The Amazing Spider-Man (2022) #61 review: are we back?

I'd been very vocal in the past about absolutely disliking Zeb Well's The Amazing Spider-Man - so much so that I just couldn't read all 60 issues of it. Furthermore, I didn't love the direction the series was going in with "The 8 Deaths of Spider-Man". Hasn't Peter suffered enough after losing his wife, growing apart from friends and family, and inheriting Green Goblin's sins? Now we'll get to watch him physically die in horrendous ways eight times in a row? Well, yes. That's exactly how the story goes. However, there's one saving grace amidst all the chaos.

Even if I expected pure disappointment from The Amazing Spider-Man (2022) #61, I just couldn't help but have the same thought in my head while reading it: "Are we actually back?". So it was a joy to go through all the pages and find myself happy about how things played out (save for one idea that has been bugging me, but more on that later).

The quips and tone we expect from the wall-crawler are back

The first pages of The Amazing Spider-Man (2022) #61 are nothing but good old-fashioned Spidey action. We see the friendly neighborhood hero attempting to stop a supervillain called Burnout, save a citizen named Kevin who fell from a suspended platform, and also catch many of his personal stuff mid-air (such as a camera, an envelope with May's money, and a vinyl). Surprisingly enough, things turn out just fine... until Doctor Doom appears out of nowhere, scaring off Kevin who was holding onto Spidey's stuff, and all personal belongings break after a second fall.

After that action sequence, we see Peter deal with the consequences of his alter-ego. He explains to May some of her money wasn't able to make it into the F.E.A.S.T. account. Besides he also has to excuse himself to Randy for the burnt photographs and to Shay for her broken Vinyl. Now, this is what I call a perfect depiction of the "Parker Luck" - unlike Peter losing his wife to another man which was just bad writing.

To make things better, the quips and humor landed perfectly well. Some remarks can also be seen as a self-critique of Zeb Well's controversial run, such as Spidey telling himself "Who is Spider-Man if Peter gets any wins?". It's always nice to have this self-aware humor that we often expect from other heroes such as Deadpool. Besides, we also had a Scott Pilgrim reference and I swear from that very moment I knew this issue would have some of the magic its predecessors lacked.

Even if the "street-level" aspect of The Amazing Spider-Man (2022) #61 worked extremely well, it's important to remember we're dealing with a mystical story in which the wall-crawler will likely perish eight different times. On a personal note, I'm still not sure how to feel about that after all the suffering Peter has gone through. That being said, we got a small glimpse of how things will turn out from this point forward. While it's too early to tell if the newest chapter in Spidey's story will work out well or not, it's impossible to deny it started with the right footing. So for the moment being, I'll trust maybe we're finally out of the bad streak and into something truly amazing.

Veredict: A great new start

Joe Kelly and Ed Mcguinness quickly made me hopeful in The Amazing Spider-Man series, which is no easy feat after what came before issue #61. Granted, the premise of watching Peter physically die eight times in pretty cruel and unique ways may not be for everyone's liking. However, the humor landed perfectly well, the art is amazing, and the "street-level" aspect of this comic is nothing but a love letter to the character's origins. I'm still cautious about the issues that might follow, but for the time being it looks like we might be in for a great new start.

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