In this review of The Amazing Spider-Man #6, Peter’s peaceful life is once again interrupted. This time by Hellgate!
THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #6
Writer: Joe Kelly
Art and Main Cover: John Romita Jr.
Variant Covers: Gleb Melnikov; John Romita Jr.; Peach Momoko; Damion Scott; Paulo Siqueira; Stefano Caselli; Mark Bagley
Page Count: 19 pages
Release Date: June 18, 2025
This review contains spoilers
As The Amazing Spider-Man #6 begins, Peter is doing well being both Spider-Man and working at Rand Enterprises, but while he’s out with Brian, Tombstone shows up and delivers information about illegal activity. As he’s waiting for the perpetrator to show up, Black Cat arrives and asks how Shay is doing. Peter thinks back to the conversation they had earlier where they both admit that they’re seeing other people while they work to figure out if their relationship should continue on to exclusivity.
Felicia also asks about Aunt May, which makes Peter think back to when he visited her at F.E.A.S.T. earlier that day. May talked to him about stability and settling down before they were interrupted by her friend Ricardo, who saw Peter when he stumbled into May’s house high on the drugs from Hobgoblin in the last arc. Though May sticks up for Peter, it’s clear Ricardo has a bad opinion of him.
Peter also thinks about a conversation he had with Norman, who is determined to put Hobgoblin behind bars. Felicia continues flirting with Peter, but they’re interrupted by the criminals’ arrival. Before they can do anything, however, they are stopped by Hellgate appearing in front of them.
Analysis
The artwork in The Amazing Spider-Man #6 is a bit of a mixed bag. The issue starts off strong with interesting angles as Peter suits up and pictures of glass bending to his strength as it shatters, but that’s about where the fun ends. The characters lack detailed expression and, unless they’re a villain, there is no interesting shading, either. The faces are also mostly drawn in profile, which eliminates much of the expression that could have been shown.
Gone are the panels filled with dynamic lighting and interesting expressions that made the characters look less like cartoons. And while cartoonish art isn’t always a bad thing, this issue uses the style in exchange for sacrificing the detail that made the previous issues stand out.
The Amazing Spider-Man #6 starts off as something of a breath of fresh air. For the first time in a long time, Peter isn’t struggling. Coming out of Eight Deaths and him being drugged in the last arc, it almost feels weird to see him so happy, but it’s a good weird. It feels like all of the work that he has done has finally paid off. There is one aspect of his life that feels disconnected from the other triumphs: his relationship with Shay.
Shay feels like a completely different character from the woman who was dating Peter in Eight Deaths. Then, when Peter withdrew and didn’t treat her as she felt she should be treated, she told him like it was and stepped away. Now, it feels like she’s letting him off easy. Peter ignored her completely while he was drugged, even after she called needing reassurance after her workplace was attacked. While we the reader know that it wasn’t his fault, we never see that information conveyed to Shay and she doesn’t talk as if she knows about what happened.
Furthermore, we see Peter basically ignoring her yet again for the few panels that they talk to each other in this issue. Though he’s able to communicate his feelings with her this time around, she still lets him off remarkably easy for someone who was already wronged by him. For all that Peter is there beside her, he doesn’t seem to be there for her, and it feels like she’s only there as an obstacle the story has to get around.
Other than that, the story is well written. Peter does face consequences for the way he acted in the past arc through Aunt May’s friend Richard, who was there when Peter passed out from the drugs at his aunt’s house. The conversation flow between Peter and Black Cat and Peter and Norman feels natural. Peter’s conversation with Norman feels like a conversation between two friendly co-workers, while he and Black Cat are very clearly more than friends.
Even the conversation between Peter and his boss feels real. He’s doing good work despite his terrible attendance. She can’t exactly scold him, so she goes for an attempt at understanding, instead. Outside of Shay, the dynamics are good ones and each one feels distinct.
Final Thoughts
The Amazing Spider-Man #6 comes in strong with strong character interactions and a positive shift that this series really needed, but the downgrade in art quality and the fact that Peter and Shay’s relationship feels inconsistent holds it back from its full potential.
