Despite a recent, psychedelic punch-up with Hobgoblin, Peter Parker’s life is looking up. A steady job doing what he was born to do – mad science – a relationship that’s mature and understanding, and even a reformed villain working as a sort of emotional-and-super support mentor; Pete’s life is more steady than it’s been in years.
Which means it’s the perfect time for some impossible-to-stop new villain to wreck everything.
Marvel
We’ve all read enough Spider-Man comics to know that it’s impossible for Pete to be happy for long; it’s the way in which his life crumbles before him that we see his heroism in its starkest light. Against all odds is where Spider-Man shines. New villain Hellgate seems custom-built to tip those odds, and does so with a grueling, unending battle across the city: he can’t be stopped, he’s stronger than Pete, and he’s driven by unseen destiny.
We’ve seen this sort of impossible juggernaut before (literal Juggernaut included); the events of Through the Gates of Hell bear an awful lot of resemblance to the introduction of Morlun twenty-odd years ago: big, shiny new bad guy tearing a large swath of destruction through the city, and not a single punch seems to slow him down.
Marvel
Outside of his extra-planar centurion looks, Hellgate doesn’t do much to differentiate himself from any other hulking brute, and while there are hints of something unique going on – he speaks of some fantastic destiny – he lands a little flat in the narrative (especially after the high-flying Hobgoblin adventure directly preceding his appearance).
The villain is helped along by John Romita, Jr’s distinctive style: he is an imposing figure, chunky and simple in design, but Romita excels at chunky and imposing. Hellgate is an unstoppable force for the sake of having an unstoppable force, and Through the Gates of Hell does little to establish a full motive for his destruction of Spider-Man’s self-esteem. There are Big Mysteries afoot that we’ll almost certainly get to later.
Marvel
It’s just like Peter Parker to draw into himself after a major loss, and of course, that’s what he does, self-sabotaging the happy vibes of his personal life as he broods over his defeat. He stops being Spider-Man, which isn’t a surprise: Peter Parker is always pretending he can quit the heroing life. That his absence leaves a void that must be filled never occurs to him. Hence, a new mystery: who is the new, more brutal Spider-Man?
Through the Gates of Hell feels distinctively less energetic and novel than the storyline preceding it; it feels somehow by-the-numbers, even when it is establishing new and interesting characters and ideas. Amazing Spider-Man has always had a tendency to ebb and flow in terms of energy; one would have hoped it wouldn’t have ebbed so low so quickly.
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