Superior Spider-Man Issues #9 & #10

Greetings once again, citizens! This week, we continue to look at Superior Spider-Man, with issues 9 and 10.

I haven’t really talked about covers before, and there’s a reason for that; none of the covers for Superior Spider-Man have been all that noteworthy. They’re all just kind of generic shots of Spidey doing whatever a spider can. And also kissing a very surprised looking Mary Jane, pretty sure spiders can’t kiss. This one however is actually pretty neat.

Instead of going with the usual look for the title, they spell it out in the brain ridges. We can see a shadowy version of Doc Ock near the back of the brain, and Peter is up in the front, looking trapped and also like he did back when he made his debut instead of the more modern look. It’s eye-catching, makes you wonder what in the blue hell is up with it if you’re not reading the series, and symbolically tells you what’s going to be the focus of the book. Overall, pretty good.

This issue also has a different penciler than the previous ones. I didn’t have any real problem with Humberto Ramos’ art, but there were some moments where it just looked damned weird. We’re back to having art done by Ryan Stegman, the artist from issues 1-3. Though the artist has changed a couple times, the colorist has been Edgar Delgado for every issue so far, which is nice because it helps keeps things cohesive, instead of having issues with wildly different feels because colors are off.

I actually wasn’t able to read this issue when it came out. The comic shop I was going to at the time ran out of copies before I could get up there to buy it. By the time I did get it, a couple months had passed, and I’d already gotten the short recap from the following issues, and I honestly hadn’t missed much. It’s kind of sad, actually, this is supposed to be the “final” showdown between Doc Ock and Spider-Man, it should be something epic, befitting the legacy of their rivalry.

But I should probably get into what’s going on. The issue opens where the last one left off with Ock-Pete in the lab, preparing to remove Ghost-Pete. He reasons that the only way to do that is to remove all of Peter’s memories, and starts the process. However, Ghost-Pete manages to get control of his right hand again, and… tries to strangle himself. This really doesn’t make any sense, because if he’s successful in the strangling, he’ll just end up killing himself. Also, considering Ock’s still got the Living Brain hanging around as a lab assistant, he doesn’t have much of a chance of that. And indeed, the Living Brain does strap the right arm down. The memory deletion begins, and for this we delve into Peter’s mind.

This was a disappointing part of the issue. Peter’s mindscape is pretty much just a really run down looking city, which I guess is supposed to be New York, but it doesn’t look filled out enough to really be it. Maybe it’s just the places that are important to Pete? Either way, it feels kinda mundane for something as abstract as a human mind. But I suppose this makes more sense for the narrative, and it’s certainly easier to follow than other mindscape things I’ve read. Anyway, the first thing Ock attempts to get rid of are Peter’s memories of his time at the Daily Bugle, showing the building crumbling. Peter’s able to hang onto the memories though, and the building re-forms. Ock believes the only way that he’s going to be rid of Pete is to go into Pete’s mind himself.

This is exactly what Peter was waiting for though, and we see all of Peter’s friends and family come out and start ganging up on Ock. This is one thing about the issue that I like, since Peter’s loved ones are the source of his strength, it makes sense that they’d be in his mind fighting Ock off. However, Ock’s got his own mental allies, and a bunch of people from Spidey’s rogue’s gallery show up, Ock saying they’re his fears, regrets etc. I’m surprised and kinda annoyed that neither Venom nor Carnage appears, since I think they’re more deserving of representing darker memories/thoughts of Peter’s than some of the guys who do show up, but maybe that’s just me. The two sides fight, but the bad guys kinda tear through the good guys like… well, like supervillains through a group of civilians. Why are none of Peter’s superpowered friends there? No offense to Aunt May, but I’d trade her for the Human Torch when I’m getting ready for a fight.

Anyway, Ock’s gloating over Pete, but then Pete decides to rip his face off, revealing his Spider-Man mask beneath. It then becomes a fight between Ock and Spidey, and goes about as well as those always have. While Ock’s down, Peter starts in on a lecture, about how if Ock really believed the whole spiel about great power and great responsibility, then he wouldn’t be trying to get rid of Pete. However, Ock feels that his responsibility is something a tad… different. He rips off his own face, revealing a Spider-Man mask. They exchange a few blows, Pete saying that Ock’s making people afraid, Avengers being ready to kick him off the team and what not. Ock counters that he’s preventing a whole hell of a lot more crime than Peter ever did, and that Peter tried stopping him from operating on that little girl just so Ock wouldn’t find Pete hanging around. Ock says that Peter’s not worthy of being Spider-Man, and begins the mind wipe. Peter tries to fight, but that last barb from Ock really got to him, and he’s not able to fight it. The issue ends with Peter apparently being completely gone, and Ock being free.

The issue wasn’t bad, but it was kinda disappointing. The first 8 issues of the series had all been building to this, but the payoff just didn’t feel as satisfying as I had hoped.

