2014 Holiday Surprise Special!

(Apologies for the lateness of this post. It’s been a busy week with Christmas and all.)

Holiday greetings, citizens! Well, this is going to be my final review for the year. Like I said last week, I had been planning on reviewing the Teen Titans animated series for this week, but I unfortunately did not have an opportunity to re-watch any of the episodes. I could have just written about it from memory, but there were some episodes that I wanted to re-watch before talking about them. So instead, a good friend and I watched something I’d never seen before, specifically for me to review it. So, let’s take a look at Young Justice season one!

Young Justice was an animated series that ran on Cartoon Network from November of 2010 to March of 2013. It was critically acclaimed and well received by viewers. Unfortunately, it wasn’t popular with the right demographic. Because the network wanted to see good sales figures for toys and other merchandise, the series was targeted at teenage boys. The show turned out to be popular with both boys and girls however, which lead to it’s doom. Sooo… do girls not have an interest in toys? I’m pretty sure I always see aisles dedicated to “girls” toys whenever I find myself at a place that sells toys. This just baffles me. If the show is popular with girls and boys alike, aren’t you going to be able to sell more merchandise?

Anyway, let's get down to the important stuff, starting with the characters!

Robin (Dick Grayson)

Ah, Dick Grayson, probably the most portrayed and famous of the Robins, and also the one I’m most familiar with. This is actually a really different interpretation of the character than what I’ve seen before though. He’s the youngest member of the team at only thirteen, and his immaturity shows through. At the beginning of season one, Robin sort of has a problem with keeping still as well as communicating with his teammates. He also has an odd obsession with picking apart words, taking prefixes off of them and using the base word, like turning overwhelmed into whelmed and disaster into aster. Oddly enough, whelmed and aster are indeed words, but Dick doesn’t quite use them properly. However, Robin does mature as the series goes on, most notably after the episode “Failsafe.” In it, after Aqualad is taken out, Robin steps into the role of team leader and learns about the burden of leadership. He becomes much more serious, but still manages to retain some of his youthful innocence. An interesting point is that while Robin is a skilled fighter on the team, his talents seem to focus more on utilizing tech, especially hacking into enemy computers. It’s nice to see that side of him more than focusing on his combat skills.

Speedy/Red Arrow (Roy Harper)

Roy starts off as the sidekick of Green Arrow, but in the very first episode, he gets fed up with being treated like a child and goes off on his own, becoming the hero Red Arrow. Personally, I think that is a stupid name, but Roy’s judgment has never been the best in the comics. Anyway, he’s really more of a recurring character than one of the stars, not actually being a part of the team. He does get a fair amount of screen time, however, and he seems to be more or less a stock “lone wolf” character. He does show that he cares for the team, being concerned when it’s learned that someone has been giving valuable information on the team to the villains. In the season finale, it is revealed that Red Arrow is not the real Roy Harper, but a clone created by Cadmus to serve as a mole within the Justice League.

Kid Flash (Wally West)

Interestingly, Wally served as the Flash in Justice League, so this is the second time we’ve seen a take on this character. Personality wise, they’re more or less the same, being very light-hearted, optimistic and comedic. However, in an odd twist, this version is an even bigger flirt than the JL version. Which is kinda weird since he’s only fifteen (later sixteen). He is constantly hitting on Miss Martian, as well as just about every other female character save for Artemis. So of course he and Artemis are the ones with the real chemistry. Kind of a cliché, but I think it’s handled better than some of the other confrontation-based flirtations I’ve seen. What is less clichéd is that we actually get to see that Wally’s a pretty solid scientist. His expertise is more in the mechanical side of things than Robin, so there’s no overlap or tension between the two of them for having the same role. Speaking of Robin, the two are actually best friends, with Wally being the only one who knows Robin’s secret identity and past.

Aqualad (Kaldur'ahm)

Aqualad is a character I’m not very familiar with. The only real exposure I had to him before this was the bit parts he had in the Teen Titans animated series. But that works out, because this is a reinvention of the character. Even though very little of the show takes place in or near water, he manages to be possibly the biggest badass on the team. He has super strength and durability of course, and he’s also a waterbender, taking with him a backpack like thing of water, and using it to shape various weapons. He also does some other neat things with water, like dousing an area and making water platforms. Though, for all of his badassery, he’s something of a stock “leader” character, being very serious, confident and commanding. He’s not a killjoy though, which is nice considering how immature his teammates can be at times. But the most interesting stuff we see from him is dealing with the burden of command, but even that comes off kind of flat and is only seen in a couple of instances.

