CBR senior staff writer Brian Cronin has been writing professionally about comic books for over fifteen 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 #17, on sale next week from Marvel Comics
Currently, Amazing Spider-Man has been split into basically two parallel books. Peter Parker has been abandoned in outer space by the powerful new villain, Hellgate, and after being rescued by a sadistic alien scientist, Peter freed the scientist's other "experiments," and now Peter and the other aliens are returning each victim to their home worlds before Peter eventually returns home (he is secretly training himself to be stronger so that he could defeat Hellgate in the rematch). The other book follows Norman Osborn's adventures on Earth trying to fill-in for Peter as Spider-Man.
Spider-Man has begun a romance with one of the aliens in the crew, the warrior being known as Raelith, and in this CBR exclusive preview of next week's Amazing Spider-Man #17 (by writer Joe Kelly, artist Pepe Larraz, colorist Marte Gracia, and letterer Joe Caramagna), we see Spidey get through a bit of a hurdle with their new relationship.
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #17 (LGY#983)
JOE KELLY (W) • PEPE LARRAZ (A/C) • KNULLIFIED VARIANT BY CLAYTON CRAIN
AMAZING VISIONS VARIANT COVER BY LEE BERMEJO
AMAZING VISIONS VIRGIN VARIANT COVER BY LEE BERMEJO
VARIANT COVER BY TERRY DODSON • VARIANT COVER BY STEFANO CASELLI
SPIDEY SPACED OUT!
Peter Parker is LOST IN SPACE with no way home! Does he even WANT to return after his shocking defeat at the hands of HELLGATE?! The cosmos ain’t the friendliest of neighborhoods for Spidey and his galactic gang of outlaws. If they don’t learn to work together FAST, they’ll never leave the planet they’re currently stranded on ALIVE!
32 PGS./Rated T …$4.99
In the preview pages, we see Spider-Man and Raelith having a quiet moment together, where Peter tries to give Raeltih a better understanding of where it is like where he is from. Raelith has been attracted to Spider-Man, in great part, because of just how GOOD he is, and how different that feels for a warrior like her. So there's a great bit where they are in a part of the ship that, according to Peter, smells like a Strawberry Starburst, and she assumes that that is what Earth is like, because she sees Peter as being so, well, sweet.
Peter explains that Earth is actually a lot harsher than this, and then Raelith becomes self-conscious about making presumptions about Peter, and, in fact, overthinking her earlier kiss of Peter. Peter tells her it is okay, but also, at the same time, he explains that he doesn't think that now is the best time for them to start an actual relationship.
Raelith laughs, as she was never really interested in a full-blown relationship, as she assumed Peter was far too fragile for anything like that. It's a sweet moment, and it is soon interrupted by a strange visitor.
During his battle with Hellgate, there was a brief moment where they were interrupted by another being, and that same being, Nikodimu, shows up here, and Spidey doesn't know WHAT to do. It APPEARS that they are just here to talk, but since the preview cuts off before we learn more, you'll just have to pick up a copy of Amazing Spider-Man #17 next week to see what Nikodimu's whole deal is here.
Source: Marvel
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