Erica Schultz is at it again! She is continuing the adventures of Hallows’ Eve, aka Janine Godbe, fresh off her mini-series by Schultz and artist Michael Dowling. I strongly recommend you check out Hallows’ Eve #1 – #5 before you get into this annual – and be sure to check our our review of issue #1 to help get some extra insights. Not to make it sound like there is a lot of baggage to get into before you pick up this Annual, but there have been some extra changes to Janine and Ben Reilly, and if you’ve only been on the Spider-Man side of things, you might miss some key elements to one of the stories inside.
Let us get the business out of the way and start when things began changing for Ben Reilly and Janine Godbe. Reilly transformed into Chasm, which led to the Dark Web story, and Godbe’s transformation into Hallows’ Eve. Phew, that wasn’t so bad! With Erica Schultz’s story, the action picks up quickly from Godbe’s promise to get Reilly out of limbo. I appreciate how Schultz jumps into the story soon to capitalize on her limited pages in the annual. From our preview of the Annual, you can see Godbe is successful in getting to Reilly, and it is a funny sequence that leads us to that point. Schultz does a fantastic job with Spider-Man’s voice – he feels like a friendly neighborhood street hero on those pages.
Julian Shaw showcases some dynamic action poses of Spider-Man, even with his new “Goblin Gadgets,” as the interaction draws our hero into the situation. I like that this was a play on a common problem for our hero, and Godbe takes advantage of using Spidey to get her plan moving forward. Shaw shows a vast range of character interaction as the script will have sequences of talking and then fighting, so the players look great in their settings. When emotions run high, Shaw capitalizes by emoting the feelings of his characters. Andrew Dalhouse brings the colors, and the palette is perfect for making this look like a fresh world, in and out of limbo. The creative team had fun and created a worthwhile story for fans of Godbe and Rilley, but sadly it wasn’t longer to keep the fun and drama going.
The second story by Celeste Bronfman, David Lopez, and KJ Diaz gives us more Fall of X ramifications with Anna Watson’s use of Krakoan medication. The story is a great get-together for Anna’s birthday, and the “Parker Luck” is well played for a fun moment. Bronfman plays the relationships very nicely to show what is current and give elements of the past emotions shared. Lopez and Diaz give pages that play perfectly with going from a party to a fight to sad aftermath; their style gives me a vibe similar to David Aja and Matt Hollingsworth, so I hope to see them work together more often on some street-level comics.
Amazing Spider-Man Annual 2023 hits all the right notes as the leading players intersect. Hallows’ Eve is getting the perfect voice to tell Spider-Man she is tired of him dragging her down and preventing her happiness. The Fall of X hits Spidey’s world harshly, and MJ is dealing with her run of bad events. Spider-Man’s world just can’t escape that Parker Luck.
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