Superboy (Connor Kent)

A fast-aged clone of Superman created by Cadmus, Superboy is the team’s powerhouse. He’s short-tempered and rebellious, which causes a lot of friction between him and some of the more mature characters. He’s also arrogant, thinking that because he’s the strongest, he can deal with everything on his own. All of this does change to varying degrees throughout the course of the season though. He becomes more patient and learns to take orders better, and he also develops a relationship with Miss Martian. Superboy also has some issues with his “father,” Superman. Superman is pretty distant with him, avoiding the team specifically because Superboy makes him uncomfortable. Superboy though really wants to live up to the example that Superman has set and make him proud. But because Superman doesn’t acknowledge him much, Superboy gets frustrated when people compare them. He later learns that his lack of flight and heat vision is because his kryptonian DNA was spliced with human DNA, specifically Lex Luthor’s.

Miss Martian (M'gann M'orzz/Megan Morse)

Miss Martian I’m kind of at a loss for on what to say. She’s a character I had only ever heard of before the series, so I had no expectations about her. She’s introduced to the team as the niece of the Martian Manhunter. She’s able to do some minor shapeshifting, which allows her to take on a human guise and goes by Megan Morse. Her human persona is based off of a character of the same name from a sitcom. She also adopted the show’s catchphrase, “Hello, Megan,” and uses it all the time much to my annoyance. We later learn that she is not in fact the Manhunter’s niece, but a white martian in disguise. She assumed the form of a green martian because she was afraid that the team would not accept her otherwise, since white martians are persecuted on Mars. Even after growing close to the team, she doesn’t think they’d accept her, and she does some serious psychic damage to a villain who threatens to blow her secret. I’m not much of a fan of hers, honestly, but I don’t dislike her either. She’s just kinda there.

Artemis (Artemis Crock)

Artemis is yet another reinvention of an existing character. In the comics she goes by the name of Tigress, and is a villain. In this series however, she’s a hero trying to overcome her upbringing. She’s the daughter of the villains Sportsmaster and Huntress, the latter of the two being an ex-villain who was in prison during a good chunk of Artemis’ childhood. She’s also the sister of Cheshire, who is a recurring villain in the series along with Sportsmaster. Artemis seems to be defying the whole “apple doesn’t fall far from the tree” aphorism, which is good to see. It’s not easy for her though, with her father and sister trying to turn her, and Roy Harper’s constant distrustful statements towards her. I kind of like her, but she's not my favorite. That might just be because she's an archer though, and I have issues with archers.

Zatanna (Zatanna Zatara)

Zatanna is a character that I’m only sort of familiar with, but would like to see more of because I like magic-using heroes. The daughter of the superhero Zatara, she makes an appearance or two as a friend of the team before officially joining. Her abilities are quite diverse, but she’s somewhat inexperienced. Her father is initially against her joining the team, worried that she’s not old enough or experienced enough for that life. However, she does end up joining after her father takes up the mantle of Doctor Fate.

Dr. Fate/Nabu

Doctor Fate is yet another character I’d like to know more about. But not this version. This version is… kind of an asshole. Well, it’s not Doctor Fate that’s the asshole. For this version of Doctor Fate, the wearer of the helmet becomes possessed by Nabu. Three times in the series, somebody dons the helmet, and each time, Nabu is against allowing the person to remove it, allowing them to go back to being normal. The first two times the original Doctor Fate, Kent Nelson, intervenes and convinces Nabu to relent. However, after the third time, Nabu is fed up with this and decides to keep the wearer, Zatanna this time. Her father is able to strike a deal with Nabu though, offering himself up in place of his daughter.

Captain Marvel/Shazam (Billy Batson)

Captain Marvel (or Shazam, as he’s now legally supposed to be called in the comics and other media) is also a character I was exposed to before via Justice League Unlimited. He’s a bit different in this version, and acting much more like the ten-year-old that he is. He’s not a member of the team, but he is close to them and makes several appearances.

The writing for the show is excellent. Every episode is well paced and doesn’t feel like a single moment is being wasted. The characters are relatable and realistic, though there are some times when it’s heavy on the teen angst, but they’re teenagers, what do you expect? One of my only complaints is with some of the humor. It seems like about half the jokes are dead on arrival, a problem that’s much more prevalent in the first several episodes. It does have some funny moments though, which is good because it helps to keep the serious from being too serious. Speaking of the serious tone, I was actually really surprised by just how serious it was. I had heard very little about the show prior to watching it, beyond “it’s good, watch it.” So when I saw just how dark and serious the show was, I was a bit taken aback. Not in a bad way, mind you. I thought that it was excellent that a series that was aimed at a younger audience would be like this. It addresses real issues through allegory rather than being direct, and never tries to dumb itself down. It’s rather fitting, considering that the team in the beginning was adamant about not being treated like kids, and the show has no intention of treating the audience as such.

