Talk about expect the unexpected! Rather than “Renew Your Vows,” that should really be the subtitle for the Amazing Spider-Man Secret Wars tie-in: “Expect the Unexpected.” Because that’s really what Dan Slott and Andy Kubert have done so far with the Spider-Man entry to Marvel’s big 2015 event: brought a whole lot of surprises.

Spoilers abound. It’s not too late to turn back …

Our story opens up in the middle of marital bliss. Peter is working on his Spider-Man gear at the kitchen table with MJ feeding their daughter, Annie. And welcome to our first bit of unexpectedness. Their daughter isn’t May, as in Mayday Parker, the Spider-Girl of the MC2 universe. No. We’re clearly heading into a different direction here.

Trouble quickly rears it’s ugly head in the form of disappearing meta-humans. Spidey’s on the case though, heading to Avengers Mansion to see what’s going on. He finds that the Avengers (or what’s left of them) are already assembled and dealing with an unknown threat that’s managed to take out all of the X-Men (a knock at the current Disney/Fox situation?).

Spidey is quick to leave when it turns out that inmates from Ryker’s Island have been set loose, including the original Venom, Eddie Brock. Pete hightails it home to find Venom already in his apartment, holding MJ and Annie hostage. He manages to get his girls free, beating on Venom unmercifully.

Marital Bliss

But soon, a decision has to be made, as the Avengers arrive on the scene. Not to deal with Venom, but what used to be Augustus Roman, now demanding to be called the Regent. As it turns out, it’s Regent who’s been offing all the super heroes (and villains), to steal their powers. What’s Spidey to do? Help the Avengers or protect his family? Pete doesn’t think twice; he goes to protect his family, leading Venom into a burning building.

Venom is relentless, though, constantly terrorizing Parker with comments about how he’s going to “suck out the brains” of Annie. Spider-Man pours more and more into beating Venom down; his fist “wet sacks of meat.” Talk about a visual. Even Venom knows something is different about Parker this time around, commenting ,”Never fought us before like that,” right as Pete brings the burning building down on Venom, killing him.

Wow.

It’s at that moment when Peter realizes what the greatest responsibility is: to his family. Even as the Regent literally dismembers the Avengers (thereby taking over the world), Parker knows what his ultimate responsibility is. Standing there with his little family, New York in flames, he says, “Peter Parker. A dad in a stupid red and blue suit.”

The story really feels like a natural extension of the world that Amazing Spider-Man Annual #27 (a.k.a. The Wedding!) took place in. Or maybe an evolution of that book, with some interesting updates. Like Cap with switched symbols; the “A” on his masked transposed with the star on his chest. Not sure what the reasoning behind that was. I did a quick search on the internets to find a precedent, but couldn’t find one.

One of the best scenes in the book had to be when the all powerful Regent used Nightcrawler’s teleporting powers to “bamf” the Hulk out of existence. Piece by piece, only leaving Hulk’s arm to threaten the remaining Avengers with. Should’ve known at that point things weren’t going to be in the Avengers favor.

The story is off to a strong start. Already, it’s being teased that Venom might not be dead. But still, Parker making the ultimate decision to take down Venom to protect his family? That was unexpected!