Amazing Spider-Man by Nick Spencer vol. 3: Lifetime Achievement

While I have yet to read the actual issue where Peter Parker revealed that he was Spider-Man to longtime antagonist J. Jonah Jameson, I have to admit that this development has worked out really well in the “Spider-Man” series I do read.  Rather than broadcast this secret to the world, Jameson has since become the character’s most overbearing proponent. As a result, there’s still this antagonistic tension between the two of them so their familiar character dynamic is still there.  It’s just being expressed in a different way now.

Which is what we get to see in the title story to this volume as Jameson is set to receive a lifetime achievement award from Mayor Wilson Fisk.  The catch being that Fisk wants his buddy Spider-Man to be there to present the award so he can snag another photo-op to further ruin the Wall-Crawler’s reputation.  Naturally there are complications to this plan. Someone has it in for Jameson and he’s recruited the help of the Enforcers, the Scorpion, and Arcade to give the journalist a history lesson so that he understands why he has to die before he does.  

Needless to say there’s a lot of Spider-continuity involved, but Spencer does a good job of working it all into the story.  It certainly doesn’t hurt that Ryan Ottley has returned for this arc and we get to see his take on all this history. As expected, the artist gives it all a fresh, energetic look that’s appealing to see on the page while the modern-day action sequences are very lively.

What makes the story work is that Spencer understands that while Jameson may be a self-serving blowhard, he’s still a guy who’ll do the right thing in the end.  That leads to some entertaining back-and-forth between him and Spidey over the course of the story, because even though they’re allies they’re still not very friendly with each other.  We also get an emotional climax that helps put the pair’s current relationship in perspective, and also involves a giant robot which is set to explode. While the overall outcome of this arc may have been predictable, Spencer and Ottley put in the right kind of work to make it an entertaining journey.

In fact, their efforts on that arc make the one which follows feel a little underwhelming by comparison.  It’s a two-parter which has a lot on its mind: Following up on the status of the Lizard’s family post-”Clone Conspiracy,” seeing how Aunt May is dealing with her financial problems, and setting the stage for the upcoming “Hunted” storyline.  This may sound like there’s a lot going on here, but it all winds up feeling kind of like busywork in the end.

That’s not to say there isn’t any fun to be had with these two issues.  Seeing Spidey and the Rhino (briefly) team up to take on Taskmaster and Black Ant is cute, and I like how Spencer has been writing the villainous duo in the series so far.  The writer also gives Aunt May a good showcase for her heroic traits, and the bits involving Arcade setting Kraven up with some supervillain tech were neat. Unfortunately, while I wanted to like the Lizard’s domestic problems, they were so familiar to the point that even though they came from some half-lizard people I still found it hard to care about them.

The main problem with all this is that it feels like Spencer is just setting stuff up here rather than giving us a proper story.  I get the feeling that most of this is going to pay off when “Hunted” starts in the next volume, which essentially means that what we have here is just a two-issue prologue.  I’ve read worse such things and the art from Chris Bachalo at least gives it all a distinctive look. It’s just easier to appreciate specific moments in these issues rather than them as a whole.

“Lifetime Achievement” still leaves me convinced that “Amazing” is in good hands as it heads into its first major event.  Even if I have some problems with its lead-in, I have to give Spencer credit for doing some good build-up to it. Especially with the final page reveal of just what Kraven has planned for New York City.  It’s an appropriately large-scale supervillain plot and I’m eager to see how it’s all going to turn out.