Issue 10 mostly just advances some of the ongoing plot elements. However, it also jump around a lot. It feels like every time you flip the page, it’s a different scene focusing on different characters. I’ve been liking Dan Slott’s writing so far, but this feels really jumbled. I get that everything is happening more or less at the same time, jumping from character to character is frustrating. Because of all the jumping, I’m not going to do a page-by-page summarization, I’m just going to do each plot thread on its own.

First off, we see Captain Yuri Watanabe of the NYPD questioning officers who were at Grand Central during the whole Massacre fiasco. The officers all say that they didn’t see Spider-Man shoot Massacre, but they’re all pretty clearly lying. After she’s talked to the last one, Carlie Cooper emerges from the shadows, and the two talk about how they’ll need to get evidence from elsewhere if they’re going to prove Carlie’s theory.

Then we have stuff going on with The Green Goblin. Remember him, back from issue #4? Well, we finally get some more face-time with him and what he’s up to. We see some guys who have tattoos of the Goblin’s face offering help to the minions of a few supervillains that Spidey has taken out, taking them into the sewers to join the Goblin’s ranks. We also see Gobby fiddling with one of the Spider-bots, somehow re-programming the thing so that it doesn’t see him or his minions. To test this, he sends two of the Vulture’s minions who he’d picked up to go start a fire at MJ’s club. The re-programming is successful, and Ock doesn’t show up to help MJ out or try and catch the two brats. MJ and the other people at her club do manage to get saved by firefighters.

And finally we have what’s going on with Ock himself. Since Ghost-Pete’s not hanging around anymore, and Ock no longer has Pete’s memories, I am henceforth just going to call him Ock (or Spidey while he’s in costume). Anyway, Ock takes down two supervillains/crime bosses (whose minions I mentioned in the Goblin part) before getting to class. It’s test day, and while most of the class is still just beginning, Ock is already done and rubbing his brilliance in everyone’s face, including Dr. Lamaze. On his way out, he makes plans to see Anna Maria that evening. Later on, Peter is having dinner with his Aunt May, her husband John Jameson, and J. Jonah Jameson. Yeah, before this I had no idea that Peter and Jonah were related. Kinda weird, if you ask me, but then again there was a point in the comics where Ock was engaged to Aunt May, which is REALLY weird given what’s going on now. Anyway, Ock tells May about all the great things that are going on in his life, and May seems pleased that “Peter” is finally living up to his potential.

Ock then goes to see Anna Maria for dessert. That’s not a euphemism for anything, she really invited him for dessert. The dish she’s preparing involves using dry ice in the process, but she slips off her stool while handling it, and nearly gets a face full of dry ice. Ock however is able to grab it before it lands on her face, burning his hand. While she’s treating the burn, she leans in and they share a kiss but end up getting interrupted by Ock’s phone alerting him to a Spider-Man emergency. Anna Maria is understanding, and says she’ll be waiting for him. Ock takes out another supervillain/crime boss, bringing him up to a total of three for today. Yep, three crime bosses whose minions are now all working for the same guy. Truly today was a victory for the forces of good.

I’m sort of at a loss as to what more to say about these two issues. Like I said, during my initial reading of the series, I wasn’t able to get these two issues, but it made almost no difference. The recap pages informed me of the plot points that were important, and seeing them wasn’t any more spectacular. I like the way the plot is going at this point, with the Goblin scheming in the shadows right under Ock’s nose, and Carlie trying to prove that Ock’s inside Pete’s body. I also like the developing relationship between Ock and Anna Maria. It shows a side of Ock I haven’t seen before, and I really like Anna Maria.

This marks the end of the first act of Superior Spider-Man, in my eyes. Every issue up to this point, there’s been an underlying conflict between Peter and Ock. Everything Ock was doing felt like he was trying to one-up Peter, and Peter was trying to find a way to get a message to someone else, so that they’d know that it wasn’t him calling the shots. But Peter’s gone now, that conflict has ended. Issue 10 could technically be considered the beginning of act two, but I feel it fits better as the falling action of act one.

So how is act two different? Where will Ock and Anna Maria’s relationship go? What is the Goblin’s Plan? Will Carlie find the proof she needs? Well, come back in three weeks to find out! Why three weeks? Well, check the schedule to find out!

(Sorry about the lack of pictures this week, nothing really jumped out at me this time.)

Superior Spider-Man #6-8

Greetings once again, citizens! This week, we continue our look at Superior Spider-Man, starting with issue #6!

