Warning: Spoilers for Amazing Spider-Man (2022) #53 ahead!Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man (2002) is chock-full of iconic moments, but perhaps none have dominated the franchise quite like the rainy, upside-down kiss shared by Spider-Man and Mary Jane (Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst, respectively). Sure enough, Marvel has revisited the kiss once more – calling back to that tender moment in the most outrageous and hilarious way possible.

With Spider-Man possessed by Norman Osborn’s evil, a rag-tag group consisting of Kamala Khan, the Living Brain, Curt Connors, and Rek-Rap face an uphill battle in Amazing Spider-Man (2022) #53 by Zeb Wells, Todd Nauck, Ed McGuinness, Wade Von Grawbadger, and Marcio Menyz. As the Green Goblin goes on the offensive, he’s unprepared for Rek-Rap’s raw might – which places the two in a compromising (and familiar) upside-down position.

“Do we both take our masks off at the same time? Who kisses who?” Rek-Rap asks, leaving Green Goblin completely nonplussed; the sheer tonal whiplash the moment brings to the fight makes it the most hilarious subversion of the kiss scene yet.

Spider-Man’s Kiss Scene is the Gift that Keeps on Giving

Amazing Spider-Man (2022) #53 by Zeb Wells, Todd Nauck, Ed McGuinness, Wade Von Grawbadger, Marcio Menyz

Director Sam Raimi could hardly have known when first filming that the dramatic, upside-down kiss scene in Spider-Man would skyrocket to become one of the most recognizable moments in the entire Spider-Man franchise. The scene is so popular that it has gone from a tender moment between Spider-Man and Mary Jane to an open target for parody, with Family Guy, SNL, and The Simpsons all taking their jabs. Fortunately, Marvel has been more than willing to go along with the joke – such as when David Marquez recreated the scene with Deadpool and Spider-Man for his variant cover of Spider-Man/Deadpool (2016) #2.

There’s another key aspect to Amazing Spider-Man #53’s joke, though, and that’s Rek-Rap. First appearing in Amazing Spider-Man (2022) #17, Rek-Rap is a demon from Limbo who becomes obsessed with Peter Parker (hence his name being “Parker” backwards). While Rek-Rap is utterly sincere in his desire to help Spider-Man, his sensibilities as a demon often clash with social convention, leaving the self-proclaimed “Web-Whanger” completely unpredictable and far, far too enthusiastic about whatever it is he’s doing.

Rek-Rap Makes This Kiss a Hundred Times Better

While Rek-Rap’s humor may come off as a little forced at times, here his goofy nature is the perfect foil to the very serious threat posed by Green Goblin. As such, it’s one of the few things that has left Green Goblin completely at a loss for words, making the kiss reference work comedically as well as on an in-universe, dramatic level. Marvel has gotten a lot of mileage out of poking fun of Spider-Man’s classic kiss – but this may be the funniest iteration yet of the iconic scene.