As with Spider-man 3 and the Back in Black storyline, Marvel is tailoring a new Amazing Spider-Man arc to appeal to fans of a recent movie. Luckily, the execution is much better this time around. No Turning Back is a logical offshoot of threads that have been building with Horizon Labs, the Lizard, and Morbius.
Issue #689 improves on the previous chapter right away by ditching the pointless flash-forwards and offering a more straightforward script. Morbius and Spider-Man believe they've restored Curt Connors, not realizing that the Lizard Brain is still in full control. This adds a nice little dose of tension to the story as the Lizard bides his time and struggles to maintain his facade in the halls of Horizon. That said, I've always felt Dan Slott's depiction of The Lizard lacked some of the creepy, inhuman quality that Zeb Wells introduced in Shed. That gulf only grows wider now that the Lizard's vocabulary and intelligence seem to have expanded considerably.
In many ways, this arc is more about Morbius' latest fall from grace, and that's where a lot of the most effective emotional work is found. There's little reason to view Connors as anything other than a lurking threat, but where this arc will leave the well-meaning but sadly corrupted Morbius is anyone's guess.Slott's handling of the character is strong enough that I didn't mind the fact that Peter's own current emotional issues are relegated to the background. What did bug me was a brief interlude involving Madame Web and more predictions about Spider-Man's dark future. The sequence felt random and out of place in the context of this arc.
Giuseppe Camuncoli's art fits the darker tone of this arc in some ways. His Connors is every bit as slinky and brooding as one could hope for, and his Morbius both brooding and tragic. However, too many of the civilian characters also have a dour look about them. Perhaps Klaus Janson's inks lend to harsh an edge to the pencils.
If not without its flaws, No Turning Back is a refreshing change of pace for the series, and not a bad gateway for prospective new readers looking for more Spider-Man vs. Lizard shenanigans.
Jesse is a writer for IGN Comics and various other IGN channels. Follow Jesse on Twitter, or find him on IGN.
Source : ign[dot]com
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