Amazing Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows #12
Written by Ryan Stegman
Art by Brian Level
Colors by Jesus Aburtov
Letters by VC’s Joe Caramagna
Release Date: October 11, 2017
Cover Price: $3.99
Review by Anthony G.
The Curse of the Green Goblin Pt. 2
After a full year in this alternate timeline - with creative team Gerry Conway and Ryan Stegman - where Peter and Mary Jane are still married and have a pre-teen daughter named Annie May, this issue comes full circle tying up everything we’ve gotten from the first issue to now. This feels like a proper send off for the Spider-family by the original creative team and doesn’t leave any loose ends for the next creative team to deal with. Writer Ryan Stegman pulls on our heartstrings and Brian Level’s art is a bit down on this issue than what we’ve gotten from him previously. Now, let’s get right into the story and see if Normie will get his belated birthday present - the death of Spider-Man.
Plot - SPOILERS BELOW
The issue begins with Spider-Man having a difficult time dealing with the Green Goblin-bot in the streets of New York City. He is soon aided by a few of our friendly neighbourhood X-Men and Wolverine throws Spider-Man under the bus for having a difficult time. Iceman is the first to face off against the giant mech suit and freezes the hand blasters. Spidey warns him that the bot is deadlier than he thinks, but Iceman arrogantly brushes off the warning and quickly gets himself blasted by the same hand blaster he thought he froze. The Green Goblin-bot begins to use ice blast attacks, similar to Iceman, and Spider-Man comes to the realization that the giant mech suit is equipped with Regent tech (which we all know absorbs human and mutant special abilities). Spider-Man quickly asks the X-Men to leave before the giant robot becomes impossible to defeat.
At another part of the city, Venomized Spinerette is web-slinging across with Liz Allan on her back asking her how to remove the symbiote from her body. She is having a difficult time controlling it after the stress of finding out her daughter was kidnapped by Normie. Liz suggests going to Oscorp HQ. They pass by the battle Spider-Man and the X-Men are having with the giant Green Goblin-bot and we are thrown right back into the fight. It seems at this point like the Green Goblin-bot is beginning to focus on stealing away their powers, as we see Jean Grey and, shortly after, Wolverine defeated and powerless. Spidey begins to try to find where the Green Goblin-bot is storing these stolen abilities.
Back at Oscorp HQ, Spinerette and Liz arrive and help Spiderling out of the contraption Normie put her in. They hear a noise outside a nearby door and they find Normie face down with his head covered in blood. Liz apologizes for not having been around more often for her son. Normie says he didn’t want to do bad things anymore after what Spiderling said to him in the previous issue, but wait, if Normie is here, who’s piloting the giant Green Goblin-bot? He tells them that it is Ms. January, his secretary, that is inside the giant mech.
We’re thrown back into the battle outside and now we are shown Ms. January inside the Green Goblin-bot obsessed with trying to kill Spider-Man. Spidey is still trying to fine the storage area and Ms. January decides to launch the suit up high into the atmosphere, to suffocate Spider-Man. While the air is beginning to thin, Spider-Man finds it and puts one of his mini spider bots to try and override, but it back fires and shocks him and removes him of all his spider abilities instead. Ms. January announces this was all done for Normie. Spinerette comes to Spider-Man’s rescue as he is free falling, but the two get blasted and Spinerette is also left with no powers and no symbiote. The symbiote looks to be completely destroyed here.
Back in Oscorp HQ, Normie has a plan to take down his Green Goblin-bot and attaches a camera to Spiderling’s helmet, so he can guide her through. While being guided inside the giant bot, Spiderling tells Normie that he doesn’t have to be alone anymore - that they can be friends. She finds her way to the central nervous system and Normie tells her to destroy the orb found there and she does. The Green Goblin-bot slowly shatters into pieces and Normie loses connection to Spiderling’s camera. He runs off to see if she is ok and we find our heroine without a scratch.
Normie returns the storage orb that contains all of the powers of Spider-Man and the X-Men and we get a nice touching moment between Spiderling and Normie. Spiderling has a monologue about having so much love from the day she was born that she chooses to share that love with those less fortunate. Fast forward to 8 years later and it’s the end of Annie May’s birthday party. She is now a full fledged teenager and her parents gift her a brand new costume. The Spider family web slings to a happy ending.
Art
Brian Level’s art in this issue looks more rushed than in issue 11. It still very much emulates Ryan Stegman’s style, but a few of the faces look a bit off to me in this issue compared to last, especially near the end of the book. Jesus Aburtov’s colours are as bright and colourful throughout this issue as any of the one’s he’s worked on for this book and no complaints from me there.
Final Thoughts
As a final send off issue from the original creative team, this was a very heart warming and a touching conclusion. You don’t get many happy ending stories like this, so this was a special one. With this final arc, the book focus seems to shift from a Spider family centric book to more about their daughter and I’m sure we’ll get to see more of it with the new creative team of Jody Houser and Nick Roche. The art was a bit of a downer for me coming from Level’s previous issue, but Aburtov’s colours make it all better. This was a proper love letter ending to the full year we’ve received of Renew Your Vows and I’m all in for teenager Spiderling and her adventures.
7.5/10
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