Wait… that’s not right…

So, funny story. When I went to the comic shop to grab issue #6 of the series, I saw this with the #6 on it, and just assumed that it was the correct issue. But alas, it was not. As the cover indicates, this is a tie-in to the big event that was going on at the time, Age of Ultron (and event I wasn’t reading because I don’t really care about Ultron). Now, I figured that this would tie in to the events of the event, but still have something to do with the plots that were going on in the main book. I was mistaken. I read the issue and felt gipped. It had nothing to do with the plots that were going on, and ultimately nothing really happened in it. I shouldn’t be surprised, given that Dan Slott wasn’t the writer on this, so of course it’s not gonna be the same. But I at least expected some similarities.

This is actually one of the great frustrations I have with comics; the numbering. It’s something that by all rights should be simple, but becomes entirely more complicated than it needs to be. They decide to throw in decimals, fractions, letters, zeroes, I’ve even heard of them doing roman numerals. An issue 0 I can almost understand, but all of that other stuff is just confusing. Why not just use integers? Everyone understands them, and there’s a real obvious sequencing with them. Why not have this thing just be “Superior Spider-Man: Age of Ultron #1”? Are they trying to deceive people into picking up the thing out of confusion? I’ll admit that it worked, but man, if your event can’t stand on it’s own, why do you expect me to look at other issues for it? Hell, I was considering getting an issue of the Age of Ultron comic until I picked this up and just felt betrayed. But enough about asinine numbering, let’s get to the actual issues at hand. And by that I mean issues 6-8.

Issue 6 opens with a shot of New York’s city hall with a couple of confusing tweets, and Jameson giving a speech, where he states that he will be closing down the Raft. The Raft is a jail for super powered criminals that sits out in the harbor. He says he’s shutting it down due to the obscene number of breakouts. Honestly, this makes a lot of sense. It’s not exactly a good idea to house criminals so close to such a large population center, especially when some of those criminals have the ability to melt steel and cause earthquakes.

Anyway, after getting plot points for future issues established, we find out what the weird tweets were about. A duo calling themselves Screwball and Jester crashes the press conference and shoves a cake straight into Jameson’s face, pantsing him, and then blasting him with seltzer. They capture the whole thing on camera, posting it on a website that they run. We get s few shots of people laughing at Jameson’s humiliation, including Ock-Pete who is straight up doing a supervillain laugh.

He gets a message from Jameson and heads off to city hall, where Jameson asks him to take care of Screwball and Jester. Ock-Spidey initially declines, saying it’s not worth his time, but relents after he briefly reflects on the times he’s been bullied.

We cut over to the Avengers, who have picked up on their teammate not acting quite right and are discussing what to do about him. Captain America suggests that he might no longer be fit for the team, to which Thor and Black Widow agree. Wolverine however, points out that every member on the team has a few red marks on their record, and he doesn’t like the idea of abandoning Spidey when he needs them. My only complaint with this scene is how Black Widow is drawn. She looks to be significantly younger than she should. Like “still in high school” young.

Anyway, while the Spider-Bots sweep the city for Screwball and Jester, Ock-Spidey’s got other business to attend to regarding his PhD. He arrives on campus and sees that Anna Maria has also just arrived, and is being teased by a couple of jerks about her being a little person. He flashes back to a moment he was bullied in his childhood, bringing Ghost-Pete along for the ride. Ock-Pete offers to take care of the creeps that were teasing her, but Anna Maria just says it’s not worth dwelling on. Anna Maria set up coffee with Dr. Lamaze, in order for Ock-Pete to try making a better impression on him. Meanwhile, Screwball and Jester are going over the results of their latest video. It turns out that they use the videos in a phishing scheme, getting people’s passwords and credit card info after they’ve checked out the duo’s videos. However, they’re spotted by one of the Spider-Bots. Ock-Pete excuses himself from the meeting, much to Anna Maria’s exasperation, and changes into his Spidey costume. He’s about to head off, when he catches sight of the two jerks who were making fun of Anna Maria earlier, and thinks to himself that he has “time  for one extra thing.”

Back over to Screwball and Jester, they’re trying to find another person to prank when Ock-Spidey shows up. They figure that he’s a perfect target and the fight begins. They try and get him to do some funny banter, but to no avail, and he finally manages to land a hit on Screwball, who claims that he hit her in the boob. Not sure if it was intentional or not, but it instantly makes me think of Scott Pilgrim. Ock-Spidey gets kinda flustered at this, which gives Jester the opportunity to perform a classic piece of slapstick comedy.

I’ll admit, I laughed at that. I normally just wince at nut shots, but man of man, something about it being Spider-Man made me chuckle. Anyway, while Ock-Spidey is stunned, Jester and Screwball begin pelting him with paint balloons, making him unable to see through the lenses of his suit. He tears them off and Jester promptly crushes them, echoing the memory we saw earlier. It’s at this point that Ock is no longer in a playful mood.

However, we check back on Anna Maria, who’s trying to get a hold of Ock-Pete, when she comes across a wrecked car in the parking lot, and she hears the voice of one of the jerks from earlier. She’s sickened, and immediately calls 911.

