Amazing Spider-Man 53 Discussion

[Vortex85]

There is something that makes little sense tho: Kindred's "mask". As someone pointed out, he literally takes it off like a plastic mask when he's always looked like a real demon. What's the point of this? Is this an overlook or the earlier drawings are just inaccurate? He's clearly a demonic figure (he gives powers and takes people back to life), so how is he a "normal" Harry now?

IDK, I was thinking that too. He may have the ability to alter his appearance too. I mean he can make bugs come out of his body. It almost makes me wonder if Harry has been using Mysterio tech but that doesn't explain that he can possess people, get inside dreams, teleport through walls, etc. He also says that he has basically resurrected himself so many times but he never gets used to it. So it sounds like the Harry we've been seeing can travel in and out of hell at will or something.

[Kingkalamari]

There is something that makes little sense tho: Kindred's "mask". As someone pointed out, he literally takes it off like a plastic mask when he's always looked like a real demon. What's the point of this? Is this an overlook or the earlier drawings are just inaccurate? He's clearly a demonic figure (he gives powers and takes people back to life), so how is he a "normal" Harry now?

This is could just a goof on Bagley's end with the script he got sent over not being specific enough about how Kindred reveals his face, so he just drew it like he was pulling off a mask. Previously Kindred made it clear his appearance was a form he intentionally took, and the centipedes on his back seem to never really connect and abstractly twist around his body, so I assume the apperance is his whatever he turned into while in hell.

[WebSlingWonder]

I have the full issue now and they basically reproduced every page of the scene from the time Peter wakes to the end except for the toast to BND so I'm not sure what more he could have added?

I meant the issue itself after the reveal.

[TheCrimsonBands]

What I’m left wondering is what if this was Pre-OMD Harry’s plan all along? Maybe he went to Hell because he took an experimental goblin serum purposely and thus committed suicide?

[NC_Yankee]

So....
What does Kindred want?

Is he some sort of fail safe to keep Peter from being back with MJ?

I feel like Last Remains will end in Peter making her ANOTHER deal, this time with Kindred that keeps him away from MJ (maybe Kindred will spare her if Peter accepts the deal?)
I think it’s clear we arent getting EVERYTHING here in Last Remains like we originally thought we would. But the ramifications will probably project in to the next part of Spencer’s run

If that happens Spencer lost me. I feel the same way about such a “Deal” as I do about clones. Highly negatively. It would be Marvel thinking they are masterminds who know better then readers and keep stories in canon that are universally despised. Not just OMD/BND, but bringing up Sins Past, Silk and The Other as well. It might be their characters but I do not have to waste time and money on something I would consider Brand New Day reworked. No thank you

[RD155]

Having the story end with Peter making yet another “deal” after everything that’s happened would be a terrible idea. One of the many reasons that the deal with Mephisto is looked at so negatively is because Peter had to be written completely out of character for it to work. It would be in really poor taste for the creative team to go down that road again.

[Jman27]

There's more to it than wheat cakes or even MJ, it's the point that Peter would be responsible for the deaths of two people he loved all because he IS Spider-man and not Peter Parker.

The reason why Ben die was due to Peter and the reason why May die is to Spiderman but guess what he should expect that the moment he decided to do the superhero business. Plus how many more love ones die prior to May he didnt make a deal then. It sucks but being a hero is all about stuff being unfair he of all people should know that

[Lukmendes]

I find it funny how many people said that they didn't read Slott's run yet believe that they had the right to criticize it.

His run until Superior was great, except for The Gauntlet/Grim Hunt.

Gauntlet and Grim Hunt didn't happen under Slott's run, hell, I remember him saying in some interview that for him, Kraven was still dead, which explains why Kraven was everywhere except ASM, Slott only wrote a few of Gauntlet's issues (#618 to #621, basically Mysterio's part in the story and the aftermath of it), and none of Grim Hunt's issues, Grim Hunt only had Joe Kelly writing the main story, with DeMateis writing the other story about Kraven and Kaine.

Either way, you're killing me here Spencer, another half issue? #52 and #53 could be the same issue and the it wouldn't feel rushed at all.

It's also really, really dumb to end the issue with the reveal that Kindred is Harry, because while Peter didn't know, we already did, so a last page reveal has no impact to us, it's a pointless tease and only delays even more Peter and Harry actually talking to each other, it'd be better if Harry revealed himself to Peter around half of the issue, then started talking about what he wants to do, which would actually give weight to "It's not who I am, it's what I want", because saying this, and making thing that matters so far is who he is, is really dumb and makes it look like Spencer misses his own point... Feels like I'm reading a manga with this kind of pacing, and super-hero comics should never have manga pacing.

Honestly, this is becoming like 2099 arc all over again, promisses of something awesome, but then nothing even interesting happens, wonder if there'll be an equivalent to "Miguel is used as a battery" in this...

Also, I don't like Kindred's face being a simple mask, all this time they made it look like he was basically a zombie, so his face being underneath that mask being so normal is lame, would be cooler if he removed the bandages and healed his face to show the Harry face.

