Spider-Man, one of Spider-Man’s most famous enemies, gets a great power-up

In Amazing Spider-Man #91, the team of writers and artists working on Spider-Man’s latest series known as the Beyond Board have finally staged the long-awaited collaboration between Peter Parker and Ben Reilly. At the end of the issue there was also space for the debut of a classic Spider-Man villain in a much more dangerous version.

At the beginning of the final run, Peter Parker ended up in a coma during his clone Ben Reilly was cast as the only Spider-Man employed on behalf of Beyond Corporation. Peter slowly recovered, while Ben fell victim to the manipulations of the company he works for, which in an attempt to protect his secrets erased some basic memories from Peter’s clone’s memory and compromised his personality.

This is what the team-up directed by Kelly Thompson, Sara Pichelli, Fran Galán, Brian Reber and Joe Caramagna looked like much more concerned with keeping a clear head than teaming up with Peter who, in a moment of crisis, opened the mysterious “Door Z” and freed a creature feared even by Beyond Corporation itself, before escaping, leaving Peter the burden of resolving the situation.

The final page of Amazing Spider-Man #91 (which we share below) sees the dreaded creature from Gate Z appear: it’s Lizard, in a version never seen before. It is actually much larger than usual, with a grayish color and with two wings sticking out from its back.

Lizard, who was one of the villains in the latest Spider-Man movie (here’s our review of Spider-Man No Way Home), has been a recurring presence in Spider-Man stories since his 1963 debut in The Amazing Spider-Man #6. Since , Lizard has been the protagonist of numerous metamorphosesbut the latter seems to be the most radical so far.

In the next issue we can expect a fight between Peter and this lizard, while Ben is on the hunt for Maxine Danger, a big shot at Beyond Corporation and responsible for his recent troubles. In any case, we’re at the end of that run: the Beyond era ends with the clash of Peter Parker and Ben Reilly in Amazing Spider-Man #93, out March 23.