The Amazing Spider-Man, Vol. 15: What Cost Victory?

The Amazing Spider-Man (2018) (Collected Editions)

by Nick Spencer (Writer), Mark Bagley (Cover Art), Federico Vicentini (Illustrator)

It. All. Comes. Down. To. This!!!!

COLLECTING: Amazing Spider-Man (2018) 70-74

Genres: Comics, Marvel, Spider Man, Graphic Novels, Comic Book, Superheroes, Fiction

176 pages, Paperback

First published November 16, 2021

About the author

Librarian Note:
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name.

Nick Spencer is a comic book writer known for his creator-owned titles at Image Comics (Existence 2.0/3.0, Forgetless, Shuddertown, Morning Glories), his work at DC Comics (Action Comics, T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents), and for his current work at Marvel Comics (Iron Man 2.0, Ultimate Comics: X-Men).

Reviews

[Baba · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nick Spencer a great 'indie' comic-book writer like so many before him, truly fails to live up to his indie-book creativity expectations once under the editorship of the Marvel Bullpen. His entire 74+ comic book run was built around new villain Kindred, and this final volume was / should be the culmination of his work. I've read everything Amazing Spider-Man issue ever printed(!), and I was truly confused by the denouement! There's key interesting roles for Norman Osborn and MJ, and some neat classic Spidey moves, but overall this series is but a shadow of itself after the heights raised by the previous run of Dan Slott's. A weak 5 out of 12, Two stars from me.

2023 read

[Chad · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nick Spencer is the world's worst tease of a writer. How many times was Pete going to pop the question to MJ and then not do it. Here he brings it up again only to just completely forget about it at the end. (Don't get me wrong. I'm pleased he didn't. We already have 20 years of boring married stories with MJ and Pete. I never want to see them married unless it's the Renew Your Vows universe where MJ does more than sit home and worry.) Spencer teased out Kindred in the worst way too, teasing us for 75 issues only to reveal what everyone had already figured out by that point.

This story is a complete mess. Harry and Carly are somehow transported anywhere they need to go by walking from room to room. They walk out of their prison cell to Carlie's morgue, then Harry's home, to Norman's Paris mansion all by walking into a new room each time. Spencer just acts like that's normal without explaining it.

Then there's something like 5 different Harry's running around this story. Why would you retcon a story that's already ridiculously complicated only to make it more complicated? It's just like Spencer's blue balls of a series, Morning Glories. That series stops off 50 issues with a thousand dangling plot threads and the promise of a new semester. It's been 6 years and nothing yet. This is what Spencer does, just tease after tease and then eventually leaves you hanging.

[Sem · Rating 2 out of 5]

Don't cry because you had to sit through this "epic story years in the making", smile because it's over.

[James DeSantis · Rating 2 out of 5]

Limping to the finish line Nick Spencer's run is done. Some great artwork here muddled by retcon after retcon, none particularly well thought out, and a rushed ending. Overall...blah.

[Chris Lemmerman · Rating 3 out of 5]

God, I really wanted this to be better. Spencer built up to such a crescendo, but it fell flat in so many ways that I couldn't help but be disappointed. I'm not going to shout 'you were going to undo One More Day, how dare you not!' because that was never on the cards, but it definitely feels like there was a bit of a bait and switch involving Kindred.

These issues are a decent ending, but they feel like they don't live up to the potential. Honestly, these last few arcs of Spencer's Spider-Man have felt like that. Everything built up nicely to Last Remains, but everything since has felt like it was spinning its wheels.

An utter shame.

[Rory Wilding · Rating 2 out of 5]

I may have said this as an opening statement when I reviewed the previous volume of Nick Spencer’s Amazing Spider-Man run, a lot has happened with so many cogs in the long, ongoing narrative, how was Spencer going to wrap everything up. With the first three issues of this volume acting as tie-in issues to Spencer’s miniseries Sinister War, it does feel like you are reading something half-finished if you haven’t read any of that main storyline. It's probably a mistake on my behalf to have not read Sinister War, but considering how Spencer has not been succeeding with an over-abundance of issues, there is this desire to skip to the end.

