Amazing Spider-Man (2025) #1-5

Amazing Spider-Man #1-5

Originally released in 2025

Written by Joe Kelly

Art by Pepe Larraz

I'm going to give the new run of Amazing Spider-Man a try; I've heard good things about the writer, Joe Kelly, as he was one of the people responsible for making Deadpool a fourth wall breaking lunatic rather than a Deathstroke knock-off.  From the way it starts off, it doesn't seem like much has changed since the Brand New Day storyline, as Peter is still job-hunting.

He gets a job at a big tech conglomerate thanks to a friend from middle school, though Aunt May isn't pleased - even from the brief flashbacks that we get, it's clear that the friend in question was a bad influence on Peter, though with that friend moving away, Peter lost that negative streak by the time that he reached high school during the Lee-Ditko era.  Peter almost misses out on the job, though, because he spots the Rhino rampaging through the city.

Some things have seemed to change since the events of Brand New Day, as Spider-Man is on much better terms with the Rhino and knows that he normally wouldn't act like this.  When the Rhino has a heart attack (and it's difficult to perform any medical procedures given the durable rhinoceros suit), Peter is fearing for the Rhino's life.

Rhino manages to get the help he needs and is sent to Ravencroft to recover and analyze what's wrong with him.  Peter investigates the Rhino's apartment where he's hit by some sort of powerful hallucination that causes him to envision that he's surrounded by an army of his villains.  He's so overwhelmed by panic that he doesn't question how all of them teleported into the Rhino's apartment, smashing out of the room and into the street where he smashes up someone's car.  Afterwards, he starts having black-outs, regaining his senses in the middle of a tour or up on a rooftop.

All of this turns out to be a plot by Roderick Kingsley (a.k.a. the Hobgoblin) and a villain called Itsy-Bitsy who I'm not familiar with. Peter knows her, and she unsubtly has a crush on him and also is some kind of spider-human hybrid. (at this point, I just roll with it. It's comics; weirder things have happened)

Norman Osborn is also involved, though thankfully in more of a supporting role than in the Zeb Wells run. (by my understanding, later issues of the Zeb Wells run recreate moments from Kraven's Last Hunt with Norman in the role of Mary Jane as someone staying up late worrying about Peter, which is a creepy parallel) He's trying to redeem himself after he was given a clean slate and the darker aspects of his personality were wiped away, though a grieving widower who tries to kill him during a press conference brings up some good points that seem like they should have been brought up before in the Marvel universe. (like, say, when he was given complete control over a government law enforcement division during the Dark Reign era - hard to believe that it was once seen as implausible satire)

Itsy-Bitsy's unresolved issues with Spider-Man leads to her sparing him and informing him that there is some mastermind behind this, though she keeps it vague as to who they are and what they're planning.  She does mention that the Rhino was poisoned accidentally, so between that, an attack on a Food and Drug Administration center, and cans of pop in the Rhino's apartment, Peter makes the connection and tracks down the building where that pop is produced (and laced with drugs).  He also finds the Hobgoblin there, who's going through something of a redesign in recent years, looking more like Etrigan from DC with giant bat wings thrown into the mix. (though maybe that's the hallucinations doing the work; I'm used to him being a Green Goblin recolour)

As a tangent, I'm under the impression that Peter goes into space at some point in this run, which has me curious how we get from "the Hobgoblin laces pop with drugs" ---> ??? ---> "SPAAAAAAACE".  Sticking to that first plot point for now, Hobgoblin taunts Spider-Man, saying that the pop is getting much lower doses than what Peter was hit with and describing it as anxiety in a can.  Peter's friend from work confirms Peter's suspicion that the pop was laced with drugs (which Peter blames his behaviour from the past few days on), so Hobgoblin is forced to leave to keep the Justice Department from getting that confirmation, and Itsy-Bitsy is left to kill Spider-Man.

Flashing back to Aunt May supporting him and talking him out of his troubled middle school phase, Spider-Man defeats Itsy-Bitsy and heads to save his friend and his new boss, which is a problem that's dealt with pretty quickly.

As introductory arcs go, it's all right.  There are hints of a larger conspiracy at play - Peter realizes that Kingsley's already made a cure, but the cure's been on the market for two years now, which seems like it was planned out too far in advance for Kingsley's usual style.  I'm not sure if it's a cliche for a story to reveal that a character was Peter's friend before high school (I know that it's something of a cliche for Batman, at least, to the point where an old friend of Bruce Wayne's showing up is a sign of trouble, and possibly a sign that they're going to be the secret identity of a newly-introduced supervillain), though in this case, he doesn't seem outright supervillainous, even if it's entirely understandable why he was cut out of Peter's life.