Back to the fight, Ock-Spidey webs up Jester and slams him into Screwball. He then proceeds to beat the ever-loving crap out of them. We get some shots of people’s reactions to the beating instead of actually seeing the violence. Jameson is ecstatic, the Avengers all agree to bring Spidey in and have a chat, and MJ is aghast. Ghost-Pete shows up, trying to find out what’s going on since he was apparently being dragged into a bunch of memories of Ock’s, and the last page is a splash page showing off Ock’s handiwork.

Issue 7 starts off at the reopening of what was once a combination homeless shelter/criminal empire HQ. Now, it’s going to be an emergency care facility, run by Dr. Elias Wirtham. Dr. Wirtham is secretly a vigilante known as Cardiac, who I’d never heard of prior to this (I find myself saying that WAY too often lately). He’s using the remaining hidden parts of the building to run… another hospital. This one seems to use treatments that aren’t exactly approved, and uses equipment that may or may not be legally obtained. A little girl is in desperate need of treatment, but there’s apparently only one piece of equipment that can help her, and Cardiac has to go “procure” it.

But enough of altruism, what’s Ock up to? Ah, sleeping, such a noble pursuit for our hero. I kid, of course. Everyone needs to sleep, in spite of that whole “no rest for the wicked” thing. But while Ock-Pete is sleeping, Ghost-Pete attempts to exert some control over his old body. He succeeds in almost scribbling a note, but it ends up as gibberish. Ock-Pete is woken up by an alert from the police regarding a break-in at The Boneyard, the storage facility for items confiscated in super-crimes. Cardiac is there trying to find the previously mentioned MacGuffin and stunning the guards with his elctro-staff. Ock-Spidey shows up, rousing some of the guards and getting their assistance. Ghost-Pete muses that he never would’ve bothered trying to work with the guards, and would’ve just gone on ahead. It’s things like this that actually make me feel that there’s something to the whole “Superior Spider-Man” thing, but I digress. Ock-Spidey manages to get the drop on Cardiac, and just as he’s about to deliver one of his patented Spider-Beatings, Ghost-Pete manages to make himself heard, which distracts Ock long enough for Cardiac to try and blast him. They fight for a bit, until Ock-Spidey knocks Cardiac into a stack of crates, which conveniently lets him find the MacGuffin. Cardiac attempts to flee, but Ock webs the MacGuffin, yanking it away and discovering that the item is the Neurolitic Scanner, confiscated from Ock himself. Ock gets pissed off and indignant that somebody would dare try and steal one of his inventions. He grabs Cardiac by the throat and is about to punch his lights out, when Ghost-Pete once again interferes, this time forcing Ock-Spidey to let go of Cardiac’s throat, allowing him to dodge. Ock is understandably confused, and this gives Cardiac an opportunity to deliver a powerful blast to Ock-Spidey and make his getaway, though Ock did manage to get him with a tracer. The guards show some concern for Ock-Spidey, but he just shouts about them being dolts and how it’s their fault Cardiac got away before heading back to his lab for… y’know, it’s not really stated why he needs to go back to his lab. I sorta feel like Ock's way of relieving stress is to build stuff.

While in his lab, he gets a call from The Avengers, saying it’s a top priority emergency and they need him. When he shows up however, Wolverine tells him that there’s no actual emergency, that this is an intervention. I don’t know if this has any basis or not, but to me it’s head-canon that Wolverine’s had to go through an intervention or two. I get the impression he’s gone through points in his life, where he’s struggled with things like alcoholism, anger control, and muttonchops where friends have had to get involved. This is also the point where I started noticing some really wonky stuff going on with the artwork. There were a couple problems with the art elsewhere, but man, these last few pages every panel’s got something going on in it. Wolverine’s face looks more befitting a hawk, Black Widow looks like she stepped right out of an anime except for her eyes being smaller, and Cap’s face looks completely flat with only a suggestion of features.

The next page isn’t any better. Thor looks alright, and Cap actually has a face, but Spidey’s neck has become absurdly long, and I think Spider Woman’s having a stroke.

But the next page, I don’t know what is up with Spidey, but he needs to see a chiropractor or something. Cap and Thor don’t look much better, with the shadows on Thor’s face making it look like he’s wearing a domino mask, and Cap’s pose just seems incredibly awkward.

And then Spidey flips Cap, and it seems like there’s some sort of fish-eye effect going on, because Cap’s head is bent too far back, and his torso looks way too long.

But enough about the art. Basically the Avengers tell Ock the stuff we heard them discussing before, and that they’re gonna scan him. Ock’s not gonna submit to that, and on the final page we actually get a good looking shot of the Avengers in their battle stance facing Spidey.

