Amazing Spider-Man Annual #1 Review

This was billed as a comic to give Spider-Man readers a small break from the doom, gloom and never-ending drama of the Spider-Verse event, which for many Spider-Fans, myself included was a welcome thing after seeing dozens of their favourite alternative Spider-Men and Spider-Women get slaughtered.

And that’s exactly what Amazing Spider-Man Annual #1 did, it provided a much-needed light-hearted return to the roots of Peter Parker and Spider-Man and helped to remind readers currently spoiled for choice when it comes to different versions of the webhead why Peter Parker will always be the original and best Spider-Man.

Sure, we got absolutely no plot development, no character development and indeed nothing important happens at all, but that’s exactly what you can expect from an Annual, essentially this was nothing more than just a bit of a fun. However the three short stories enclosed within did something that the entire run of Amazing Spider-Man volume 3 has failed to do so far; they got me invested and emotionally behind Peter Parker as Spider-Man.

One of the main criticisms that seems to be prevalent since Peter Parker’s return to his own body following the Superior Spider-Man storyline is that he’s been a bit of a side-character in his own comic

with characters like Silk and Superior Spider-Man appearing more important than him and to be honest I’ve been inclined to agree.

That’s why the first story in the annual ‘I Can’t Help Myself‘ was entirely refreshing to read because it focused purely on Peter Parker selflessly being Spider-Man in his attempts to reunite a couple with their lost phone which reminded readers exactly why he’s such a special character and superhero by having him duty-bound to help others.

Never has ‘with great power comes great responsibility’ been more evident than in this story as Peter manages to stop not one, but two criminal gangs all whilst desperately trying to find the owners of a lost phone.. This is something that seems trivial to a passerby, a police officer and even fellow superhero Hawkeye. Yet Spider-Man feels compelled to do something. The idea that nothing is too small for Spider-Man to care about epitomises his character and truly sets him apart as a superhero.

Sure the whole story was a bit of fluff that any Spider-Man reader could get away with not reading but I honestly feel that, with Dan Slott’s take of the character leaving many people feeling that the original Peter Parker and Spider-Man are being lost, it couldn’t have come at a better time. It’s just frustrating that we have to buy what is essentially a throwaway comic to read a story that focuses on the real essence of Peter Parker as Spider-Man which is something that we’re not seeing in the character’s main titles.

I also enjoyed that Sean Ryan and Brandon Peterson took some effort to frame the storyline within the current Amazing Spider-Man continuity by furthering the tension that we saw between Sajani and Peter as well as bringing back the Menagerie as a criminal team for Spider-Man to face off against. Also uncannily spot-on was the Time Square Spider-Man mix-up which seems like an obvious reference to all the controversy Time Square Spider-Man performers were causing last year.

Cale Atkinson’s ‘The A-May-Zing Spider-Aunt‘ and Jai Nitz’s ‘The Quiet Room‘ are nothing more than a cute-two page anachronisms involving Aunt May and Spider-Man’s rogues gallery and a slightly prolonged laryngitis based punch-line that makes great artistic use of sound-effects to create interesting visuals. Once again, both stories, are a far cry from the hyper-dramatic, fairly adult orientated Spider-Verse storyline.

Overall this comic proves that whilst the big earth-shattering events like Superior Spider-Man and Spider-Verse are definitely interesting and allow for a high amount of dramatic story-telling it really doesn’t hurt to go back to basics and release a light-hearted comic with nothing at stake, that gets straight back to the core of who Spider-Man is and why he continues to do what he does.

Check out Whatever a Spider Can’s other Amazing Spider-Man comic book recaps and reviews

Amazing Spider-Man Annual #1 Recap
Amazing Spider-Man #12 Recap and Review
Amazing Spider-Man #11 Recap and Review
Amazing Spider-Man #10 Recap and Review
Amazing Spider-Man #9 Recap and Review

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