Amazing Spider-Man 796
Dan Slott and Christos Gage, with artist Mike Hawthorne, set up a "High School reunion," with a large cast of Peter's past showing up in this issue, while also putting more pieces in place for the Finale of going down swinging.
Liz Allen, who is still running Alchemax, calls in Flash for a favor, while Peter is doing some reporting and attends their science event. Mary Jane attends as a representative of Stark Enterprises, and Phil Urich is the uninvited Hobgoblin.
Pete and Flash team up, Flash now as Agent Venom after the events of Venom Inc. It's cool to see Flash more mature and not in awe of Spidey. Mary Jane is back on alibi duties to cover up Peter's secret, and if you're one of the fans missing their old romance, you should definitely read this one.
Mike Hawthorne's pencil game is pretty solid for most of the book, a little choppy on some backgrounds though. All in all, this issue serves mainly as filler, but the end ramps up what Norman has been doing to himself. Osborn hasn't been this dangerous since Dark Reign. Having already killed Peter around a 100 issues or so ago, it has to be hard for Slott to do something he hasn't already done, but he's been saving Norman for this. We'll see why in "Going Down Swinging". I mean he's not gonna kill him again right? RIGHT?
