When missing memories fracture Ben Reilly’s mind and send him over the edge, he answers the call of limbo, where he meets the Goblin Queen, Madelyne Pryor. Sensing a kindred spirit borne out of feeling dejected as clones of better heroes, the two team up. Ben, now taking the name Chasm, has set his eyes on destroying Spider-Man and consuming his soul. Dark Web is a multi-title crossover event that pits Peter and Ben against each other once more. Written by Zeb Wells with art from Ed McGuinness, inks from Cliff Rathburn, colors from Marcio Menyz, and letters from VC’s Joe Caramagna, Amazing Spider-Man #15 unleashes hell on the wall-crawler and his associates.
Limbo comes to New York City in Amazing Spider-Man #15 as Chasm leads the demon army into battle. He’s accompanied by his girlfriend Janine, who’s infused with powers of the limbo, and a mindwiped Eddie Brock. The city is in turmoil with demons possessing any and all inanimate objects. Spider-Man rushes to Norman Osborn’s office to work out a plan to stop the demonic infestation, only to see him writhe in pain as Ben stands over him. Before Peter can get his answers, Venom ambushes him from behind. But when it seems like all hope is lost, a surprising hero leaps in to save the day.
Spidey shares the screen with his old clone, Ben Reilly, and his former archnemesis Venom, who is back to his baser nature for the purposes of this crossover. Amazing Spider-Man #15 does not bog down the narrative with unnecessary exposition. On the other hand, there is not much plot, as Wells seems to prioritize Spider-Man and Venom’s fight over other developments. Wells takes the reader back to the old days of the ’90s when Eddie and his brand of lethal protection overlapped with his single-minded desire to eat Spidey’s brains. While the roily circumstances make for some humorous encounters, the story keeps circling around the anticipated confrontation without making much progress.
The pound-for-pound exchange of blows between Spider-Man and Venom is the main attraction in the issue, and knowing so, McGuinness makes it a point to showcase the symbiote as a raging monster with overdeveloped musculature while keeping the web-slinger as lithe and athletic as possible. Chasm has a similar physique to the latter, but his defensive posture makes him look more menacing, partly thanks to Cliff Rathburn’s inks. The backgrounds do not get much attention during fight scenes, which leaves Marcio Menyz to set the mood with bold colors. From Chasm’s dark green aura to the symbiote’s black amorphous form, every element of this issue is fun to look at.
Amazing Spider-Man #15 huffs and puffs and blows a bunch of steam but fails to make ample impact through the storytelling. The issue crams in action and drama, making use of the past to revisit former animosities. Ben Reilly takes out his anger on Norman Osborn, and Venom tries to eat Spider-Man’s brain for the umpteenth time. But overall, creative decisions like throwing Venom’s character development out of the window for the sake of the story slow the book’s progress as readers are, once again, asked to read age-old narratives with no end in sight.