The next issue begins with a page of stuff about Cardiac at his secret hospital, but who cares about that given what we left off on in the last issue? We get a really cramped looking two-page-spread of the fight, but Ghost-Pete distracts Ock, and ends up getting zapped by Spider Woman, and smacked by Cap’s shield, taking him down. I had honestly expected more out of Ock-Spidey, maybe swinging away, trying to evade them and trying to wear them down by making opportunity attacks. I think he could’ve made a decent go of it since, to my knowledge, he’s quicker and more nimble than everyone else there. But nope, Ock just sits there trying to dodge everyone, relying on his spider-sense, and gets his face smashed in. He comes to during the middle of the tests, but I guess he figures that if he tries fighting back now, it’ll end worse for him.

Tangent time! So, something that is encouraged when writing comics is having a sort of mini-cliffhanger at the end of every other page. That way, it builds a little bit of tension, and encourages the reader to flip on and see what happens next. This was very well done at this point, because at the end of these two pages, we have Cap stating “All our tests conclusively prove, with nor margin for error, that you, Spider-Man, are clearly - -“ This was very well done, because it made me want to turn the page and find out what it was the tests had proven. Does Ock get found out? Can he continue his deception? Well, it seems like the editors decided to really mess with people, because the next 2 pages of the book were ads. So the tension built up even more, making me even more eager to flip the page (though I guess it’s bad for the ad people, since I didn’t even look at what the ad was for). So what was the pay off for this?

 I cracked up at that, even more than the nut-shot from before. I mean, it makes sense that they’d be concerned about stuff like that (he also says they didn’t detect any mind control or anything) given all the other times that’s happened, but MAN. The setup was so perfect, I have to give kudos to the people involved, and Cap just looks so serious, it adds another level.

Anyway, looking at the results of the scans, Ock notices an irregularity. He gets them to give him a copy of the data, and is told he’s on probation. Black Widow tries to talk with him about why he’s been acting different, but while she and Ock are preoccupied, Ghost-Pete tries to draw a picture for Widow alerting her to the issue. However, he doesn’t have any fine control, so the picture looks like nothing. Or maybe Pete’s just a really bad artist. I don’t think I’d want him on my team for Pictionary.

Anyway, Ock-Spidey goes back to his lab at Horizon, where he goes over the data, but finds it’s inconclusive. In order to get a better picture, he needs the Neurolitic Scanner that Cardiac stole. So follows his tracer to Cardiac at the secret hospital. They fight for a little bit, with Cardiac shouting about how Spidey’s acting like a maniac, but then Ock sees the scanner on the little girl’s head and he stops. He still wants to get it back, but Cardiac tells him about how the little girl’s condition was caused by one of Ock’s schemes. Ock actually feels guilt for what he did, and says he’ll perform the surgery she needs himself. He gets suited up for surgery… still in his Spider-suit… but Ghost-Pete starts trying to take control of the hand again, to prevent him from starting. However, Ock’s able to exert control.

The surgery goes well, and Cardiac and Ock-Spidey metaphorically pat each other on the back for a job well done, with Ock offering his assistance for the future should Cardiac need it. The little girl thanks Ock, and even gives him her stuffed penguin. I don’t care how sappy anyone else thinks this is, I think it’s sweet and adorable. This is actually something that kept me reading the series. I’m not gonna lie, I was kinda getting turned off on the series at this point. The harshness of how Ock-Spidey was dealing with the criminals wasn’t really something I wanted to read. If I wanted to see harsh “justice” I’d read the Punisher. But I’m a big fan of redemption stories. It’s part of why I love Star Wars so much, and it’s what kept me reading this series. Because moments like this make it clear that while Ock may have been a vile asshole in the past, he really does want to try to make things right, repair some of the damage he caused.

The last page of the issue shows Ock musing about being a hero, and also scanning his brain. Ghost-Pete gets discovered, and Ock ominously says he’s going to perform a Parker-ectomy.

I more or less said my piece about these issues two paragraphs ago, so I suppose that’s it for this week. Join me next week, for issues 9 and 10!

Until next time, citizens!

Captain Britain, part 2

Greetings once again, citizens! Today I'm finishing up my review of the trade paperback simply called Captain Britain. Last time I talked about the good Captain, I had left out a couple of details because they didn’t affect the plot that was going on in the issues I discussed. Those details are, however, important to this week's review. If you haven't read part one yet, here it is.

First, there’s The Fury. After it killed Cap on Earth-238, The Fury had a nagging feeling that it had missed something. It manages to survive the destruction of that universe and travel to the main Marvel Universe, Earth-616. Doing so drains most of its energy, however, and it needs to spend some time recuperating and also needs to consume living matter (or something, it’s a little unclear).

Then we have Captain U.K, aka Linda McQuillan. Captain U.K was Earth-238’s counterpart to Captain Britain. She was spared from being another of The Fury’s victims by her husband, who sent her to a random other universe. She’s been in the 616 universe for a little while now, and the interludes we have of her have shown her dealing with issues like stress, anxiety, terror and what-not.