Whilst Peter as Spidey goes up against a huge ensemble from his rogues gallery, Mary Jane investigates the disappearance of her friend Carlie Cooper, who is imprisoned by Kindred and happens to share a cell with Harry Osborn, who we all thought to be Kindred. So who truly is this villain that was introduced at the beginning of this run?

Throughout his run, you got the sense that Spencer was not only rejecting the modern sensibilities that Dan Slott brought in his extended run, but also retconned the controversial decisions that plagued the Spider-Man comics from years ago, most notably One More Day. From the romantic rekindling between Peter and Mary Jane, to revisiting the events that set up Brand New Day, Spencer wanted to progress Peter into the character that a section of the Spider-fandom grew up, whilst righting the wrongs that those fans certainly weren’t happy about.

However, the biggest criticism towards Spencer’s run has always been the decision to publish Amazing Spider-Man as a bi-monthly series as he couldn't adjust his storytelling to this kind of scheduling. So much of the comic was the constant set-up for something, only for that something to be lacklustre and we’re back to setting up the next thing. The problem is that once you reach the finale, it becomes a big pile-on in trying to tie everything up. Without going into spoilers, in an attempt to redeem both Harry and Norman Osborn, another controversial Spidey storyline Sins Past goes undone, which is a good thing, considering how yucky that story was.

Because there is so much happening with multiple characters and tying with multiple periods of Spidey’s history, it can get confusing. With so much focus on these other players, it almost feels like Peter gets sidelined in his own title and even though the final pages try to remind us that Peter and M.J. are perfect for each other (and rightfully so), how Spencer frames the last issues is weird. With Mephisto revealed to be the main villain (kind of), he challenges Doctor Strange in a game of roulette, competing for Peter’s morality, which was that the whole point of this run? This framing device comes out of nowhere as Strange rarely appeared in this run and if perhaps Spencer probably set this up earlier, it could’ve worked, but again, there were too many issues that caused a lack of focus throughout.

It also doesn’t help that there are too many artists involved in this book and considering the final issue was an oversized one, it allowed these artists to get their share of page illustrations, even if the transition from one page to the next can get jarring. Honestly, by the end – if you don’t count the fun backups that conclude the volume – I was glad that this run was over as it dragged on more than it should’ve and hopefully the next run will do more justice with the wall-crawler, and based on the positive reviews towards the current Beyond run, I’m excited.

[Oneirosophos · Rating 1 out of 5]

YES!

FINALLY!!

WE GET RID OF NICK SPENCER!!!

ONE OF THE WORST WRITERS EVER ON SPIDEY!!!!

HOORAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Craig · Rating 2 out of 5]

This. Was. Not. Good...

[Shannon Appelcline · Rating 2 out of 5]

What a convoluted mess of a finale.

I mean, if you're going to base your run on a violently aggressive retcon, I suppose it's good form to retcon the second most hated Spider-Man story ever. But simultaneously hinting that you're going after the most hated Spider-Man story ever is still not cool.

And it might have been nice to have some foreshadowing.

And the mess to retcon the mess is just such a mess. I mean, we have at least four Harrys in this arc (Harry corpse, Harry soul, live Harry, uploaded Harry). And then there are continuity inserts who come out of left field.

And c'mon, the hints about Peter (re)proposing to MJ are just dropped on the ground.

And that's not even talking about the Sinister War, critically important to this arc, horribly worthless, and not included.

Feh.

[Rylan · Rating 4 out of 5]

The ending, I cried.

[I.Shayan · Rating 2 out of 5]

بالاخره ران وحشتناک اسپنسر تموم شد
۷۵ شماره اصلی که خیلی هاشون تعداد صفحاتی بیشتر از حد استاندارد داشتن و ۲۹ شماره فرعی و با همه ی این ها پایان بندی بشدت شتاب زده و هول هولکی بود و البته مشخصا در لحظات آخر تغییر پیدا کرده از عوض شدن هویت شخصیت بد یعنی کیندر ۳ ساله دارن روش مانور میندن تا حذف شدن خواستگاری پیتر از مریجین.
اسپنسر بشدت نویسنده ی بدیه و غرق شده توی نوستالژی و داستان های بی اهمیت گذشته. به لطف این آقا من دیگه علاقه ای به ادامه دادان این مجموعه ندادم مجموعه‌ای که نزدیک به ۱۰ ساله مرتب دارم میخونمش یعنی از شماره ۱ اسپایدرمن برتر و همیشه بالا و پایین خودشه داشته ولی هیچوقت تو این وضع وخیم نبوده!

