Written by: Dan Slott and Christos Gage
Art by: Giuseppe Camuncoli
Publisher: Marvel
With the opening arc out of the way and Peter once again established as the Amazing Spider-Man the time feels right for a classic Marvel Team-Up story. This issue features new Ms. Marvel, Kamala Khan, as she starts to have a wider presence in the Marvel universe. While I haven’t yet had the chance to read her solo series, Slott and Gage do a great job of making this a fun team up even if you haven’t been reading Ms. Marvel.
Before we get to the actual meat of the story we have a few scenes between Peter and Anna Maria, who still manages to be one of my favourite supporting characters in a Spider-Man comic. I appreciate her usage here as a link to the Superior era of Spider-Man, passing on a few of Otto’s tricks and tips so as to help Peter manage his responsibilities. This also helps feed into the team-up element of the story, as Kamala seems to share Peter’s struggles with time management making her feel almost like the Peter Parker for a new era. She is written very well in this issue, her fangirling over meeting Spider-Man was pretty funny and readers should be able to relate to her easily. I’m hoping once the action is over these two get a chance to talk, as their similarities could open some really interesting storytelling possibilities. My only real problem with the story was its length, it’s criminally short and ends just as the story starts to get going.
Luckily, the back-up story which takes up the remaining pages manages to be very strong rather than feeling tacked on. It is yet another build-up to Spider-Verse that builds dread for the villains and adds some more supporting characters to the story, this time Spider-UK of the Captain Britain Corps. This segment is a lot darker, naturally, although it managed to build my hype for Spider-Verse even further and puts some new and interesting pieces into the story.
Camuncoli handles art duties for both segments and his art looks great. I always felt he suited the darker story of Superior Spider-Man although his art looks a lot brighter here and fits the lighter tone of the team-up story. He depicts Kamala’s powers very well and all the super-hero action looks fantastic, hopefully he’ll get to provide more of this in the next issue. When it comes to the back-up though he switches back to his darker style and it suits the story perfectly. I almost wish he was doing art duties for the upcoming event as he draws the other universe Spider-Men very well and his style of art suits the darker story being told. Here’s hoping he gets to do some more art for the event somewhere down the line.
Overall, this is another strong issue of Spider-Man that makes me feel more than ever that the book is back on its feet quality wise. If you’re a Ms. Marvel fan interested in the team-up then check this one out, the same goes whether you’re a fan of Spider-Man or just in it for Spider-Verse.