Every episode it seems it peppered with references to other parts of the DCU, especially the Teen Titans comics. Tons of Titans members show up in the series, including the original Aqualad (Garth), Mal Duncan, Bumblebee, and Beast Boy/Changleing, and those are just the ones I remember off the top of my head. But those aren’t the only appearances of other characters. The first villain that the team truly faces is Mister Twister, the very same villain who was the first opponent for a proto form of the Teen Titans back in The Brave and the Bold #54. Various other characters get re-purposed for the show as well. Amanda Waller, instead of being in charge of the Suicide Squad or a part of Checkmate, serves as the warden of Belle Reve Penitentiary. Jason Bard, a Batman supporting character, also make an appearance, though as a soldier instead of a cop. There are a lot more, probably ones I didn’t even pick up on, but if you enjoy that sort of thing, you’ll get a kick out of the series.

Finally, let’s talk about the artwork. It’s great, of a much higher quality than is generally seen in cartoons these days. Everything is nice and fluid, especially action sequences. The character designs are more or less directly from the comics, but there are a few where they change things up. The previously mentioned Mister Twister is a good example. Here’s what he looked like in the comics:

And in Young Justice:

Aqualad, being a reinvention of the character, also had a new character design.

It’s reminiscent of other Aqualads, but still unique.

Well, that's all I've got to say, really. I haven't gotten to look at the second season yet, but I've heard some negative things about it. Still, I will eventually take a look at it, maybe even give my thoughts. For now though, I wish you all a wonderful holiday!

Superior Spider-Man, #20 & 21

Greetings, citizens! It’s time for the final look at Superior Spider-Man for the year! We’ve gotten through about two-thirds of the series in the four months I’ve been doing this, which isn’t bad, considering my detours to other things every few weeks. I hadn’t planned it out this way, but thinking on it, these issues are an excellent way to close out the year, so let’s get started.

The cover of issue #20 is… good and bad. It’s well drawn, with a great composition. The scene is très romantique, with candles, champagne, an implausibly enormous moon, and of course the ever-lovely Felicia Hardy giving our hero a gentle caress. When I saw this, I immediately thought “oh man, Anna Maria is not going to be pleased about this.” I may not have been reading Spider-Man prior to this, but his relationship with Hardy is well known. Given Peter’s previous behavior in regards to lovely women…

I did not have high hopes for his actions in this issue. So why is the cover bad? Well, I’ll get to that in a bit.

The issue begins with a flashback to “Doc Ock’s” “death.” Across town at a hospital, we see that a coma patient is apparently waking up, but her condition isn’t good so she’s sent to the OR. We also see another patient who also seems to be in a coma come to for a moment to spout a prophecy.

The prophecy doesn’t have any bearing on the series, I only mention it because it ties in to Spider-Verse, and I can’t recommend that series enough. I also like that there was foreshadowing for it more than year beforehand, unlike other events.

Back with the plot, the first woman’s surgery goes well, and as soon as she’s able to, she asks about Doc Ock. She’s informed he has just died, and she lets forth a big, dramatic, “NO!”

Fast forward to now, we see Spidey swinging towards a date with Anna Maria, but he gets side-tracked when he spots none other than Felicia Hardy hard at work in her chosen profession. She sees him and activates her flirtation mode, which causes Peter to respond in a slightly unexpected way.

Uh, Pete, pretty sure that’s not how you’re supposed to respond to someone flirting with you. The two fight for a moment, and Peter webs her up and contacts the cops to come pick her up. Eyup, the scene on the cover is over and done with in a mere three pages, and had all the romance of just about every other fight we’ve seen Peter in throughout the series. This is the problem that I have with the cover. A cover is supposed to give you an idea of what to look forward to in a given issue, so that people who aren’t reading it can see it, and maybe decide “hey, this looks like it might be good.” Misleading covers are a bald-faced lie to try and get people to read when they otherwise wouldn’t. Black Cat is a popular character, and she hasn’t been seen in the Spider-Man books for a while, so seeing her would entice people to buy. But she’s barely in the damn thing! Why not just have Spidey fighting dinosaurs while we’re at it?

Moving on, we get to see Peter on his date with Anna Maria. They have a pretty romantic picnic out on a giant web that Peter made. This is a side of this Peter that we’ve not really seen before, and it’s kind of nice seeing it. Likewise, it was interesting to see that Peter didn’t take the opportunity to try and get some side-action with Hardy. I had never really thought of Otto Octavius as a romantic, monogamous individual, especially considering his behavior right after getting into Peter’s body. It lends some depth and sympathy to the character, for me at least. At the end of the date (or at least of what we see), Peter tells Anna Maria that he’s going to be starting his own company and would like her to be involved, which she accepts.