[Derek Moreland · Rating 1 out of 5]

And so Nick Spencer's run ends as it began...shittily.

[Sud666 · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well, this was my first Nick Spencer Spiderman volume. It was ok. Both the story and artwork are of the same mediocre quality, neither pleasing nor offending.
This is the "Sinister" war which is between Doc Ock and Vulture, so obviously they are barely in this volume. Instead, we get a crappy bug villain (with a mysterious identity) and a murder mystery with Harry and Norman Osborne. I had some hope things would improve with Mephisto in the story but nope. Even the surprise of who the bug villain was not to my liking.
Spencer's run seems to be a mediocre stretch in Spiderman.

[Emmett Spain · Rating 2 out of 5]

After all that protracted teasing, the payoff is ... shite. This is a great example of how NOT to do a long tease and reveal. First off, the tease was so long that it got shockingly repetitive with its teasing (see: "There's so much you don't know" being repeated again and again over 70-odd issues) and the big reveal was weird and confusing. In his attempt to give us an ending we wouldn't predict, Spencer delivers a convoluted, weird, and unsatisfying ending.

I'm so very glad this run is over. It started off well, and enjoyed a few of the trades, but it massively ran out of steam and in the end was a huge flop for me.

And so it ends not with a bang, or even a whimper, but with a pathetic, squeaky fart sound.

[Jason · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.25
The last Issue--one Spencer Spider-Man story. Can't decide if as terrible or worse than the rest his Spider-Man stories. He's just a baaad fit for the character.

[Ondra Král · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sešity 70-72 jsou o ničem. Pak přichází retcony retconů jiných retconů, u kterých jsem se musel místy smát, jak jsou pitomý. Ale tak nějak to vlastně dává smysl a já děkuju Spencerovi, že zrušil největší Spider-zvěrstvo.

Aspoň něco, když tenhle run stál za pendrek.

[Blindzider · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well, Spencer's run is finally over. Does it wrap everything up? Pretty much? Is it satisfying? Eh.

The answers are revealed in expository fashion amidst a battle, so it's almost a Scooby-Do ending. For the most part it all makes sense, meaning the pieces fit. One good thing is that Spencer retcons one of the most horrible subplots in Peter's history, but the bad thing is that it just feels like that was the agenda and a lot of things were manipulated or wiped away with quick answers or excuses. It just feels unsophisticated.

The other thing I did like about Spencer's run was the solidification of Peter and MJ's relationship. I'm not sure how I feel about the changes made to Norman Osborn. Hopefully they stay true to them, because he's been overused way too much.

There are multiple artists with varying styles and skills. Not all of them were to my liking. Some were good but maybe just not right for Spider-Man. Not having a consistent artist on this run didn't help any.

I never forgave Marvel for One More Day. The way that was done also felt unsophisticated, an easy way out to fix past mistakes (but there was debate about whether they were actually mistakes). This feels the same, the only difference being they are truly fixing a universally agreed upon previous mistake. I guess this leaves the overall saga of Peter in a better place, but I don't like the idea of these back-door shenanigans that can be pulled out at anytime to correct things.

[C.T. Phipps · Rating 5 out of 5]

Clearly, a lot of fans didn't like it that Nick Spencer didn't have Spider-Man marry Mary Jane for a second time. That, in fact, he didn't propose but I think we can both agree that his hands were tied by editorial. Instead, I'll give him five stars purely for retconning the execrable "Sins Past" story that was, alongside the Clone Saga, the worst Spider-Man story of all time until "One More Day." It's retconned in the most obvious way possible and I'm surprised no writer did it before Spencer. So kudos to him.

