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Amazing Spider-Man #14

Jun 2016
Dan Slott, Guisseppe Cammuncoli

Story Name:

Power play part 3: Avengers assembled


Synopsis

Amazing Spider-Man #14 synopsis by Rob Johnson
Rating: 4 stars
Last issue Regent captured Miles Morales and added his Spider-Man powers to his super-suit. Now he's sent a distress text to Kamala Khan from Miles' phone. When Ms Marvel arrives Regent sneaks up using SM's camouflage mode and zaps her with the Spidey venom touch.

Later he combines camouflage with  MsM's ability to grow large and stamps on young Nova. Camouflage plus Nova's high-speed rocket moves takes out Captain America (Sam Wilson), much to the alarm of his pet falcon Redwing. Tech from the Ghost (captured in #12) deals with Vision.

Dr Stillwell is concerned about straining the suit and Augustus Roman's body. But Roman is concerned that now he's started taking well-known superheroes the rest of them will come after him. So he's going for broke and adding the power of Thor to his CV. He catches her by surprise but she's not going down without a fight.

Iron Man and the original Spider-Man discovered Miles was missing last issue. Now Tony Stark and Spidey's 'boss' Peter Parker, along with Mary Jane Watson, visit Miles' parents to stop them worrying where he is. They say he's won a science contest funded by their companies, and will be incommunicado for a while.

Tony did a scan while they were there and confirms that Miles hasn't been there since he went missing. And his parents haven't heard from him. But Stark takes Parker to task for promising that Miles would be home soon - they don't know that. Peter says he always covered for his pal who is Spider-Man like that, and Spidey always returned.

Stark heads back to Avengers HQ and tells Parker to tell SM to join the team there. MJ doesn't leave with her new boss, she stays to talk to Peter. She says she prefers being with Tony - she doesn't have to keep up the constant pretence she had when she was in Peter/Spidey's life.

Regent has subdued Thor and he's transporting her back to the Cellar, the supervillain prison Roman's company runs, in a force bubble. Mjolnir is in there too, but he'd found that it wouldn't move unless its strap was around its mistress's wrist. He brings her down to the secret basement where he keeps his captured heroes (previously only minor ones). Stillwell puts Thor in a tank which will keep her sedated. Betty Brant is in another 1 because she accused Roman of being Regent last issue.

MJ has joined Iron Man and SM in the Avengers' abandoned airfield hangar. Edwin Jarvis tells them that the other Avengers aren't answering calls. Redwing flies in, which adds to the worry factor. Tony is surprised how friendly MJ and Spidey are. MJ reminds him, again, that she was dating Peter when they all lived in Avengers Tower and Tony and Peter built some armour for Spider-Man. This still doesn't ring true for Stark but Jarvis remembers dating Peter's Aunt May at the time.

Aunt May and husband Jay Jameson are going out for the evening. She hides the fact that she's coughing blood.

Augustus Roman now has a meeting with Harry Lyman who has suggested a joint venture between Empire Unlimited and Parker Industries, because PI also bid for the superprison contract and they developed some interesting tech for it. (But really he's here because he knows Betty came to confront Roman/Regent and he's not heard from her since.) Roman declines, claiming that his company isn't run for profit like others but to keep people safe from superhumans, not just villains but the heroes who fight them uncaring who suffers.

Harry says that villains can reform. He was a Green Goblin when he was Harry Osborn. And a PI employee used to be villain Clash. But now he develops tech like Webware which monitors your health. A new idea they are trying is to be able to locate someone by tracking their Webware device. So saying he clicks his own Webware and it tells him that Betty is here.

Roman immediately turns nasty and says Harry shouldn't have come alone like Betty. But another click sends a Spider-signal ...

... which alerts Spidey at Avengers HQ with a recorded message saying Betty Brant is missing and Augustus Roman is involved. MJ tells about her lunch with Betty and Harry last issue where they figured out the connection between Roman and Regent.

IM jets off with SM trailing from a webline. But Regent meets them midway. During the fight he uses Ghost tech, Spider-sense, Ms Marvel's elasticity and Vision's intangibility, confirming their fears.

Jarvis tries to contact other teams for backup but can't get any answers. And we see other superheroes in the Cellar's tanks.

And Regent uses Hyperion's eye-beams, Daredevil's radar sense, Iceman's freezing power and Quicksilver's speed alongside the strength of Thor. And he defeats them both.


 

Review / Commentaries


Amazing Spider-Man #14 Review by (June 22, 2016)
Dan Slott is joined by Christos Gage as scripter here.

The ANAD Avengers are here, but only 2 issues after the cover that said they would team up inside. And still no team-up.

Peter and MJ are the only people who remember what really happened before the whole world's memories were changed by the event described in flashback in ASM#641 to restore Spider-Man's secret id. Peter, MJ and Aunt May were staying at Avengers Tower and the Avengers knew Peter was Spidey. Tony Stark built the Iron Spider suit for Peter. Then Peter publicly revealed his identity in Civil War. But #641 told us that later Stark, Reed Richards and Dr Strange combined forces to remove the knowledge from all minds (and all records), even their own.

So Pete and MJ are parroting the public version here, which Jarvis remembers. Which includes them being an item and living at the Tower without anybody knowing that Parker was Spidey. And that Pete helped Tony design the armour. But here as in Invincible Iron Man Tony doesn't remember it. Is the 'spell' coming undone?

This was part of the changes wrought by One More Day. ASM#638-641 revealed exactly what these changes were. Mephisto changed the past so that Peter and MJ never got married. But the couple didn't split up until after the later event described in #641. And it was certainly suggested to me that in the world changed by OMD they lived together in unmarried bliss before the #641 event, including in Avengers Tower. But the fact that in #641 Peter caused the spell to leave MJ with her memory of his secret id too caused her to finally leave him, as in Brand New Day.

According to Marvel Wiki the other tankees we see include Dr Spectrum, Hyperion and Nighthawk of the Squadron Supreme, Rogue and Synapse of the Uncanny Avengers Unity Squad and Daredevil.


> Amazing Spider-Man comic book info and issue index

Elektra

Excelsioring your collection:
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Holy smokes, Batman!
(The Boy Wonder)

Guisseppe Cammuncoli
Cam Smith
Marte Gracia
Alex Ross (Cover Penciler)
Alex Ross (Cover Inker)
Alex Ross (Cover Colorist)


Characters

Listed in Alphabetical Order.

Daredevil
Daredevil

(Matt Murdock)
Iron Man
Iron Man

(Anthony Stark)
Quicksilver
Quicksilver

(Pietro Maximoff)
Spider-Man
Spider-Man

(Peter Parker)
Thor
Thor

(Odinson)