The story picks up with Captains Britain and U.K, the Special Executive, Betsy and Thomas Lennox all watching a speech by parliament member James Jaspers. If the name sounds familiar, that’s because we encountered his Earth-238 counterpart, known as Mad Jim Jaspers. This Jaspers is going on for a need to round up anyone who’s super-powered and put them in internment camps. This worries Betsy, Lennox, and Captain Britain. Captain U.K is visibly distraught, stepping away from everyone else. Captain Britain tries to comfort her, but she tells him that this was the beginning of the fiasco that led to The Fury’s creation, with the speech being identical to the one her universe’s Jasper delivered.

We see Jaspers at a party after the speech. The scene doesn’t serve much of a purpose, except to show a cameo of Sebastian Shaw and Henry Gyrich (villains from the X-men stable of books), and to demonstrate his disdain for not giving into his madness, and also white wine (he switches it to red with his reality warping ability). We then cut to a scene of Merlin and Magda, who are playing chess with pieces shaped like various characters who’ve been introduced in the story thus far. Most notably at the moment are the criminal Vixen, who is in control of S.T.R.I.K.E, and Jaspers. Jaspers tells Vixen to prepare herself because in a week, S.T.R.I.K.E will be given orders to eradicate all superheroes.

Back with our heroes, we have Wardog and Zeitgeist of the Special Executive debating what they should do now. Zeitgeist thinks they should go find a new job, since nobody is paying them for this one. Wardog however feels like they should stay and try to work out what to do about the Jaspers situation. Zeitgeist points out that it’s not their problem, but the team precog Cobweb says that it is their problem, and will affect them in a way she cannot foresee. Lennox is attempting to convince Betsy that they too should leave, but she gets some images of some disturbing stuff and feels they should stay to try and help. Captain Britain is talking with Captain U.K, but she flips out and runs off into the night in tears. The issue ends with Captain U.K in the woods, with The Fury looming behind her.

The next issue begins with three different sets of panels, all arranged on a line, as opposed to a more traditional panel layout, which caused me to misread them the first time. The first set is Captain Britain and Saturnyne talking, nothing all that exciting or noteworthy, except an implication from Saturnyne that she might ditch Cap again. The next set has Wardog and Zeitgeist continuing their argument from the last issue, and then Cobweb having some sort of seizure. The third set of panels is Merlin and Magda, still playing their chess game, Merlin saying he missed something, and then a piece representing The Fury appears on the board, in neither black nor white. Each set of panels also features a caption box stating “and Linda McQuillan is screaming.”

Turning the page reveals a two page spread of the Fury about to blast Linda, and three panels depicting the characters from each set on the previous pages showing their reaction to the scream, everyone is shocked except for Merlin, who looks utterly pissed. Linda immediately begins attempting to flee from the Fury, but to no avail. It seemingly blasts her, but Merlin does something to the chess piece representing Linda and protects her, but doing so seems to harm him. The Fury is about to blast Linda again when Captain Britain enters the fray. The Fury knew he was coming though, so Cap ends up just getting beaten on, after a moment of shocked recognition of the assailant. The members of Special Executive, excluding Zeitgeist, go to see what the disturbance is. Wardog gets his mechanical arm destroyed, and one of Legion is killed. I didn’t really say much about Legion last time, but that’s because I didn’t really know what to say about him. His deal is that he’s got a bunch of his future selves with him, which allows him to do several things at once, but if one of them dies then he’ll die once he catches up with the point in time that one is from. His duplicates come from two weeks into the future at most, so Legion is going to die soon.

I feel I should talk a bit more about the artwork. Something I didn’t notice in my initial read through of this was that while most of the pages use standard panel layouts, there are several instances of Alan Davis doing something a bit different. These pages with the Fury are an example of that, with the panels being more triangular and diagonal rather than squarish and horizontal/vertical. It adds a subtle, dynamic layer to the composition, which really lends to the action. This isn’t the only instance of Davis doing something different, but it jumped out at me a bit more than the previous ones. The next two pages also break the mold a bit, featuring four long vertical panels with things falling outside of them. The panels are a confusing mish-mash of visions that Cobweb is apparently experiencing, along with rambling thought balloons from her. This would really annoy me, but it really gives the reader a sense of the tumultuous jumble of things that are going through her head at this moment, so kudos to Moore and Davis.

The fight continues against The Fury, with little luck on the part of the heroes. Fascination has a little bit of luck, until it switches to the backup brain that it apparently has. Cap continues to get his ass kicked, and it seems like The Fury’s going to win, until Zeitgeist enters the fight, after some urging from Cobweb. The Fury isn’t able to detect Zeitgeist in anyway, and is also able to disrupt it to a degree. The others take this opportunity to hit The Fury with everything they’ve got which also causes a fissure to open up beneath it, and The Fury plummets into it. Cap and Fascination get a couple more hits in on it before the fissure begins to collapse and they have to fly out. Our heroes get a moment to breathe, but nobody thinks for a moment that The Fury is dead. The Special Executive takes their leave, Wardog saying that he can’t ask his team to face such danger for nothing, and the others are leaving the manor.