[James Hynes · Rating 5 out of 5]

With Volume 15 of Amazing Spider-Man, Nick Spencer and co. conclude the Kindred saga. It is without a doubt my favourite Spider-Man run and maybe – maybe – my favourite comic book run of all time. I don’t usually write GoodReads reviews, but the last three years of my reading life need a send-off.
Stripping Spider-Man down to his basics, Spencer spends the first three volumes with an irreverent and personal take on Spider-Man by focusing on the multi-faceted nature of his identity – how he is defined by Peter Parker, Mary Jane, Aunt May, J. Jonah Jameson, Black Cat and even enemies like Boomerang (Peter Parker attending a Bar With No Name pub quiz on Spider-Man trivia is a strike of insane beauty).
Hunted was the first of three Nick Spencer events, and it was superb. In an interview before the run started, Spencer said he wanted to restore the status of some Spidey villains that had become a bit run-of-the-mill and overused. He did this masterfully with Kraven the Hunter. Hunted balances absurd action and comic deep-cuts with a high-stakes event-scale story.
Spencer continues with his blend for irreverent contemporary satire and absurd comic book villains with his all-female Sinister Syndicate trying to forge equality for the sexes in the supervillain industry This ASM run is a beautiful spiritual successor to The Superior Foes of Spider-Man, another of my favourite comics, and it’s great to see Boomerang and Beetle and Overdrive thrust into the forefront of a mainline comic. And then Absolute Carnage proved Spencer could add heart and interweave his ongoing narrative into what should have been a throwaway tie-in issue, whilst also establishing most of the major themes of the rest of the run.
2099 is unfortunately a low-point of the series, adding little to the overall narrative and completely misunderstood what made the original series so fresh. Ah well, they can’t all be winners. And anyway, The Amazing Mary Jane was being published simultaneously, a brilliantly fun take on Hollywood making yet another Spider-Man movie, this time directed by Mysterio.
What came next was the second event of Spencer’s run, and the best. At a whopping 18 issues long, Sins Rising/ Last Remains defined this run. As Peter’s anxiety builds and builds, his villains know the perfect moment to tip him over the edge and expose the anger that sits at the core of Spider-Man. This story, more than any, showcases Spencer’s ability to take deep cuts of canon and forge spellbinding new stories with them.
And we don’t get a breather, as Spencer uses the next two volumes to wrap up two more of his ongoing threats. Kingpin and the cronies of New York vs Spider-Man and Boomerang is as dumb as it sounds, with a sprinkle of heart on top. The Chameleon Conspiracy goes on for an issue or two too long, but it manages to cross over two quite bad stories (The Clone Conspiracy and Peter’s SHIELD agent parents) and do some fascinating things with them.
This all lead to our conclusion these last few months. The Sinister War was dumb and big, as Spidey goes toe-to-toe with six different Sinister Sixes. Whilst the event series was mainly dumb action, Spencer pulled it all together in ASM by tying together decades of comic history to retcon some horribly sexist stories of the past. We are bombarded with reveal after reveal as this sprawling series all comes together. The final issue is an event in itself, full of tears and punch the air moments (yeah, I actually punched the air. I don’t care that I’m in a coffee shop. I punched that air!).
And now it’s done. Farewell to three spectacular years. Three ultimate years.
Three amazing years.

[Aldo Haegemans · Rating 3 out of 5]

2,5/5

[Terry Mcginnis · Rating 2 out of 5]

Just as much of Nick Spencer's run, pretty boring overall, with a pretty predicable ending. Looking forward to seeing what a new creative team can do. Pass, and read the summary of Spencer's run online, if you feel you need to.

[Jonathan Roberts · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was better than the previous trade. But not by much. While things were tied up it was just not very fulfilling or satisfying

[Alex Sarll]

