Almost the entire populace of New York City has been turned into a group of mutated spider-monsters. The villainous Queen has been given boosted powers by the same experiment that returned Spider-Man’s spider-sense. Reed Richards has concocted an anti-venom to the mutations from… who else?… Anti-Venom, but has no way to distribute it through the city. Things look dire.

[Warning: there is a web of spoilers in the paragraph below]

Then from the pages of ‘Venom’ #8, Agent Venom and Captain America appear to take on the Queen with the hope that, if she goes down, so will her minions. After Venom strikes down the Queen, she only mutates and returns as a near-godlike spider-monster that is gaining power from the millions of spider-people running amok across the city. As Marvels heroes struggle to take down the Queen, Spider-Man comes up with a plan to stop her once and for all. With the help of Mary Jane, Peter proves why he is special… even in a world where everyone has spider-powers. I won’t spoil everything here but the Queen is eventually defeated. Spider-Man gets to relax for a moment before the inevitable cleanup begins next month in the Spider-Island Epilogue.

[Okay… the spoilers are done. Back to the review]

I have absolutely loved Dan Slott’s writing and the madcap adventure that is Spider-Island. However, as things escalated every issue, I had a nagging thought in the back of my brain. How is Slott going to wrap this up in a satisfactory way that won’t seem contrived? Slott put my fears to rest with this final issue of Spider-Island. He does what we all knew was coming. He showed readers, and Peter himself, why Spider-Man was important, regardless of what powers he actually has. The brilliance is in the way Slott did it. The story doesn’t seem like a pointless wrap up. Peter’s final arc doesn’t come out of nowhere. It was actually planned and hinted at already. The final page of Spider-Island is just as it should be with our hero victorious. Of course, there are still some loose ends to tie up but I’m sure that’ll be done next month in “Spider-Island No More” before Slott launches us into whatever he’s got lined up for the wallcrawler next.

I’ve loved Humberto Ramos’ artwork on the Spider-Island arc. You can search my other ASM reviews to read my gushing but, I’ve seen hints of what Slott’s got lined up next so I can’t exactly say I’m sad to see Ramos go. His art is a perfect complement to the over-the-top action of Spider-Island but that style doesn’t fit every tales. Of course, if Slott decides to ramp up the action to this level again, I hope the powers-that-be at Marvel remember that Spider-Island was a match made in heaven and bring Ramos back to the web-slinger.

Final verdict: Buy

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #672
Written by DAN SLOTT
Art by HUMBERTO RAMOS
Cover by HUMBERTO RAMOS and EDGAR DELGADO