Editor's Note: Amazing Spider-Man #610 arrives in stores tomorrow, November 4.

The current "Who was Ben Reilly?" storyline draws to a close with this issue of Amazing Spider-Man, which ties up the arc reasonably neatly, but doesn't make for a particularly compelling read.

After quickly pulling back from the big reveal that was suggested by the previous issue's cliffhanger, this chapter essentially revolves around a showdown between Peter Parker, Kaine, and Raptor, interspersed with flashbacks that show how Raptor became the monster that he is today--and why he blames Peter (who he thinks is Ben Reilly) for the death of his family.

The trouble is, there's no real drama or intrigue in this situation: we as readers know that Peter and Ben aren't the same person, and that it's unlikely that a clone of Peter Parker committed cold-blooded murder--so it's fairly uninteresting to see the issue gradually trudge towards that inevitable revelation, punctuated only by the ravings of two unhinged villains.

The story is also told in a fairly messy and inelegant manner. Unlike the previous issue, the discussions of Peter and Ben Reilly's backstory feel convoluted and overly confusing, going over the past history of the two characters again when readers already have the information that they need from the previous issue (and from this issue's recap page). Also, the rationale that Peter comes up with to explain how he "knows" that Ben Reilly couldn't have killed Raptor's family is not only questionable (given that part of Ben Reilly's appeal revolved around the intrigue of seeing a version of Peter who was shaped by different experiences, and reacted differently to Peter in certain situations), but the end of the issue also suggests that it isn't true at all. Certainly, given Kaine's villainous nature, it seems surprising that Peter would automatically assume that none of his clones could be capable of murder in any situation.

The issue's artwork isn't bad, with Marco Checchetto, Luke Ross and Rick Maygar turning in perfectly serviceable visuals that tell the story adequately, even if there's nothing particularly inspired about them. It's a little visually uninteresting to have so many similar-looking characters as the main players of the story, but that's more the fault of the script than anything else.

This isn't a terrible comic: there are a few funny pieces of dialogue, a fair bit of action, and a certain sense of jeopardy created for Spider-Man himself (even if it never really feels legitimate). However, it's nothing special either, and Amazing Spider-Man needs to be a lot better than this if it's going to be able to convince readers to part with their money three times a month to read it.

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