The Amazing Spider-Man #548
Amazing Spider-Man #548 serves as the capstone of Dan Slott and Steve McNiven's opening arc in the 'Brand New Day' initiative — the first issue to close out a complete story under Marvel's bold new thrice-monthly, rotating-writer format that reshaped how a flagship superhero title could be structured. The issue delivers two plot seeds that would grow into defining threads of the entire Brand New Day era: the first Spider-Tracer murder scene, which set in motion a long-running police conspiracy to frame Spider-Man for serial killings, and the on-panel revelation that the seemingly benevolent Martin Li is the criminal alter ego Mister Negative — a twist that tied the villain directly to Aunt May's volunteer work. It also marks the first appearance of Dexter Bennett, the tabloid-minded publisher who seizes the Daily Bugle while J. Jonah Jameson lies comatose, fundamentally altering the newspaper's identity for years to come.
In "Blood Ties," Spider-Man faces a harrowing moment as he fails to prevent Mr. Negative from eliminating most of the Karnelli crime family, leaving lingering consequences in his wake. Meanwhile, Dexter Bennett takes control of the Daily Bugle, and Jonah Jameson remains unaware that his wife has sold the paper. Written by Dan Slott and illustrated by Steve McNiven, with inks by Dexter Vines, colors by Dave Stewart, and letters by VC's Cory Petit, the issue's cover by Steve McNiven and Dexter Vines captures the tension with sharp, haunting detail.
ComicBooks.com Value
This exact issue on ebay
Raw — MINT ▾ $2.99 2 listings
Raw — VF/NM ▾ $3.89–$12.99 5 listings
Raw / ungraded ▾ $2.52–$5,000 28 listings
More listings for this title
Read it digitally
Sell my copy
Have this issue — or a whole collection? Get a fair offer from us, skip the marketplace fees and the hassle.
We Buy Collections ▸History
Issue #548 was written by Dan Slott with art and cover by Steve McNiven, and published by Marvel Comics with a cover date of January 23, 2008. It concluded the three-issue opening arc (#546–548) that Slott launched the Brand New Day era with, before the baton passed to Marc Guggenheim and Salvador Larroca for the next arc beginning with #549. The Brand New Day initiative itself was architected editorially by Steve Wacker — recruited from DC Comics partly because of his experience running the weekly 52 series — who oversaw a 'Spidey Braintrust' (later called the Web-Heads) of rotating writers including Slott, Guggenheim, Bob Gale, Zeb Wells, and others, all coordinating a shared continuity under a demanding three-issues-per-month schedule that Marvel maintained throughout the entire era despite an industry-wide climate of delays.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Written by Dan Slott with art and cover by Steve McNiven; published January 23, 2008 as part of the 'Brand New Day' relaunch.
- First appearance of Dexter Bennett, the celebrity businessman who purchases J. Jonah Jameson's shares of the Daily Bugle and later renames it 'The DB!' — a change that removed Jameson from the paper he had defined for decades.
- Contains the in-universe first Spider-Tracer murder discovery: Carlie Cooper finds a spider-tracer inside the mouth of a corpse during an autopsy, sparking the long-running 'Spider-Tracer Killer' subplot that ran across much of Brand New Day and eventually implicated a conspiracy of corrupt NYPD officers.
- The issue reveals that Martin Li, Aunt May's employer at the F.E.A.S.T. shelter, is secretly Mister Negative — a plot point that had been building since #546 and tied the villain intimately to Peter's personal life.
- Officer Vincent 'Vin' Gonzales appears (having debuted earlier in the Brand New Day arc) as one of two NYPD officers who witness Spider-Man at the crime scene of the Spider-Mugger's body and immediately suspect the wall-crawler of murder — establishing Vin's antagonistic stance toward Spider-Man.
- Concludes the first complete arc of Brand New Day — issues #546–548 — representing the first full story cycle under the thrice-monthly rotating creative team format, with Slott's arc handing off immediately to Marc Guggenheim and Salvador Larroca.
- The issue is collected in Amazing Spider-Man: Brand New Day Vol. 1 (hardcover and softcover), which collects issues #546–551.
- Carlie Cooper, though introduced in #545, receives meaningful early development here as an NYPD forensics officer; she was created by Dan Slott and named by editor Joe Quesada after his daughter.
Cast · 12 characters
Full credits
Reprints
Reprinted in Spider-Man: Brand New Day #1 (2008), Spider-Man #8/2008 (2008), Spider-Man: Brand New Day #1 (2008), The Amazing Spider-Man #2 (2009), Astonishing Spider-Man #2 (2010), Spider-Man: Brand New Day - The Complete Collection #1 (2016), Os Anos 2000: O Renascimento da Marvel #8 (2022), Spider-Man: Brand New Day Omnibus #1 (2024), Spider-Man #8/2008, Spider-Man: Brand New Day #2
Key issues in The Amazing Spider-Man
Variants (1)
Reviews
Reader reviews
No reader reviews yet.