Published Jul 17, 2026, 1:02 PM EDT
CBR senior staff writer Brian Cronin has been writing professionally about comic books for twenty years now at CBR (primarily with his “Comics Should Be Good” series of columns, including Comic Book Legends Revealed). He has written two books about comics for Penguin-Random House – Was Superman a Spy? And Other Comic Book Legends Revealed and Why Does Batman Carry Shark Repellent? And Other Amazing Comic Book Trivia! and one book, 100 Things X-Men Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die, from Triumph Books. His writing has been featured at ESPN.com, the Los Angeles Times, About.com, the Huffington Post, Vulture and Gizmodo. He features legends about entertainment and sports at his website, Legends Revealed and other pop culture features at Pop Culture References. Follow him on Twitter at @Brian_Cronin and feel free to e-mail him suggestions for stories about comic books that you'd like to see featured at brianc@cbr.com!
The following contains spoilers for Amazing Spider-Man #33, on sale next week from Marvel Comics.
Two issues ago, Marvel released the most notable Amazing Spider-Man #31 ever, where Aunt May discovered that she and Ben Parker had had a baby son years ago, but their child was swapped with another family's, and they were told that their son had died when he was actually raised by this other family as Cormac Crane. Now, after the villainous Torment connected Crane with Spider-Man during the recent "Death Spiral" event, Crane had his DNA tested, and discovered his connection to May.
He introduced himself to May in that issue, and in the previous issue, he confirmed that he DOES know that Peter is Spider-Man, but that he promises to keep it a secret. Now, Cormac wants to spend some time with May, and Peter is feeling a certain way about it in this CBR exclusive of next week's Amazing Spider-Man #33, the most notable Amazing Spider-Man #33 ever (longtime Spidey fans will hopefully get my joke about these particular issue numbers, which originally marked the debuts of Gwen Stacy and Harry Osborn and the famous "Spider-Man lifts a bunch of machinery" issue).
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #33 (LGY#997)
JOE KELLY (W) • ED McGUINNESS (A/C)
AMAZING VISIONS VARIANT COVER BY LEE BERMEJO
AMAZING VISIONS VIRGIN VARIANT COVER BY LEE BERMEJO
COLOR BLOCK BLUE VARIANT COVER BY DAVID NAKAYAMA
COLOR BLOCK BLUE VIRGIN VARIANT COVER BY DAVID NAKAYAMA
VARIANT COVER BY INHYUK LEE • VARIANT COVER BY TBA
• When an old foe resurfaces, Spider-Man gets an assist from DAMAGE CONTROL? Don’t they usually clean up AFTER the fight?
• Meanwhile, learn more about Peter’s mystery cousin and walk the road to AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #1000!
32 PGS./Rated T …$4.99
In the preview pages, Cormac Crane is planning to bring Peter, May, and May's boyfriend, Ricardo, to his home for some quality family time. Peter arrives first, and he sees that Cormac has brought a limo for the short ride to his place, and the two have some awkward banter about limousines.
This leads into some even MORE awkward banter as Peter recalls a time that Aunt May made him go to a school dance, but Peter skipped it, and instead just drank a few milkshakes at a local diner five blocks from the school. This forced interaction with Cormac reminds him of those days, but things are even worse here because Cormac also knows Peter's secret identity, and this leads to some uncomfortable discussion about Peter's superhero gig.
And then we get the end bit, when May shows up, and a bunch of police cars drive by. Both Cormac and Peter KNOW Peter has to respond as Spider-Man, but now Cormac is present when Peter has to make up one of his nonsensical excuses on how to run off, and now Peter knows that Cormac is finally a son for May who WON"T run off on her constantly, and it makes Peter truly feel the weight of his responsibilities, where he knows that his need to fight crime will isolate him from May more and more, especially now that she has a son who WON"T do that.
If you want to see how this all plays out, pick up a copy of Amazing Spider-Man #33 next week! Just look for that awesome Jim Steranko-homage cover by Ed McGuiness!
English (US) · 