I theorize that the reason, or at least part of the reason this story is decompressed in the last issues is because of LR, because LR has more stories to tell, so ASM has to slow down so it's not too far ahead, because if #52 and #53 were one issue, then #52 would end with Harry revealing himself to Peter, and that would have less issues to tell this story, and meanwhile in LR, Spider-Family and Strange would just be reaching Astral Plane while Sin Eater is getting ready to fight Morlum, and MJ and Norman are talking about meeting Harry, so making ASM's pacing worse gives more time for LR to tell those stories, but too bad it makes ASM become a "Something cool will happen in the next issue", and the next issue repeats that, and if I wanted to read a comic where basically nothing fucking interesting happens so there's a tease of what might happen in the future, I'd be reading bad Hickman issues.

[mrswing]

Sure is nice to be proven right. Spencer is messing this up big time. An entire dream issue based on a reveal everyone except Peter knows already. And which, as has been noted, you read in less than 5 minutes. Not a brutal fight, not even a brutal dream. Just more stalling. This entire story could have been condensed to four issues, perhaps even three, and it would have been so much improved. And we don't even get any new info on what Harry/Kindred is doing or planning, or why he became a demon (after all, in PPTSS #200 he died at rest) or why he even had to come back. Bagley's art is excellent and this inking style lifts it above his usual level of quality, so that's a relief after all the Ramosian art of the past issues. But this whole arc is on the verge of becoming the disappointment of the year. Is it really so hard for Marvel to find actually good writers these days???

[NC_Yankee]

Having the story end with Peter making yet another “deal” after everything that’s happened would be a terrible idea. One of the many reasons that the deal with Mephisto is looked at so negatively is because Peter had to be written completely out of character for it to work. It would be in really poor taste for the creative team to go down that road again.

That is my sentiments exactly. If the Marvel Office does it they are telling readers FU ( like Slott did with Jackpot). I will not be reading Spider-Man in 2021 if that happens.

[Junco]

What I’m left wondering is what if this was Pre-OMD Harry’s plan all along? Maybe he went to Hell because he took an experimental goblin serum purposely and thus committed suicide?

*Harry in Hell trying to convince Mephisto to buy Pete's marriage*

"Look I've got this awesome plan to make my best friend waste his time for 300+ issues hear me out"

[Revolutionary_Jack]

This should written on Spider-Man T-shirts world wide.

Very well said and concur...

The true introduction of Spider-Man for new consumers is toys. Everyday babies are born and a bunch of them will be in the cribs and cradles filled with Spider-Man plushies, pillows, blankets and so on. They will know and recognize Spider-Man's logo, Spider-Man's costume long before their first words. So on that level it literally doesn't matter at all that Spider-Man is a teenager, Spider-Man is an adult, Spider-Man "is about youth", Tom Brevoort still has a job, or even Tom Holland is MCU Spider-Man, none of that matters one jot in the eyes of the biggest audience for Spider-Man and the biggest moneymakers for the franchise on a daily basis.

Most Spider-Man readers either liked the marriage or they like Spider-Man with or without it...there was no real sizable contingent who just wanted the marriage gone and would automatically read Spider-Man solely if he was single. The sales of Spider-Man since OMD prove that. For the most part it's just about par with how Spider-Man did before OMD, and that too after a while, and in a market that had shrunk since then. So it's not like it even made sense from a financial market-expanding perspective.

[stillanerd]

Yeah...not exactly thrilled by this issue. And I definitely agree with the following:

1. This should've been the issue in which Kindred revealed himself as Harry Osborn, not Amazing Spider-Man #50. Sure, Peter doesn't know who Kindred is, because we already know who Kindred is going in, the last "Gotcha" page loses all it's punch.
2. The padding and decompression is getting ridiculous. I mean, when more plot developments are happening in the tie-in issues, something is wrong.
3. The definite subtext here is that Harry has been manipulating events to keep Peter and MJ apart since the start of Brand New Day. If it was deliberate then it kind of contradicts a few key story lines from "Brand New Day." Though I'm sure some will go, "Would that really be so bad?"
4. Carlie wasn't "in on it," but she definitely seems like she was an unknowing pawn in Harry/Kindred's schemes. Which, come to think of it, would be par for course. After all, she trusted Lily Hollister (Menace), Vin Gonzales (who tried framing Spider-Man as a serial killer), her father (a corrupt forensic examiner for the mob) and Captain Yuri Watanbee (the murderous vigilante Wraith) didn't she?

[Revolutionary_Jack]

Carlie wasn't "in on it," but she definitely seems like she was an unknowing pawn in Harry/Kindred's schemes. Which, come to think of it, would be par for course. After all, she trusted Lily Hollister (Menace), Vin Gonzales (who tried framing Spider-Man as a serial killer), her father (a corrupt forensic examiner for the mob) and Captain Yuri Watanbee (the murderous vigilante Wraith) didn't she?

I am sure Carlie would agree with her male namesake at DCAU.

[your_name_here]

If that happens Spencer lost me. I feel the same way about such a “Deal” as I do about clones. Highly negatively. It would be Marvel thinking they are masterminds who know better then readers and keep stories in canon that are universally despised. Not just OMD/BND, but bringing up Sins Past, Silk and The Other as well. It might be their characters but I do not have to waste time and money on something I would consider Brand New Day reworked. No thank you

I wouldn’t mind AS much because it’s clear Spencer would work on the rest of the run to have Spider-Man beat it and overcome it

It seems to be pretty clear they can’t wrap up everything Kindred related with just 2 issues to go. So somehow his punishment has to stop. I only see that happening with Peter making a mini-deal for everything to stop. Of course, it’ll all be temporary and Peter will get Kindred back later on in the run