REVIEW: Marvel’s Amazing Spider-Man: Gang War First Strike #1

After months of buildup in the background of writer Zeb Wells’ run on The Amazing Spider-Man,the Gang War event kicks off in Amazing Spider-Man: Gang War First Strike. Tensions have been boiling over in the criminal underworld with shocking betrayals and double-crosses. While the most recent issue of Amazing Spider-Man teased a secret interloper masterminding the criminal plot and underworld games, First Strike promises even more action and intrigue and justifies its expansion beyond the pages of The Amazing Spider-Man proper. Wells is joined in this violent escapade by Miles Morales writer Cody Zigler, artists Joey Vasquez and Julian Shaw, colorist Bryan Valenza and Amazing Spider-Man‘s stalwart letterer Joe Caramagna.

The wedding of Peter Parker’s best friend and roommate Randy Robertson to Janice Lincoln — AKA the supervillain known as The Beetle, AKA daughter of the gangster called Tombstone — ended in tragedy. The assassin Shotgun nearly killed Tombstone, while longtime Spider-Man nuisance Hammerhead took out Madame Masque in a fiery explosion. The would-be newlyweds have gone their separate ways, with Randy pouring himself into activism. His mission: to overturn Wilson Fisk’s ban on costumed superheroes and stem the tide of violence. Janice, meanwhile, seeks revenge on those who left her father hospitalized and near death. With Spider-Man occupied by Kraven the Hunter and his hapless demon-doppelganger Rek-Rap, the Maggia has been taking down its rivals to consolidate power. But things are only getting started — and both Spider-Man and Peter Parker will bear the personal cost of the first strike.

This oversized issue sets out to do a lot: catch new readers up on all the background details, fold in and start the plots for various side characters like Spider-Woman tying into the larger story, and justify Spider-Man’s involvement in the war itself. The sprawling nature of the comic and the scope of its spinoffs give this a level of grandiosity. But that scope occasionally becomes unwieldy by virtue of the breadth of characters. Something as simple as captions to identify the various villains in a scene — many of whom are less well-known — would have helped immensely. With so many people popping on and off the page, it is hard to track who’s who and what they want. The team of artists does not help keep things straight.

But ultimately, those sometimes confusing machinations among the crime bosses don’t matter, because Wells and Zigler root the Gang War event in the emotion and interplay between the main characters. The issue ends with a massive explosion of violence between rival crime families, but the true heart of this story is Spider-Man having to grapple with tragedy and live up to the expectations of his friend. For most of Wells’ run on Spider-Man, Peter Parker has been isolated from most of the broader Marvel landscape, even his usual supporting cast, both by choice and by circumstance. It’s an intentional choice, but that has often made the series feel like something was missing. That problem is foregrounded here, when Peter has to face the consequences of ignoring the responsibility that goes along with friendship and partnership.

To that end, one of First Strike‘s most successful elements is making Spider-Man feel like a part of the larger Marvel Universe again. Early on, Miles confronts Peter about his absence — and the shirking of responsibility that absence represents. It is a powerful statement after a year’s worth of stories where Peter has been wallowing in his own pain. Seeing Miles express his need for Peter’s mentorship and friendship, and Peter accepting that failure, is a nice moment. It solidifies the often nebulous relationship between these two characters and sets up a future dynamic moving forward into the recently announced team-up book, Spectacular Spider-Men. Just as importantly, it signals a shift in Peter’s journey; he has reached a healthier place, ready to accept his recent failures and re-engage with his supporting cast and other heroes. It would be nice to get a bit more of the traditional happy-go-lucky Spider-Man after so much brooding. Unfortunately, those realizations come too late to be there for his best friend. That mix of tragic timing and failure of responsibility is the perfect foundation for a memorable Spider-Man story.

Where the issue lacks a bit is the art. The big, expressive cartoony styles of Joey Vasquez and Julian Shaw are a mismatch with the story’s tone, which revolves around the more grounded elements of Spider-Man’s universe. Intimate moments between characters and scenes of scheming business deals do not quite reach the level of seriousness and tension as they could with a style rougher around the edges. John Romita Jr.’s art, while still highly stylized, manages to capture subtlety of emotion while he has a masterful sense of pacing to stage dramatic conversations. His moody shadows and dynamic use of light and shadow keep pages from being too crowded or messy, which Vasquez and Shaw are not able to match. Big crowd scenes early on between the crime bosses are busy and challenging to follow from panel to panel. But when it comes time for the moments of action, the artists sell the brutality of the violence as well as physical and emotional cost of the gang war, which makes up for some of those subtle shortcomings. Ultimately, it is seeing the personal stakes and tragic cost of the warfare that makes Gang War an exciting setup.

Joe Caramagna’s assured lettering helps overcome some of the cluttered imagery, balancing out the busy panels and positioning word balloons in a logical way that moves the eye where it needs to go in order to follow the action and conversation. While Vasquez and Shaw have similar styles, there are some significant differences in how they draw some of the characters. Bryan Valenza’s colors add some consistency in the costuming and physical details. The use of red throughout in the backgrounds and lighting heats up the entire issue. That tense, warm color bleeds onto every page until the violence explodes and it overtakes the entire visual palette. By the issue’s end, New York is engulfed in the reds and oranges of blood and flames.

Comic fans would be forgiven for coming into the Gang War event with cynicism and low expectations. Crossover stories touted as major events have been paraded out at an exhausting pace over the last few years. Here, though, is the rare event kick-off story that feels like it earns those peripheral titles and grand scope. Not only does it serve as something of a homecoming for Spider-Man to a place of prominence in Marvel’s larger publishing line, but it also tells a compelling story with emotional stakes. Gang War: First Strike is a fully realized issue of comics in its own right. It does not exist just to put plot mechanics into motion and drop exposition. Not only that, but it feels like it is authentically a Spider-Man story.

Spider-Man, as a character, is not quite as flexible in what kind of stories can be told as someone like Batman, but his comics have always run the gamut from featuring big colorful supervillains to more grounded crime stories. The fun of this issue, and the promise of the Gang War event, is seeing those two sides collide. The criminal underworld of New York is not just mob bosses in tailored suits, but also villains like the ostentatious Count Nefaria and super-powered Mr. Negative, plus more small-time gimmick characters like Hammerhead and Madame Masque. Spidey lives in something just a bit more elevated than street level. Spider-Man: Gang War First Strike #1 grounds those absurd elements with recognizable, human stakes. By foregrounding how Spider-Man’s selfish inaction has caused a ripple effect upon the entire city, Wells has not only paid off a year of storytelling but set up a rich conflict. He gives the hero a deeply personal motivation that unites all those different elements. This is an exciting prologue, within which even burned-out superhero fans will find something to like.

Spider-Man: Gang War First Strike #1 is on sale now.