Editor's Note: Amazing Spider-Man #598 arrives in stores tomorrow, June 24.

"American Son: Part 4"

It's very difficult to discuss this fourth chapter of "American Son" without spoiling things for those who have yet to read the issue. Since the last issue ended with a cliffhanger that suggested that our hero had been shot in the head at point-blank range by his arch-enemy Norman Osborn, I don't want to give away any clues to those people who might still be wondering whether Marvel would really have the guts to kill off their flagship superhero. All I'll say is that this issue revolves around the melodramatic soap-opera of the Osborn family as much as it does the adventures of Peter Parker.

Writer Joe Kelly cannily spends several opening pages with Norman and Harry Osborn before confirming the fate of Spider-Man, thus drawing out the tension of last issue's cliffhanger for a little longer before his big reveal. In fact, most of the issue's most important scenes concern either Norman or Harry, with Spider-Man feeling more like a lingering presence in the story than an active character. The uneasy father-son rapport between the Osborns is captured well, with a plot twist halfway through the issue that throws things into a completely new light, making an impact that is only slightly lessened by a grim sense of predictability (it's reminiscent of another controversial twist from Spider-Man history, and I'll say no more than that).

Elsewhere, Kelly continues to show a knack for characterisation, whether it's Bullseye's sick enjoyment of his work, Norah's sly use of her sexuality to further her journalistic endeavours, or Spider-Man's playful sense of humour, demonstrated by his use of the Venom mask as a Muppet-style hand puppet (and that scene happens in a flashback, so I'm still not giving anything away to spoiler-phobes).

The artwork also pushes the story into slightly-above-average territory. This storyline has been plagued by the disjointedness that comes with a rotating art team (after Phil Jimenez had to pull out of pencilling the entire arc), but Paulo Siqueira and Marco Checchetto join forces here to create some bold, well-defined sequential art that tells Kelly's story more than adequately. I like the thick lines and well-defined character designs, which are slightly reminiscent of Ron Garney's work on the book a couple of years ago.

Whilst it's still very much a middle chapter of the larger "American Son" storyline (and one that seems more concerned with Harry and Norman Osborn than it does with Spidey himself), Amazing Spider-Man #598 contains at least one major revelation and several fairly compelling scenes that promise to drive the storyline towards an interesting conclusion. This might not be the greatest Spider-Man story ever told, but it's not something that's going to disappoint fans of the book either.

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