The next issue is somewhat hard for me to summarize like the others, with more or less page by page descriptions. So, I’ll be more brief with this one. It’s mostly exposition, but instead of having things explained to us, we pick up details from what the characters say and the images. The issue features a pair of people talking about rumors they’ve heard regarding Captain Britain.  Basically, things have devolved, with Jaspers getting his wish and camps being established to house super-powered individuals. Soldiers are on the lookout for any such people, asking random people to see their papers, searching vehicles at roadblocks and other sorts of fascist type things. One of them says she heard that Captain Britain was found in a food line, and took on an amount of soldiers that increased as the story went on. The other says she’s heard various things, ranging from Cap going down to London with an army of other supers, to him being tortured and ratting out his friends. This reminds me a bit of V for Vendetta, but that might just be the whole “dystopian Britain” thing. Or it could be because this was written about the same time that Alan Moore wrote V for Vendetta. Either way, it seems like there’s a lot of stories about Britain under fascist rule. I can’t really think of too many stories where America or any other country is in a similar situation, so what’s the deal? I’m genuinely curious if it’s like Britain’s equivalent to the apocalypse obsession that pervades American culture. Or maybe that’s something more widespread too, I’m not sure. I really need to make some friends from other countries.

Anyway, enough of my speculating on fiction trends, more reviewing thirty-year-old comics! The next issue opens with some soldiers investigating the grounds of what I assume is Braddock Manor. I say assume because we don’t get told exactly where they are, beyond “England,” but The Fury pops out of the darkness and kills them. I’d be more confident about the location, but on the next page we see a siren going off in London with no other explanation about where it came from. Regardless of location where that happened, Cap and the others are hiding out in London. They recap the situation, and Saturnyne tells Cap that she’s in it for real this time, partly because she no longer has the ability to just run off to another universe.

We then cut to Vixen paying a visit to Jaspers. She’s concerned that Jasper’s plans have gotten a little out of hand, and is worried about attracting attentions from other world powers or the Avengers, and has gone to talk to him. Unfortunately, Jaspers has fully embraced his madness and is letting his powers flow out into the world. His hat changes in every panel, and his office seems to be some sort of weird purple and black void, which I would normally chalk up to the artist being lazy, but it doesn’t mesh with everything else I’ve seen up to this point. Jaspers eliminates the goons Vixen brought with her, and turns Vixen herself into a pink cat. The issue ends with Cap suiting up and flying off with an expression of righteous anger on his face.

The next issue starts off with Magda urging Merlin that they should abandon their game of reality chess as she examines his damaged hands, but he insists they keep going.  We then get a really neat looking page with Betsy’s head just above the center. From her eye line up, things fade into a panel depicting a bunch of soldiers converging on their location. She then alerts everyone to what was evidently a precognitive vision, before something bangs on the door. Lennox opts to stay behind to try to hold them off while the others make their escape. However, Betsy is linked telepathically with Lennox, and when he gets shot, she falls over as well. Saturnyne urges Linda to help them, but she insists that she can’t before running off, Saturnyne following after.

Back to Merlin and Magda, they’re still playing chess, but Merlin is musing to himself about how he’s been shaping Captain Britain for this exact moment, and we see him arriving… here.

Yeah, clearly Jaspers isn’t bothering making things look right anymore, as all the other panels feature similar kinds of backgrounds, as well as the triangular, disjointed panels like we had before. I both like and dislike these panels. On the one hand, I really like the way that the art is reflecting the utter lunacy that is Jasper’s world. On the other, I’m very much a fan of more realistic and linear artwork, and stuff like this tends to give me a headache. Again, I’d be more annoyed if this wasn’t something necessitated by the story, but it’s still something of a nuisance.

We cut away from the madness to have a scene with Saturnyne chewing out Linda, calling her a coward and even striking her. Linda finally manages to do something more than cower and hits Saturnyne back. She seems apologetic about it, but Saturnyne is just pleased, in spite of the bruise on her cheek. We then go back to Cap entering Jasper’s office, and the issue ends with some really cool looking artwork.

 We begin the climax of the story arc with Saturnyne talking Linda out of her clothes.

…

Let me re-phrase that. We begin with Linda stripping off her street clothes revealing her Captain U.K outfit beneath, though some of the dialogue comes off as kinda…  well, here’s what the caption boxes say:

            

              “She took off her coat without too much trouble, and likewise the shirt. The trapped look in                 her eyes grew more intense…

              There was an argument about the jeans. She cried and wanted to keep them on.

              No dice.”

