Spinning out of the pages of ‘Amazing Spider-Man’ #687 instead of last month’s ‘Avenging Spider-Man’ #7, this issue serves as an epilogue to Dan Slott’s ‘Ends of the Earth’ storyline.

After the defeat of Doctor Octopus, this issue follows Spider-Man as he tries to deal with the death of Silver Sable at the hands of the Rhino. The way we get that is through a flashback to an untold story with Spidey teaming up with both Sable and Dr. Strange.

The story itself is rather cheesy and involves Doctor Doom coming to New York to marry the Princess of Symkaria. If Doom is allowed to go through with the marriage, he will use his mystical skills to become even more powerful… very possibly killing the Princess in the bargain. The only way to stop the marriage to Doom is if the Princess is married to someone that she truly loves before Doom can get to her. So where does Spidey fit into all of this? It seems that the Princess has had a crush on the wallcrawler since she was a kid… Sable and Strange want Spider-Man to marry the Princess!

Yeah… the setup is pretty lame and the story is a throw-away one shot. In the end, it takes a twist that allows Peter Parker to explain the true nature of Silver Sable and, in doing so, give her death some sort of a closure.

On top of a cheesy story, Matt Clark’s artwork this issue just doesn’t do it for me either. It is too reminiscent of a mid-90s el-cheapo comic or maybe one that would’ve been given away as a promotion. It’s not bad art over all but the style just rubs me the wrong way.

With a lame story and so-so art, the sole redeeming piece to this issue is the few hints that are dropped along the way. What really happened to Rhino and Sable when Ock’s base was flooded? Is the nearly-dead Doc Ock really as terminal as he seems? I guess these answers will be answered in due time. But, for now, ‘Avenging Spider-Man’ looks to be ramping back up the fun team-up action next month when Spidey teams up with the all new Captain Marvel!

Verdict: Burn

AVENGING SPIDER-MAN #8
Story by Ty Templeton with Dan Slott
Art by Matt Clark & Sean Parsons
Cover by Shane Davis, Mark Morales, & Justin Ponsor