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Spoiler alert! If you haven’t read the previous issues, I highly recommend that you do so before reading this review! Especially if you like shocks, surprises and revelations that change your previous conceptions of Spider-Man’s history!

It turns out that Spider-Man’s past is even more misfortunate than he thought it was. What could make the memory of Gwen Stacy’s death worse than it already is? Learning that Peter Parker’s now deceased girlfriend had born twins sired by Parker’s nemesis Norman Osborn. Thinking Parker is their father, who abandoned them, the twins seek to kill him, using their inherited abilities. Due to Osborn’s unique, self-induced physiology, they have his physical abilities — but also a type of progeria that hyperadvances their age.

Parker wants to help stop their aging before they die a premature death of old age. Though he is a brilliant biochemist, Parker’s abilities may not be sufficient to prevent further growth and an early death. This is, of course, a classic conflict type — helping those fighting against him — for Spider-Man and it works exceedingly well here. If you were enamored with Gwen Stacy as most of The Amazing Spider-Man’s readership was in the early 1970s, this story will resonate strongly.

Stracynski’s plotting and sub-plotting are his great strengths, but his writing is also top notch. He is familiar with the characters and their respective nuances. He knows his Spider-Man history. It’s evident that extensive research supports this story, as newly-learned events are weaved oh so neatly into the history of the characters. It makes you want to run back to your collection, pull out the old issues, and reread them with all this new information in mind. (In fact, there may be a research-related joke involving a minor character who looks suspiciously like Straczynski.) The details are the fun part. Did you ever wonder what Norman Osborn did during his time in Europe? Or why Gwen Stacy ran to Europe back around issue #97? The intensity of the story and the shock ending of this penultimate chapter leave you anxious to read the conclusion.

Mike Deodato’s penciling is nonpareil. He shows a greater range of facial expression than one usually sees in comics; I wouldn’t be surprised if he uses models. His renditions of Mary Jane and Peter, not to mention Spider-Man, are excellent.