Review by Ian Keogh
When Zeb Wells picked up Amazing Spider-Man, the Kingpin was New York’s mayor and Tombstone was permitted to acquire his control of New York’s criminal enterprises. Both have been deposed. With Luke Cage as mayor New York is in safe hands, but Tombstone being removed from the board in Armed and Dangerous leaves a vacancy many covet. Set against this is Randy Robertson working hard on untangling the Kingpin’s legislation outlawing superheroes in New York.
Hammerhead was seen stirring the pot during Dead Language, and Wells begins with him confident other gang leaders are going to fall into line. However, previous Spider-Man by Wells has surely taught surprises are in store. Starting with the Crimemaster and the Green Goblin just over two years into Spider-Man’s history, there have been several gang wars over the decades, but never one this ambitious involving so many players. Some, such as Ringmaster, are opportunists and soon brought down, but almost every gang leader from Spider-Man’s long career is featured.
This is both good and bad. Good because surely every Spider-fan loves a good gang war, but bad because by including so many characters Wells spreads the attention too thin as far as some are concerned. It’s spread even thinner for there being so many players that Spider-Man needs allies to mop them all up, although here that quickly reduces to just She-Hulk, while some gangsters are wiped off the map supplied at the start without ever being seen. That’s because they’re dealt with elsewhere in tie-ins. As far as there is a central focus it’s on the recently recovered Tombstone and his daughter Janice, determined to do right by him.
After Joey Vasquez on the scene-setting chapter, John Romita Jr draws the entire shebang, and these days there seems to be some questioning of his capabilities. Perhaps he’s just been around too long, and anyone who’s been this good for so long inevitably becomes yesterday’s man. There are some magnificent pages here, and anyone who thinks otherwise really ought to consider how much they know about comics storytelling.
Wells needs to clear the board a fair bit before matters distil down to a definitive purpose around halfway. Just about when the Kingpin turns up, in fact. He’s brilliantly used, as is Tombstone. He’s been present on and off throughout Wells on Spider-Man, and we’ve been given plenty of insights into what he is and how he sees himself and the world. That groundwork plays into how Gang War ends, which is eventually satisfying, but it’s messy getting there because once again too many people are involved.
Overall Gang War is too crowded too often, but as a character arc it’s very satisfying and when it’s good it really hits the highspots. The fallout is seen in Spider-Man’s First Hunt.
