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Amazing Spider-Man Annual (2026) #1 (Amazing Spider-Man
RAPID RESPONDERS! SPIDER-MAN shows new speedster RAPID around the friendly neighborhood! Rapid has A LOT to learn about the super-hero game! But the training wheels come off when SCREWBALL live streams death and destruction across NYC!
- GenresMarvel
Kindle Edition
Published January 28, 2026
About the author
Saladin Ahmed
473 books1,773 followersSaladin Ahmed was born in Detroit and raised in a working-class, Arab American enclave in Dearborn, MI.
His short stories have been nominated for the Nebula and Campbell awards, and have appeared in Year's Best Fantasy and numerous other magazines, anthologies, and podcasts, as well as being translated into five foreign languages. He is represented by Jennifer Jackson of the Donald Maass Literary Agency. THRONE OF THE CRESCENT MOON is his first novel.
Saladin lives near Detroit with his wife and twin children.
His short stories have been nominated for the Nebula and Campbell awards, and have appeared in Year's Best Fantasy and numerous other magazines, anthologies, and podcasts, as well as being translated into five foreign languages. He is represented by Jennifer Jackson of the Donald Maass Literary Agency. THRONE OF THE CRESCENT MOON is his first novel.
Saladin lives near Detroit with his wife and twin children.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
February 10, 2026
Back up on my bullshit, back up on the scene / Done dealing with you, don't know how to deal with me (B.S. – Jhené Aiko feat. H.E.R.)
Hey folks, welcome back to this week’s edition of “what bullshit is he going to talk about now” with your host: me! Now, you most definitely haven’t noticed, but I’ve actually been trying to keep my reviewing for comic books to a minimum this year because I feel like things got a little out of control in 2025. You know, I’d be ranting and raving about total nonsense on issue #34 of some random Silk comic that came out ten years ago, and I feel like that’s too much, even for me. Also, my binge reading comics and manga tendencies have actually started to take up the time I would have otherwise used for novels I really wanted to read, so I figured it was time to take a step back. Besides, I’ve never really graduated from being a casual enjoyer of comics, and I feel like my (sometimes) derisive tone towards them as a medium would often come across like I was constantly trash talking the very thing that brings so many different people joy and happiness. And that’s not the kind of guy I want to be! You know, that person who’s always standing on the sidelines with arms crossed coming up with every reason to hate on something! Also, as someone who has always had a hard time understanding what was going on in action heavy comics, I feel like my particular criticisms towards the medium don't really apply to most readers. Not everyone has that issue where they're only able to follow along with action if it was drawn by Akira Toriyama! So yeah, outside of my resolution to be more brave in my literary choices, I also wanted to make sure I wasn’t forcing myself to write reviews for literally every little thing I read! Don’t get me wrong, I still love comics, but maybe people don’t need to hear every little thought on every little thing, yeah? With all this in mind… I’ll always make time to talk about Spider-Man. He's my guy! Which is funny because I feel like he’s the one superhero who’s most prone to inane conversations about things that don’t matter. For one, have you ever been in a Spider-Man subreddit? What am I saying, of course you haven’t, you’re a sane person who has much better things to do with your time, so let me be the one to tell you that the biggest topic of conversation over there outside of glazing the Andrew Garfield Spider-Man movies (they were shit when they came out and they’re shit now) and getting mad at Peter Parker being cucked by some writer’s self-insert named Paul, is detailed conversations on the subtle nuances of the Spider-Man suit. Seriously though, it’s like playing "spot the difference" with these people! "Raised webbing" this and "red and black or red and blue" that, and I'm just here wondering when this game of Where’s Waldo will end! Every time I see a post talking about “what’s your favorite look” and you'll just be looking at like… five pictures of Spider-Man. They all look the same, my guy!
I mean, none of this is to say that I don’t have a preference myself, so I kind of get it, you know? I'm a "red and blue" guy all the way, and there's no doubt about the several debates I've had with my dad about whether Spider-Man looks better with big ass eyes or the more proportionate eyes relative to his build, with me liking the former while my dad likes the old school look. Sorry, but as much as I think the Sam Raimi Spider-Man films are the best of the best (to the point where I call them “films”), the only Spider-Man costume I approve of is when he has large anime eyes and a huge dome. If he’s not out here looking like Mega Mind, then I’m not interested! Which I guess is my long-winded way of saying that I really loved the art of this Amazing Spider-Man Annual comic, and I liked how Spider-Man has a more stylized appearance that strikes a nice balance between something like Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects and Marvel: Ultimate Alliance. In other words, this was good because I liked looking at it... which I know sounds pretty superficial of me to stand here and talk about how the only thing that holds my attention in comic books is whether or not the art looks good, but I already warned you that my scope is pretty limited when it comes to this kind of stuff! It’s like how whenever I read a poem that completely alters my brain chemistry I want to say something about it, but because I’m not well versed in analyzing poetry, I can never muster up anything more than a feeble “Uh, well I liked the way the words go in a certain order to make a pretty sentence” and call it a day! Anyway, outside of my typical over stimulation when I read action heavy stuff, I actually liked the story well enough this time around too! Cool, huh? Sure, it’s kind of annoying how this is labeled “issue #1” and yet still has lore dating back to the Stone Age, but I was able to catch up quick enough. From what I gathered (correct me if I’m wrong), Spider-Man is teaching some new guy named Rapid the ropes of the superhero business, and in the middle of their little heart-to-heart, the city gets attacked by a new supervillain who is live-streaming the whole thing to her adoring audience. Now, I guess this was my way into talking about this comic, because I really enjoyed how this villain was a non-affectionate parody of Twitch Streamers. I mean, affectionate parodies are all nice and dandy, but I just feel like part of the point of satirizing something means you have to have some bite to the commentary, no?
