Amazing Spider-Man #53

[cyberghostface]

 

Comments

[angelophile]

Honestly, because of Bagley's art, I can't tell. Is that meant to be Harry or Norman?

[cyberghostface]

It’s Harry.

[sean_613]

Harry's identity was revealed a few issues ago, but yeah it was hard to tell Harry or Norman apart in this art especially when they have the same hair style. Also was anyone else not shocked that spider-man didn't die last issue?

[cyberghostface]

He died, Kindred just resurrected him.

[lbd_nytetrayn]

Oh, thank goodness. I don't know if I could have survived my eyes rolling that hard if it had been Norman.

[themajesticmoose]

My god...Kindred is the exact person we were already told that he was several issues ago already!

I feel like if Nick Spencer wrote a 50's era Cold War thriller he'd have the third act plot twist be the "Reveal" that Joseph Stalin is the man in charge of the USSR and treat this like a mindblowing surprise that absolutely none of the readers could possibly have seen coming

[aperturedreams]

Yeah, using that as a wind-up reveal here was super weird

[lucean]

It was the reason I initially assumed it was Norman as otherwise this made absolutely no sense.

[stubbleupdate]

When Spencer was writing Ultimate Comics Ultimate X-Men, at least 6 of the first 9 final pages were "it's this guy!" Shock reveals.

It was tedious

[scorntx]

Even more so because there was no damn payoff, thanks to Spencer leaving the title mid-plot.

[themajesticmoose]

I have created an Internet Friendly Numbered List of people who could have been Kindred who would have been a better plot twist than Harry Osborn but who still would have made sense and who also would have made more sense than Harry Osborn

1) The Burglar Who Shot Uncle Ben (Does he have a name no one knows)
2) Actually Uncle Ben
3) Ultimate Universe Peter Parker
4) George Stacy
5) Jason Macendale
6) The Peter Parker from Before He Changed Reality With his Deal With Mephisto
7) Ned Leeds
8) That boxing promoter, still mad Peter didn't stop that thief
9) The original Ben Reilly
10) Somehow It's Norman Osborn again because it's Always Norman Osborn

[starwolf_oakley]

The Burglar's last name was revealed as Carradine when his daughter Jessica was a character during the Clone Sage. Sensational Spider-Man #0.

Jessica Carradine thought her father had killed Ben Parker accidentally with Ben Parker's own gun. Not how the flashback in AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #200 showed it. Which might be the only flashback to Ben Parker's death, now that I think about it.

[themajesticmoose]

I had forgotten about that!

Did Jessica ever show up again after her sort of romance with Ben Reilly ended?

[scorntx]

I was holding out hope right 'till the end it was all some massively elaborate bluff, and the culprit would really turn out to be Ms. Lion.

Alas...


(okay, not really.)

[themajesticmoose]

There's still time

The Clone Saga taught us that even when the mastermind behind it all is revealed there's always the possibility another mastermind behind it all will be revealed and then another mastermind behind that mastermind after that one

It all depends how long they'll drag the plot on for

And this plotline has already taken up over fifty three issues of a monthly comic so they're not in a rush

[zachbeacon]

I still think it should have been Liz.

Still, at least they're finally doing something with Harry after resurrecting him 13 years ago. it gives me hope that one day they'll finally justify Aunt May's return 22 years ago.

I really hope they don't retcon this into another Norman plot like everything else.

[shakalooloo]

Waaait...

The teeth on the Kindred mask are part of the mask, not Harry's own? And the mouth opens and closes? Was the reason for those weird speech bubbles all this time simply Harry having a massive bulky sack on his head AND OVER HIS MOUTH?

Rather than wrap bandages over his face, he wore a mask that looked like a face wrapped in bandages. Are those bandages over his hands going to be revealed to simply be gloves patterned to look like wrappings as well?

[themajesticmoose]

Yeah I just realised this reveal means the whole time that Kindred's Scary Demon Face was an actual Halloween mask that Harry was wearing and that sure is a choice

It definitely doesn't completely remove all the tension and creepyness from Kindred's earlier appearances knowing that he's not actually some kind of demon or monster man but just a guy in what is basically a Scooby Doo villain outfit

Who has dramatically unmasked himself in front of that meddling Spider-Man here

......

