by Kevin Gaussoin, Editor-in-Chief

It’s Week One of Marvel’s latest crossover: GANG WAR! This week we start the Gang War with ASM: First Strike, Luke Cage: Gang War #1, and Spider-Woman #1 and this event will continue across seven titles, 26 issues in all, all the way into March 2024. 

For those of you old heads like me, here’s a bit of an update for ya to get started: Back in 2007-2008, Joe Quesada ruined decades of Peter Parker’s growing up and maturing continuity with “One More Day” / “Brand New Day” (yes Editor Nick Lowe, the vast majority of us are actually still sore about it, no matter what you say in the letters page of ASM 926/35), then eventually Dan Slott came in and sneakily reintroduced a grown up mindset to Peter over Slott’s impressive 164-issue Spider-Man run. Recently, Zeb Wells came in with JR Jr, and… It’s hard to say. I was wrong about the Slott initial run and I wanna be wrong about the Wells run too, but I am still having trouble buying that Peter was such a complete idiot and such a jerk to all his allies. I guess bottom line is that it seems he’s been a dumb jerk to his friends and still isn’t back with Mary Jane and their kid is still unaccounted for. We still remember and we’re still bitter and no amount of letters page denials or Mephisto’s magic can change that continuity.

Maybe more critical to this Gang War crossover: Last year in the Daredevil crossover “Devil’s Reign”, Kingpin Wilson Fisk was ousted from being Mayor of NYC (I know, right?) by none other than Power Man himself, Mayor Luke Cage, but not before Kingpin established Fisk’s Law, aka the Anti-Vigilante Act which basically made super-hero vigilantes illegal while Fisk put super villains on the city payroll as a new roster of dark Thunderbolts to do his bidding and legally take down super heroes. It was a good story that weirdly led to Kingpin currently being on the side of the angels, sorta, as he’s teamed up with the X-Men and all of Marvel’s mutants (most all of their lives and stories are crumbling in the current “Fall of X” storyline) because his wife Typhoid Mary is a mutant, and if Wilson Fisk is anything good at all, it’s that’s he’s adamantly a loyal and devoted husband. 

So since Kingpin has been away, Hammerhead has become the de facto chairman of the current NYC crime factions and he of course wants more territory and he’s going to get it by using the old, tired, but apparently still effective “set your opponents against each other by tricking them into thinking they’re already attacking each other” plan. 

Oh, also germane to this crossover is that recently Elektra has taken up the mantle of Daredevil. Matt’s still alive, still sort of Daredevil, and the two of them got married while powering up to fight Frank Castle, the demon-possessed powered-up Punisher who due to the finale of that story clearly won’t be returning soon himself. Matt probably won’t join us much if at all for Gang War, as he’s been pretty foggy (heh) in his new magically-gained identity as a priest who works at an orphanage. 

And finally: Shang-Chi is one of the crime lords, so one of the books crossing over is Deadly Hands of Kung-Fu: Gang War.

All of this leads us to now…

Official Description:
The wedding of Peter Parker’s best friend Randy Robertson and Janice Lincoln, A.K.A. Beetle, was meant to be the event of the season, but it quickly turned into a tragedy. The wedding was crashed by Shotgun, who managed to gun down Janice’s father, Tombstone, despite his bulletproof skin. In the ensuing chaos, Hammerhead took out Madame Masque, with all the other crime bosses of NYC none the wiser. In the days since, Randy and Janice haven’t reconciled, Janice staying by her father’s side in the hospital while Randy has poured himself into activism, working with Mayor Luke Cage to repeal Fisk’s Law, which outlaws super heroes in NYC. Randy has tried to convince Spider-Man to join in his quest, to no avail. With Masque taken out and Tombstone in a coma, the delicate balance of power in New York’s criminal underworld is at risk, and the smallest spark could light the flames of an all-out war.

With Tombstone in the hospital, Janice shows up at the all-bad-guys meeting to tell Hammerhead that her father’s territory isn’t contested, cause she’s taking it! Hammerhead evilly plays “This is the church, this is the steeple…” while pronouncing “Nuh-uh, not unless you KILL YOUR FIANCÉ RANDY ROBERTSON!” Oh man, Beetle isn’t going to go for that, is she? 

Also, Miles informs Peter that he’s been a crappy friend, because duh.

There’s a fight and a reveal toward the end of Amazing Spider-Man: Gang War First Strike #1 that’s very satisfying. Great job with escalating to that, writers Zeb Wells and Cody Ziglar. Likewise great job to Joey Vazquez, Julian Shaw, and Bryan Valenza. I didn’t recognize this art team, but I very much enjoyed their dynamic emotive art all the way through. I especially appreciated that blood shooting out the nose panel and all the texture tricks by both the inker and colorist. Fingerprints and zip-a-tone? Old school. Love it. To top it off, I think “TUNK — CRACK!” is the new “pum–SPAK!” so kudos also go to letterer Joe Caramagna.

So now Spider-Man needs a team but he’s hacked off all his friends, or has he?

Next: Luke Cage: Gang War #1

Rating:
ComicsOnline gives Amazing Spider-Man: Gang War First Strike #1 – 4/5 snots heard ‘round the world. 

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