This is why I can’t stand most celebrity interviews by the way, because there’s only so much ass kissing I can stand before I need to exist the premises! Jimmy Fallon's over here all screaming and patting The Weeknd on the back while they both fake laugh like their lives depend on it through those big ass veneers and I have to avert my eyes I feel so sick. The only interviews I like are the ones Martin Short used to do as his character Jiminy Glick, and that’s only because he had an active disdain towards whoever he was interviewing (my favorite joke of his was when he was talking to Bill Hader and he said Willie Nelson looked like “the first of the Mohicans”). Anyway, what I was trying to get at is that on top of everything else, I really don’t think these very popular and well off celebrities need our coddling as well! It's not like we're friends, and besides... making fun of them is fun. Which I guess is why I like it whenever they make streamers the bad guys in these kinds of stories, because I truly believe that they have an innate evil in their hearts and a rot in their souls. I mean, I’m being flippant here, but as someone who used to watch streamers (good stuff to listen to when you’re doing chores), I honestly believe that there are only maybe a handful of good ones because only a handful of them are unique. Everybody else talks the same, all screaming the same phrases like “let’s gooooo” or “we win this” or whatever highly sexually aggressive thing pops into their undeveloped brains, and I’m always wondering why anyone watches any of this shit!? If streamers existed in the comic book world, literally all of them would become supervillains! The only Twitch Streamer I even still watch is Jerma, and that’s because he’s an actual entertainer, whereas most everybody else has the personality of a thumbtack. But it's not like I'm watching each and every of his live streams (none of them, actually, I only watch the interesting looking ones when they're uploaded to YouTube), but rather I'm only there when he’s playing weird stuff like those old Nancy Drew games. Even then, I barely watch anymore because nowadays he only ever plays slop games with three unfunny clowns calling themselves the Four Horsemen… which is the corniest thing I’ve ever heard in my life. Anyway, anyway, anyway, this was supposed to be a short review, especially when I could have easily just said that I really enjoyed this comic and I liked how it focused on the fun parts of Spider-Man rather than going too hard on the “woe is me” aspects of the character that the movies tend to lean into. This annual comic was everything I ever look for in a comic; just a fun time with cool and dynamic art!
“Not to sound like Spider-Dad, but… have you been sleeping properly? Eating right? Drinking enough water?”
“I, uh… no. And no. And… no.”
Hey folks, welcome back to this week’s edition of “what bullshit is he going to talk about now” with your host: me! Now, you most definitely haven’t noticed, but I’ve actually been trying to keep my reviewing for comic books to a minimum this year because I feel like things got a little out of control in 2025. You know, I’d be ranting and raving about total nonsense on issue #34 of some random Silk comic that came out ten years ago, and I feel like that’s too much, even for me. Also, my binge reading comics and manga tendencies have actually started to take up the time I would have otherwise used for novels I really wanted to read, so I figured it was time to take a step back. Besides, I’ve never really graduated from being a casual enjoyer of comics, and I feel like my (sometimes) derisive tone towards them as a medium would often come across like I was constantly trash talking the very thing that brings so many different people joy and happiness. And that’s not the kind of guy I want to be! You know, that person who’s always standing on the sidelines with arms crossed coming up with every reason to hate on something! Also, as someone who has always had a hard time understanding what was going on in action heavy comics, I feel like my particular criticisms towards the medium don't really apply to most readers. Not everyone has that issue where they're only able to follow along with action if it was drawn by Akira Toriyama! So yeah, outside of my resolution to be more brave in my literary choices, I also wanted to make sure I wasn’t forcing myself to write reviews for literally every little thing I read! Don’t get me wrong, I still love comics, but maybe people don’t need to hear every little thought on every little thing, yeah? With all this in mind… I’ll always make time to talk about Spider-Man. He's my guy! Which is funny because I feel like he’s the one superhero who’s most prone to inane conversations about things that don’t matter. For one, have you ever been in a Spider-Man subreddit? What am I saying, of course you haven’t, you’re a sane person who has much better things to do with your time, so let me be the one to tell you that the biggest topic of conversation over there outside of glazing the Andrew Garfield Spider-Man movies (they were shit when they came out and they’re shit now) and getting mad at Peter Parker being cucked by some writer’s self-insert named Paul, is detailed conversations on the subtle nuances of the Spider-Man suit. Seriously though, it’s like playing "spot the difference" with these people! "Raised webbing" this and "red and black or red and blue" that, and I'm just here wondering when this game of Where’s Waldo will end! Every time I see a post talking about “what’s your favorite look” and you'll just be looking at like… five pictures of Spider-Man. They all look the same, my guy!