I guess it's still a better unmasking scene than Kylo Ren in The Force Awakens? That's something

[akodo_rokku]

Kindred is supposed to be a demon, I think? There's a certain amount of mystical leeway there.

Maybe this is the Harry who died before One More Day changed the timeline.

[reveen]

Spidey's getting his shit pushed in by a new villain who reveals himself to be someone or a clone of someone from his past? Huh, must be Wednesday.

[starwolf_oakley]

As far as what Harry/Kindred wants, I wonder if Normie and Stanley (Harry's sons) have anything to do with his motivation.

"Normie and Stanley are part of the reason I'm doing all this. I don't want you to mess up their lives TOO much."

[tcampbell1000]

"It's not who I am... it's what I want."

[REVEALS WHO HE IS WITHOUT EXPLAINING A SINGLE DAMN THING ABOUT HIS MOTIVATIONS, SAYS "GOTCHA" AS IF NO FURTHER SPEECH IS REQUIRED]

[zachbeacon]

"Gotcha"

I "love" that this run assumes you've read a 30 year old run that Marvel refuses to collect.

I'd forgive so much if this turns out to be an elaborate plot by Spencer to force Marvel to reprint DeMatteis' Spectacular. I guess it worked with Al Ewing and Paul Jenkins' Hulk.

[starwolf_oakley]

"Gotcha" was also references in a flashback story JM DeMatteis wrote when Peter found out Harry was alive and had rebuilt Aunt May's house. (It had been burned down by the second Molten Man.)

[zachbeacon]

It was also how the Robot Parents arc ended; Harry was responsible from beyond the grave because he had been using the Chameleon as a pawn. “Gotcha” has become a signature of both Harry as a character and DeMatteis as a writer.

In any case, most of Spencer’s run seems to be him loudly exclaiming “hey, remember when Spider-Man had better writers?”

(Still probably better than Slott proudly showing off all the Spider-Man trivia he knows while getting half of it wrong and I’ll gladly take both of them over JMS)

I mean Morrison didn’t come into the X-Men saying “hey, I’m doing a Chris Claremont cover band”. Granted, Whedon DID do that but I think that run will ultimately be forgotten because it doesn’t do anything new and isn’t good or bad enough to be remembered.

[scorntx]

Didn't Whedon's run return Kitty to X-Men prominence after she'd dropped out during the Morrison years?
Also, resurrect Colossus, and introduce Brand, S.W.O.R.D. and Armor?

Maybe not innovative, sure (and constantly delayed like a *****), but it's not like it was entirely without impact.

[zachbeacon]

Morrison tried bringing Colossus back too but apparently, they aren’t a big enough name. Instead Marvel let the tv/movie guy override the “dead means dead” editorial mandate in a very stupid* way. Then, once he was back, they went right into his gross Claremont-era Kitty/Peter fanfic.

*But maybe not even stupid enough to be notable. After all, the Draco exists.

SWORD is just space-SHIELD so it wasn’t exactly new. Granted I think other writers (notably Gillen) did interesting things with them but it feels like they have since been replaced with the current version of Alpha Flight.

Armor really doesn’t have the staying power of previous young POV characters like Kitty and Jubilee. Heck, Beak and Pixie probably got used more after their initial arcs.

Kinda surprised you didn’t mention Danger. I actually did think that idea had some potential but it was mostly lost in a sea of “Professor X is a monster” retcons.

Anyway, onto the Kitty rant.

People crediting Whedon with “bringing Kitty back” is just as baffling as saying JMS “brought back” Mary Jane. The character had already come back in a previous run and the writers ended their runs by writing them out of the series.

Kitty has been “back” since the Kelly/Seagle era. She wasn’t a central character in Morrison’s run but she was around in books like X-Treme X-Men, X-Men Unlimited, and Mekanix during that era.

Whedon didn’t “bring her back”, he launched her into space so other writers couldn't use her.

…until Matt Fraction brought her back. Then every writer used her.