Anyway, after that scene with is much less sexual than one could be led to believe, we cut to Captain Britain confronting giant Jaspers. He tries to talk him out of warping reality like this, but he just blows Cap off and starts making Cap think he’s back on Earth-238 and then just waking up from a coma where all the Captain Britain stuff was just a dream. Jaspers then goes back to a normal-ish form while taunting Cap, and Cap promptly punches him in his stupid face. However, Jaspers keeps warping things and kicks Cap’s ass. We end the issue with Cap getting up, in spite of being savagely beaten, Jaspers going off somewhere else, and the final panel is an image of Cap through the eye of The Fury.

The next issue starts off with Cap once again getting smacked around by The Fury. Jaspers is off pouting somewhere, before creating a group that will later be called the Crazy Gang out of nothing. They’re not really important to the story, so I’m not going to get into them. The Fury then punches Cap into the area where Jaspers wandered off to. It looks like the thing is going to kill Cap again, when Jaspers decides to introduce himself. The Fury thinks to itself that it always really wanted to kill Jaspers, but it’s programming forbid it from doing so. It reasons, however, that this isn’t the Jaspers that its programming was talking about, so it can go ahead and kill him. And thus begins the most chaotic fight scene I’ve ever read. I really have no idea how to describe this, and would love to know what the transcript for this looked like. The fight spans the rest of this issue, save for one page, as well as the beginning of the next one. The short version is that The Fury reasons that the only way to beat Jaspers is to take them both out of reality. It does so, kills Jaspers, and then returns to our reality, but this drained almost all of The Fury’s energy.

Which leaves it vulnerable to Cap beating the everloving crap out of it, starting with punching a hole straight through its torso in a very “I AM A MAN!” way.

                        

He inflicts a lot of damage on it, tearing large chunks off of it, but the thing manages to get the upper hand for a moment, and is once again on the verge of killing him. Fortunately, Captain U.K jumps in and finishes what Captain Britain started, ripping the thing to pieces, and finally killing it. The two Captains then embrace, but while they share a tender moment, Saturnyne gets a bit of blood from Jaspers’ corpse.

It’s at this point that I have to circle back to the one page I omitted earlier that fell in the middle of the Jaspers/Fury fight. It shows Merlin and Magda, once again, but their chess game has apparently dissolved. Magda says that Merlin told her the multiverse depended on their game, and she has no idea what this means, asking Merlin. However, Merlin collapses with his eyes rolling back in his head. After The Fury is slain, Magda teleports the Captains and Saturnyne to Otherworld (the place where she and Merlin live), and we see her dressed in formal garb, with Merlin lying in a very fancy coffin.

The final issue is Merlin’s funeral. There’s not a whole lot to say, it’s mostly wrapping things up. Captain Britain gets an opportunity to meet other versions of himself from other worlds, and also talks to Magda, who was able to save Betsy’s life. Magda sends Saturnyne to see Mandragon, and threatens to clone Jaspers if he doesn’t step down, pardon her, and give her back her job. Magda tells Cap that she actually made the DNA from the blood inert, so he can’t be cloned, but neither Saturnyne nor Mandragon know that. Magda then sends the Captains back to Earth-616, where they share a kiss before departing.

Overall, I thought that this was a really solid story. The pacing is great after the very beginning, neither moving too slowly nor too fast. The characters all feel not only real, but likable in their own ways. Saturnyne is loathsome, but at the same time, I find myself wanting to see more of her plotting. Captain Britain is a lot of fun to read, especially when he has moments where he’s just overwhelmed by the insanity that is his life. I had hoped to see more of Betsy, partly because the friend who loaned me this is a big fan of her, but c’est la vie. Alan Davis’ artwork is great, able to do both highly realistic stuff, but also the utterly bizarre stuff from Jaspers’ mad mind.

However, there are some issues. The crazier parts are kinda hard to follow, and required me to read them twice to fully understand. What I feel is more of an issue though, is how Cap is portrayed. The comic is ultimately supposed to be about Captain Britain, and while it’s cool seeing secondary characters being badass, I feel that the central character should be the star. But it seems like Cap gets his ass kicked more often than he does any kicking. Hell, he dies in his own book! He doesn’t even beat Jaspers or The Fury. While I do think that it was great that Captain U.K took out the Fury, giving her story arc some closure, it would’ve been nice to see Captain Britain kill it after he got beaten down three times and killed by it.

In spite of that, I highly recommend this. I don’t know how easy it is to find, since the trade was printed back in 2002, but apparently the second Captain Britain volume is hard to get. But if you can find it, check it out.

Next week we’re back to Superior Spider-Man, but this isn’t the last we’ll see of Captain Britain. I’ve got a few trades of Excalibur that I’m planning for future reviews, but they’re a ways off yet.

Until next week, citizens!

P.S. If anybody reading this happens to be from another country, or is just more familiar with other cultures, feel free to answer my questions about dystopian/apocalyptic fiction.