If I say that Nick Spencer's Spidey run opened poorly, here ends badly, and had a whole lot in the middle which really sucked, that sounds like a roundabout way of saying the entire thing was terrible. But I'm not (quite) enough of a mug to read 15 volumes – plus tie-ins! – of something uniformly awful. Dotted about there were just enough really fun bits to keep me on the hook – and those were almost invariably the small-scale stuff, literally in the case of the daft old kaiju who got shrunk down to pet size. But also Peter and MJ, the odd-couple comedy with terrible flatmate Boomerang – the funny stuff, in short. The stuff Spencer has always been really good at – just look at Ant-Man, Forgetless, Superior Foes. Then compare and contrast his attempts at epic, like the meandering Morning Glories, abandoned before it could pay off its long-trailed mysteries, or the misbegotten Secret Empire. And yet given the keys to Spider-Man right after an epic run by Dan Slott, at a time when the book could happily have spent a while dealing with smaller stories, he seemed compelled to turn much of his time on the book into a dreary slog wherein a character who's already had more secret identities than most got yet another one and loomed portentously in the background for a bit before derailing the whole thing into a microscopic examination of Peter Parker's guilt issues – not a topic which has been exactly unexplored over the past 60 years. In fairness to it, this volume does at least answer some of the run's questions, in the way Morning Glories so spectacularly fumbled. Set against which, those answers are deeply infuriating, recalling two of the most widely-mocked Spidey stories this century - I'm almost surprised he didn't find a way to reference Doctor Doom crying at Ground Zero to complete the set. And yes, in one case Spencer is retconning the original version, but has the lesson not been learned by now that some stories are so dreadful that going anywhere near them – except maybe for laughs (that again) – whether or not you intend to 'correct' them, only ever results in more bad stories? Apparently not. Otherwise...well, the issues overlapping Sinister War at least have occasional traces of personality, which is more than can be said for the yawnsome slugfest of the Sinister War collection proper. But overall, this collection is about as enjoyable as keeping up with the current state of UK politics, and without the same justification; nobody needs to be an informed citizen of a run which will hopefully be brushed under the carpet along with those dire plot elements it so inexplicably excavated. And while that's happening, then yes, I'm generally all for artistic freedom, up to and including GRRM getting distracted from ASOIAF by whatever the fuck it is this week, because that's hilarious - but Nick Spencer seriously needs someone standing over him to make sure his forthcoming projects are at least moderately funny (and he can start off by getting The Fix finished).

[Adam Fisher · Rating 4 out of 5]

ok... so after finishing this AND Sinister War, I was a tiny bit confused, so I read a few articles, and I'm glad I did, because I now understand what happened!
Let me try to break it down...
1) Kindred was revealed originally to be Harry Osborn, but is in fact not. "Kindred" is actually two people: Gabriel and Sarah Osborn, who are creations of Harry's, who believe that their mom is Gwen Stacy (since there was a story that said Norman had two kids with Gwen - YUCK!). This is why "Kindred" has been after Peter this whole time... revenge for the loss of "their mother".
2) The Harry Osborn that created Kindred was actually the digital consciousness of the original Harry Osborn, who died in Spectacular Spider-Man #200 (in 1993). The Harry Osborn that has been friends with Peter, and who helps him (on a Goblin Glider!) fight Kindred is a clone. BUT, that clone is apparently so well made that he sacrifices himself to save Norman.
3) The real enemy behind all of this is Mephisto. Norman sold Harry's soul to Mephisto for power and notoriety years ago, and Mephisto used that to control Norman and Kindred to make Peter's life a living hell. With the events of "One More Day", Marvel's controlling devil took away the marriage and relationship of Peter and MJ, traded for the life of Aunt May, all of which we have believed this whole time to be just part of his evilness. (FINALLY AN ANSWER TO MY BIGGEST SPIDER-MAN QUESTION FOR YEARS!) In fact, the real reason he went along with the deal was that Mephisto himself has had a vision where his ultimate victory over Earth is foiled by Peter and MJ's daughter (known to most as May "Mayday" Parker, though she could be named differently when actually born). With "One More Day", she seemingly would never be born. BUT even a deal with the devil can't stop true love, and Peter and MJ seem headed back on that path. Will this still cause trouble? You bet it will... but we will have to wait to see what happens.
4) After all this, it seems like Peter needs a break, because we get to see Ben Reilly, the original Peter clone, back in a new suit as Spider-Man. New authors, new Spidey, it seems like. Guess I'll find out with the next Volume!

