store for us with the Amazing Spider-Man!