Comic Review: The Amazing Spider-Man: Sins Rising Prelude (2020) #1

The Amazing Spider-Man: Sins Rising Prelude (2020) #1

Marvel Comics

Writer: Nick Spencer

Artists: Guillermo Sanna, Jordie Bellaire & VC’s Joe Caramagna

A deadly Spider-Man villain returns from the grave in the Sins Rising Prelude, proving again that comics’ death never lasts forever. This one-shot follows up on the original Sin-Eater arcs of the 1980s in Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man and leads into the upcoming Sins Rising story arc in the main Amazing Spider-Man series.

Writer Nick Spencer expands on the origin of Stan Carter, killer of one of Spider-Man’s closest allies, Captain Jean DeWolff. The result is a nightmarish journey through the mind and memories of the deceased Carter, from his early childhood and a first experience with the religious concept of the sin-eater to his death in Spectacular Spider-Man #136 (1988), and finally his meeting with the mysterious Kindred, the villain who has plotted against Spider-Man from the shadows since the beginning of Spencer’s run on the series. 

Spencer does well at making Carter a somewhat sympathetic character, a direction in which the character’s co-creator, Peter David, also went for the Sin-Eater’s first appearances, which portrayed Carter as having deep-seated psychological damage. Spencer expands more on Carter’s early life, providing insight into his major parental issues compounded by an intensely strained relationship with his grandfather, his connections to the Sin-Eater’s early victims, and his post-mortem guilt over the murders he committed. The narrative told from Carter’s perspective in the afterlife, is disjointed, jumping between memories of the creation of the Sin-Eater identity and a hallucinatory talk show interview in Hell. It’s an effective technique that comes as close as possible to putting the reader in Carter’s shoes and simulating his fractured psyche.

The narrative takes some risk in what and how much it chooses to reveal of the Sin-Eater’s life. Spencer provides a fairly deep dive into the character, but glosses over his time as an agent and subject of experimentation in SHIELD, focusing more on his youth and his time on the NYPD immediately following the death of his partner. The original Sin-Eater arcs attributed Carter’s mental issues primarily to the experiments conducted on him by SHIELD, so it’s a bit disappointing not to see more of that explored here. However, Spencer does show more of how his partner’s death affected Carter, presenting it more clearly as the final straw in the Sin-Eater’s creation. This part of the issue also adds more to the stories of the Sin-Eater’s early victims, making them less sympathetic. The story capitalizes on a passing mention by Carter in “The Death of Jean DeWolff” of the religious significance of sin-eaters, which here becomes a major factor in Carter’s adoption of the identity. Minor visual cues and the religious element apparently retcon Carter’s own retelling of his origin in Spectacular Spider-Man #136. These are minor changes but they might prove distracting for readers invested in continuity.

Artist Guillermo Sanna provides stylized linework that emphasizes facial expression and emotion over realism. The overall look of Sanna’s art, combined with the dark and desaturated color palette used by Jordie Bellaire gives Sins Rising Prelude a dirty, grimy feel much like Batman: Year One, before the appearance of Kindred, introduces more nightmarish visuals. There are some well-drawn close-up shots throughout that highlight characters’ emotions, especially fear, which suits the tone of the story.
The issue also makes use of two pages of Sal Buscema’s art taken directly from Spectacular #136. While the shift works within the context of the story, it’s odd that the scene depicted wasn’t redrawn rather than directly reusing pages, next issue preview included. Carter also looks far younger overall than in Buscema’s and “Death of Jean DeWolff” artist Rich Buckler’s portrayals, lacking the white-templed hair and age lines he had in the earlier stories, making the difference in art styles all the more noticeable.

Sins Rising Prelude does an effective job story-wise at setting the stage for the Sin-Eater’s return to Spider-Man’s life, with Nick Spencer providing a great deal of backstory as a refresher on the serial killer’s deadly actions while keeping the humanizing element of the character introduced by Peter David. Spencer’s changes to the mythology flesh it out more, but may not appeal to everyone. The prelude’s art suits the dark tone of the story, though the choice to use pages from a decades-old comic produces some distracting side-effects. Still, readers interested in Sin-Eater’s connection to Kindred and in following the Sins Rising storyline will find a strong starting point here.

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