Amazing Spider Man (Vol. 7) #15 Took Spider-Man Out of This World

The Amazing Spider-Man is the most important book in Marvel Comics history. It’s beaten out some steep competition – Fantastic Four birthed the Silver Age Marvel Universe, which led to all of this, Avengers gave the world the most popular superhero team of all time, and Uncanny X-Men was the biggest seller of the ’80s. However, Spider-Man’s flagship book has always been something beyond those. Spider-Man was the personification of Marvel Comics, a realistic young hero who had the worst luck imaginable but always kept fighting. The House of Ideas had already begun the process of humanizing the superhero and the Wall-Crawler was the final, perfect of form of this new kind of hero.

Over the years, The Amazing Spider-Man has often been the bestselling title in comics. A good chuck of the 21st century saw it trading the top spot back and forth mostly with Batman, with some other books sometimes rising to the top. However, mistakes have been made with Spider-Man and this has hurt the book a lot. The final straw was the 2022-2024 run of writer Zeb Well. This run is maligned for a number of reasons and it left the webslinger at his lowest ebb. However, the return of fan favorite Joe Kelly was a good omen for a book that had been the whipping boy for every problem Marvel had as a creative entity. It was relaunched in 2025 and has been much better, with Kelly taking Peter to places that no one imagined when he started. The Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 7) #15 is a perfect example of what has made Kelly’s run so fantastic, remixing one of the coolest Spider-Man ideas of all time.

Kelly Righted a Ship That Seemed On a Collision Course With Disaster

Joe Kelly has played a huge role in shaping pop culture and most have no idea how important he’s been. He started his comic writing career in the ’90s and right away he made a huge splash with Deadpool. While Rob Liefeld walks around talking about creating Deadpool, it was the writers that came after him – Fabian Nicieza and Mark Waid – who laid the groundwork for the character we know and love. In fact, it was Kelly’s time on the character’s ongoing that made Wade into the future superstar he is today. Kelly did a fantastic job of making him funnier and fleshing out his world, giving readers the joker trying to hide their pain that they would grow to love. This would lead to stints on X-Men (Vol. 2), Action Comics, and JLA. He also was one of the co-creators of Ben10, another feather in his cap that few even know is there.

So, Kelly is honestly a way bigger deal in entertainment than most people realize. He would become a part of the Spider-Man writing brain trust of the “Brand New Day” era in the late ’00s (led by soon to be Marvel editor in chief Steve Wacker) and gave readers some fantastic stories. He was given the nod after Zeb Well, another “Brand New Day” writer that came back to Spidey, failed completely. Faith in The Amazing Spider-Man had been steadily falling since “One More Day” and Wells’ run pushed it over the edge. Kelly is a beloved creator, but most fans didn’t really think he’d be able to pull the book out of its nosedive.

However, starting with “The 8 Deaths of Spider-Man”, fans started to get Spidey stories that they liked again. Kelly wasn’t afraid to take Peter out of the street-level stories that were the heroes’ bread and butter, giving readers an excellent story about magic and the Wall-Crawler. The Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 7) premiered, giving readers Hobgoblin, new villain Hellgate, and Norman Osborn as a Spider-Man ally. An old friend gives Peter a new job and eventually he ends up in space, trying to find the power to defeat Hellgate, and ends up hanging out with Rocket. There’s a new costume and a certain vibe to the whole thing, one that reminds me heavily of the symbiote costume.

That leads up to issue #15. Spidey is trying to have an alien called Xanto make him more powerful, discovering his terrible secrets, but him and Rocket end up needing money, leading Peter to get into a gladiator fight that revealed something unexpected – his new costume is alive. Marvel teased a huge introduction for the issue, trying to recapture the vibe of the alien symbiote costume with the cover, but the real major introduction was Raelith, an alien who seems destined to be the next Peter Parker love interest. The issue has everything that Kelly does well – snappy dialogue, great humor, and cool action – with fill-in artist Emilio Laiso knocking the imagery out of the park. This issue is exactly the kind of Spider-Man fun that readers have wanted for years, taking the hero out of his comfort zone to give readers a fun story that builds up the overall plot beautifully. It’s old school Spider-Man goodness in a new school package and it’s an awesome addition to any collection.

The Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 7) #15 Is a Snapshot of a Book on the Mend

2025 was a turning point for Marvel Comics, but not in a good way. The publisher lost its grip on the top of the sales charts, with the failure of Wells’ The Amazing Spider-Man run playing a key role in readers losing faith in the company. However, the fans who were driven away by Wells missed something awesome when Kelly came back. “The 8 Deaths of Spider-Man” was the good kind of turning point and Kelly would go from there with his relaunch of the book. It went in all kinds of directions, but they all worked, even when it seemed like they wouldn’t (like Norman Osborn as Spider-Man; yes, that happens in this run and it’s cooler than you can imagine). Taking the character to space was an inspired idea and The Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 7) #15 shows why.

Joe Kelly is an underrated voice in the comic industry and has been for a long time. He made a name for himself with some of the most popular books of the late ’90s and early ’00s, becoming a writer that has several best of all time stories under his belt. He’s honestly one of the best Spider-Man writers out there, able to balance the humor, pathos, and action that make his stories so much fun to read flawlessly. This issue goes far in that direction, giving readers an exciting story that impressed from page one. It’s an excellent example of how to fix a comic that went off course. It’s not ostensibly a gamechanger, but it represents something far beyond just the impact of the issue’s events – the rebirth of a book.

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