Overall, now that I understand the whole thing, this Volume was outstanding! Nick Spencer's run on ASM will live in infamy.
High Recommend.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to like this more than I did. I really love how Nick Spencer writes Peter Parker, yet I also really respect that this book was more about Harry Osbourne than it was Peter; it provided a really nice character study. But.... this whole book felt like it was all about either tying up loose ends or undoing past story slip-ups. As someone who is pretty new to reading Spidey canon (I pretty much started with Spencer's run), I was very confused for a vast majority of this. Still, there were some nice messages and some nice art, and I liked the short little story about Uncle Ben at the end. Not a terrible book, but it definitely felt like it was more focused on a canon-wide agenda, rather than just telling a good story. Which is disappointing because when Nick Spencer is just given the chance to write a Spidey story, he writes EXCELLENT Spidey stories. (Also, I'm assuming there's another separate TPB that showcases the Sinister War in more detail; not exactly a ton of action in this for the build-up of uniting all these villains. I'm assuming that story is somewhere else and the "Amazing Spider-Man" title was focused more the psychological fallout.)

[Rocky Sunico · Rating 2 out of 5]

It took me a while to get around to this book and I still haven't read the separate Sinister War event (which overlaps with this book), but this stands well enough on its own. It's the big finale for Nick Spencer's run on the comic and...I guess your appreciation for this depends on how much you've enjoyed these comics. Totally mixed bag with a lot of interesting ideas (Boomerang the roommate!) but it also got quite complicated.

The final resolution of Kindred, the "big bad" of the series run, was a little underwhelming. It wasn't quite bad, but it also felt like it had been burned with a need to explain a lot of inconsistencies in various character stories over the years. I'm not sure if this was the perfect venue to fix all those items.

And don't get me started with Dr. Strange on the side. What the heck.

The series had its moments and Spencer had some interesting ideas, but he didn't quite stick the landing.

[Jamie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fairly decent book, one of Nick Spencer’s better ones: but still doesn’t get close to Hunted or better even, Last Remains.
While the book has decent art and is exciting, majority of it is exposition, reveals and ways to wrap up a load of Spencer’s nonsense.
However, something good did come out of it. They retconned that awful story about Gwen and Norman having an affair and children (thank god). That was probably one of the worst things that ever happened to Spider-Man, so well done Nick for removing that garbage!
I pretty much read the whole book in one go, so it must have been entertaining enough to keep me reading.
I’d recommend this book and also Sinister War.
Despite the fact there were some good books and moments in Nick’s Spidey run (particularly Hunted), I am quite glad to finally be done with this series. But to be fair, it probably didn’t help much that I read it in a completely wrong order….
Still wouldn’t haven’t been 5 stars though regardless.

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Collects Amazing Spider-Man (2018) issues #70-74

This collection should be read in tandem with "Sinister War." When I read this story, I would read one issue at a time from each collection, and then move over to the other collection, as I made my way through the story. There is some really great stuff here, as Nick Spencer's run on "Amazing" is coming to an end.

Even though I enjoyed the story, there were some aspects of the twists and turns that I found confusing, but overall, I knew enough about the history of Spider-Man to appreciate what was happening.

Issue #74 is a particularly good single issue.

The last part of this collection sets up the upcoming "Beyond" era of "Amazing," and that era will feature my favorite character in Marvel Comics - Ben Reilly!

[Daniel Tothill · Rating 3 out of 5]

My issues here lie not in story but execution. The retcons are all justified and solid choices it just happens to all feel rushed in this final issue, especially with so many characters reintroduced and then killed off without time to properly feel their deaths or impact. I have enjoyed Spencer’s run and by no means did this really let me down , you just get the feeling with a few more issues (perhaps a different structure to the sinister war miniseries and tie ins) and a bit more time , a stronger art team could’ve pulled together to help craft a more polished conclusion. The final two pages are really lovely though and helped sell what Spencer’s point was. He really loves Spider-Man, you can feel that- and that’s nothing but a bonus.

[A M H · Rating 2 out of 5]

"What Cost Victory?" Personally, I would have to called this the Manifesto of Mephisto or Exposition Power Hour, but that's just me.

The volume was fine and all, and I don't really mind the changes and background retcons since I don't really care for the specific characters it involves, though because of that, I don't really feel anything for this storyline either in general. I neither liked nor disliked the story or the result. It's just... There... Existing... And now it's over... So yeah, that's why I rated it two stars aka 'okay' instead of higher. On the positive, it certainly had quite a plot to pull all these things together, and it did have some nice panels though.