Published Feb 26, 2026, 11:43 PM EST
CBR senior staff writer Brian Cronin has been writing professionally about comic books for over fifteen years now at CBR (primarily with his “Comics Should Be Good” series of columns, including Comic Book Legends Revealed). He has written two books about comics for Penguin-Random House – Was Superman a Spy? And Other Comic Book Legends Revealed and Why Does Batman Carry Shark Repellent? And Other Amazing Comic Book Trivia! and one book, 100 Things X-Men Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die, from Triumph Books. His writing has been featured at ESPN.com, the Los Angeles Times, About.com, the Huffington Post, Vulture and Gizmodo. He features legends about entertainment and sports at his website, Legends Revealed and other pop culture features at Pop Culture References. Follow him on Twitter at @Brian_Cronin and feel free to e-mail him suggestions for stories about comic books that you'd like to see featured at brianc@cbr.com!
The major news in the world of Spider-Man is that Peter Parker has finally returned to Earth after being on an outer space adventure for a number of weeks. The problem for Peter is that while he was gone, Norman Osborn filled in as Spider-Man well enough, but Peter's clone, Ben Reilly, filled in as Peter Parker, and Ben made a bit of a mess of Peter's life.
One of the major areas where Ben caused a problem was when Mary Jane revealed to "Peter" that she has now merged with the Venom symbiote, and become the new Venom. And Ben, as Peter, was very callous to her, essentially slamming the door in her face, and saying that she and Venom deserved each other. So now Mary Jane as Venom is obviously not going to be in a good mood with Peter when they meet in the new "Death Spiral" crossover that launched this week.
In this CBR exclusive preview of next week's Amazing Spider-Man #23, by Joe Kelly and Ed McGuinness, we see the two meet for REAL!
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #23 (LGY#988)
JOE KELLY (W) • ED McGUINNESS (A/C) • CONNECTING VARIANT COVER BY IBAN COELLO
VENOM VARIANT COVER BY IVÁN TALAVERA
VENOM VIRGIN VARIANT COVER BY IVÁN TALAVERA
AMAZING VISIONS VARIANT COVER BY LEE BERMEJO
AMAZING VISIONS VIRGIN VARIANT COVER BY LEE BERMEJO
DOOM HOMAGE VARIANT COVER BY MIKE MCKONE • VARIANT COVER BY TAURIN CLARKE
CLASSIFIED TARGET VARIANT COVER BY MARK BAGLEY
SHOCKED BY THE SINISTER SYMBIOTE!
DEATH SPIRAL PART TWO!
• CARNAGE. KNOWS. Which means SPIDEY and VENOM team up again to stop the serial killer-symbiote.
• But instead of EDDIE BROCK, Peter uncovers another bombshell beneath Venom’s mask – MARY JANE WATSON! And that’s just the first SHOCKING REVELATION of this issue!
• Carnage isn’t the only problem…Peter and MJ are going to have to patch things up if they want a fighting chance to stop new hyper-lethal villain, TORMENT’s killing spree.
32 PGS./Rated T …$4.99
In the preview pages, Mary Jane as Venom is fighting against Doctor Octopus (the female Doctor Octopus) when Spider-Man shows up to help out against the villain.
Venom/Mary Jane is irritated at Spider-Man for what she believes is his curt behavior when they talked a few weeks back, and Spider-Man, of course, doesn't actually know what is going on with her attitude, so he is just bantering with Venom about his new look, assuming Venom is still Eddie Brock.
However, at the end of the preview, it turns out that Doctor Octopus is not alone, and Spider-Man and Venom are hit by a sonic attack by the other villain working with Doctor Octopus, and so you'll have to pick up the issue next week to find out how Spider-Man and Venom get out of this, and how Spider-Man and Venom hash out their differences.
Check out Amazing Spider-Man #23 next week to find out!
Source: Marvel
English (US) · 