I mean, none of this is to say that I don’t have a preference myself, so I kind of get it, you know? I'm a "red and blue" guy all the way, and there's no doubt about the several debates I've had with my dad about whether Spider-Man looks better with big ass eyes or the more proportionate eyes relative to his build, with me liking the former while my dad likes the old school look. Sorry, but as much as I think the Sam Raimi Spider-Man films are the best of the best (to the point where I call them “films”), the only Spider-Man costume I approve of is when he has large anime eyes and a huge dome. If he’s not out here looking like Mega Mind, then I’m not interested! Which I guess is my long-winded way of saying that I really loved the art of this Amazing Spider-Man Annual comic, and I liked how Spider-Man has a more stylized appearance that strikes a nice balance between something like Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects and Marvel: Ultimate Alliance. In other words, this was good because I liked looking at it... which I know sounds pretty superficial of me to stand here and talk about how the only thing that holds my attention in comic books is whether or not the art looks good, but I already warned you that my scope is pretty limited when it comes to this kind of stuff! It’s like how whenever I read a poem that completely alters my brain chemistry I want to say something about it, but because I’m not well versed in analyzing poetry, I can never muster up anything more than a feeble “Uh, well I liked the way the words go in a certain order to make a pretty sentence” and call it a day! Anyway, outside of my typical over stimulation when I read action heavy stuff, I actually liked the story well enough this time around too! Cool, huh? Sure, it’s kind of annoying how this is labeled “issue #1” and yet still has lore dating back to the Stone Age, but I was able to catch up quick enough. From what I gathered (correct me if I’m wrong), Spider-Man is teaching some new guy named Rapid the ropes of the superhero business, and in the middle of their little heart-to-heart, the city gets attacked by a new supervillain who is live-streaming the whole thing to her adoring audience. Now, I guess this was my way into talking about this comic, because I really enjoyed how this villain was a non-affectionate parody of Twitch Streamers. I mean, affectionate parodies are all nice and dandy, but I just feel like part of the point of satirizing something means you have to have some bite to the commentary, no?
This is why I can’t stand most celebrity interviews by the way, because there’s only so much ass kissing I can stand before I need to exist the premises! Jimmy Fallon's over here all screaming and patting The Weeknd on the back while they both fake laugh like their lives depend on it through those big ass veneers and I have to avert my eyes I feel so sick. The only interviews I like are the ones Martin Short used to do as his character Jiminy Glick, and that’s only because he had an active disdain towards whoever he was interviewing (my favorite joke of his was when he was talking to Bill Hader and he said Willie Nelson looked like “the first of the Mohicans”). Anyway, what I was trying to get at is that on top of everything else, I really don’t think these very popular and well off celebrities need our coddling as well! It's not like we're friends, and besides... making fun of them is fun. Which I guess is why I like it whenever they make streamers the bad guys in these kinds of stories, because I truly believe that they have an innate evil in their hearts and a rot in their souls. I mean, I’m being flippant here, but as someone who used to watch streamers (good stuff to listen to when you’re doing chores), I honestly believe that there are only maybe a handful of good ones because only a handful of them are unique. Everybody else talks the same, all screaming the same phrases like “let’s gooooo” or “we win this” or whatever highly sexually aggressive thing pops into their undeveloped brains, and I’m always wondering why anyone watches any of this shit!? If streamers existed in the comic book world, literally all of them would become supervillains! The only Twitch Streamer I even still watch is Jerma, and that’s because he’s an actual entertainer, whereas most everybody else has the personality of a thumbtack. But it's not like I'm watching each and every of his live streams (none of them, actually, I only watch the interesting looking ones when they're uploaded to YouTube), but rather I'm only there when he’s playing weird stuff like those old Nancy Drew games. Even then, I barely watch anymore because nowadays he only ever plays slop games with three unfunny clowns calling themselves the Four Horsemen… which is the corniest thing I’ve ever heard in my life. Anyway, anyway, anyway, this was supposed to be a short review, especially when I could have easily just said that I really enjoyed this comic and I liked how it focused on the fun parts of Spider-Man rather than going too hard on the “woe is me” aspects of the character that the movies tend to lean into. This annual comic was everything I ever look for in a comic; just a fun time with cool and dynamic art!
“Not to sound like Spider-Dad, but… have you been sleeping properly? Eating right? Drinking enough water?”
“I, uh… no. And no. And… no.”
January 28, 2026
A good story about a man doing his best even though he’s one step away from falling over. Don’t be like Spidy, Rapid. Sleep.
February 15, 2026
spiderman and rapid on the job training.
March 9, 2026
“Heck I didn’t know he was alive again. He owes me money.”
May 6, 2026
3.75
Decent main story. The backup was boring.
Decent main story. The backup was boring.
May 30, 2026
Nice artwork but it stops there for me. I did not care for the tech aspect of the comic.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews