Amazing Spider Man #696

With the last issue of ASM hitting stores in December, we are currently working our way through the build up to that historic event. So lets see what happened in this issue, and if I am more excited for #700 (if that is even possible).

So Peter Parker has been kidnapped by the current Hobgoblin (Phil Ulrich), and taken to the Kingpin. Luckily for Peter they just assume he is a friend of Spider Man, and not the main man himself. Max Modell was then sent a video of Parker tied up, and told to bring a suitcase that Spider Man had taken from them to their current location.
This next scene of Modell snooping around Parker's lab was genius  and really had me believing that Modell would find evidence proving that Peter was the wall crawler. It is clear to see that Max is currently in the process of putting the pieces together, but I am not too sure whether he will figure it out in time for #700 or whether we are just being teased.

Another nice scene was seeing Roderick Kingsley (the old Hobgoblin) looking around Ulrich's apartment. It felt creepy, while also making Kingsley seem dangerous at the same time. It may have only lasted two pages, but this was one of my favourite scenes in the book, which is impressive considering my knowledge of Hobgoblin history is pretty minimal.
This led us to a fight between the two Hobgoblin's which to be honest I was pretty disappointed with. I thought the art made it slightly confusing, and it just was not as epic as I expected it to be. But I guess with so much going on in this issue, it may have been hard to give it any more room.

I enjoyed Peter Parker using the web shooters against Kingpin's group of Ninjas in order to escape. He had to pretend that he was only slightly familiar with them, which you could tell Max was not too sure he believed.
The two Hobgoblins then realise they must team up in order to retrieve the Goblin Key, which has been stolen by Peter and Max. This leaves us waiting until next issue to see just how the two "geeks" escape the Hobgoblins, as well as what happens next in general in this series. Surely Peter is going to use some of his powers to fight them off, but can he hide this from Max?

I really enjoyed this issue, which is not unusual for an issue of ASM considering that Spider Man is my favourite superhero. However, issue #700 feels a long way away unfortunately, and I believe that if this milestone was not approaching then I may have enjoyed this issue even more so. I think I can speak on behalf of many Spidey fans when I say I am just desperate to have the last issue in my hands, and to know how everything ends. Saying that, #700 would be nothing without the build up leading up to it. So with that in mind, yes, this was another solid issue of ASM. Pick it up as I am sure it will make #700 even more enjoyable when it finally does arrive.


Rating: 7.25 / 10