The next day, we see Aunt May and her husband Jay at the hospital for May’s physical therapy. They talk about how they’re going to be investing a lot of their money into Peter’s business. We also get to see the mysterious coma woman coming out of physical therapy, saying that she’s made such progress because she’s been well motivated. Later, we see May and Jay at the bank, signing the papers along with Peter and Sajani, who is going to serve as vice president in Parker Industries. Peter muses about how he’s putting up just about all of his assets, except for his old accounts from when he was still Otto.

And speaking of those accounts, we see Carlie Cooper and Yuri Watanabe, discussing how they finally have the proof that they need. Carlie’s not planning to arrest “Peter” though, since the info was obtained under duress and from a questionable source. No, she’s going to take the proof to The Avengers.

Wonder how many people will get that.

She also gives MJ a call, and tells her to stay away from Peter and to pass the message along to everyone else. Speaking of MJ, we get a scene where she goes to see the fireman who saved her at her club’s fire. I’m skipping it because the only real takeaway from it is that they’re in a relationship now.

Back with Peter, we see him getting a pep talk from Anna Maria before presenting his thesis to the board. He does his presentation, which goes over very well, with everyone on the board being quite impressed. Everyone, that is, except for Dr. Lamaze, who claims that all of this is plagiarized from the work of his friend and colleague, Otto Octavius. Peter is taken by surprise by this, and realizes that he can’t actually deny it, nor can he tell the board the truth. Lamaze says that there is no way that Peter will receive his doctorate, and Peter can do little else but give Lamaze a menacing stare. Personally, I feel that this would’ve made a better ending for the issue than what we got, especially since the final panel has that sort of “until next time” kind of feel to it.

The actual end of the issue is focused on mysterious coma woman, who goes into a secret lab of one Caroline Trainer. We also learn that the woman’s name is Angelina Brancale. She activates some equipment and swears vengeance upon Spider-Man in the name of the man whom she loved, Otto Octavius. The teaser for the next issue reads “The return of Stunner!” which confused me at first, because I had never heard of Stunner. It’s not surprising, in retrospect, since she wasn’t that big of a character and was pretty much only around during the Clone Saga. Stunner was a young woman who was seduced into a life of villainy by Doc Ock, who she fell in love with. After Ock was killed by Kaine (yeah, the whole mind swap thing with Peter isn’t the first time Otto’s cheated death), she took part in a ritual to bring him back to life. The ritual destroyed her virtual body and put her into a coma though, which brings us back to the present.

The cover for issue #21 is really dynamic. It shows Stunner hefting a car over a battered looking Spidey lying amidst debris and looking quite desperate. One of Spidey’s eye lenses has been smashed, and the pleading look we can see in his eye is a really nice touch by the penciler, Giuseppe Camuncoli. Camuncoli is probably my favorite penciler they’ve had for the series, so it’s always nice to see more of his work.

The issue opens with Stunner smashing her way into the Daily Bugle, demanding where Spider-Man is. I love how much a part of the Bugle experience this stuff is. Betty Brant, who hasn’t been at the Bugle in awhile, says that it doesn’t feel quite right until Stunner busts in. They explain to her that the Bugle isn’t on friendly terms with Spidey anymore, but if she wants to get to him, it’s not that hard.

Speaking of Spidey, we see Peter and Anna Maria storming out of the meeting with the board. Peter is understandably upset, in spite of Anna’s offers to talk with Lamaze and try and smooth things over. Peter’s too busy reliving his supervillainy days, and starts coming up with a scheme to get his way, possibly including a kraken or a robot double. Anna Maria of course thinks he’s joking, but when she looks back at him, he’s vanished. Peter is quickly donning his Spider-Man suit, when he gets a call from Spider Island, informing him of the Stunner situation. He goes to try and talk to Stunner, but the only thing she wants to hear are Spider-Man’s screams of agony, so he has little luck.

Before we can get too invested in the fight, however, we cut over to Carlie who’s visiting the grave of Otto Octavius. She does a bit of grieving for the real Peter and also swears that she’ll show the world the truth, at which point the grave collapses. I had actually forgotten this part, but it would seem that Otto’s body is missing. It’s a pretty strange detail, and it doesn’t get any kind of explanation during the series, but I’ve got some suspicions about it. Anyway, before Carlie can wonder too much about what this means, she gets abducted.

Back with Spidey, the two fight for a bit, with Peter reluctant to do much to her, even though he’s just fighting a hologram. He has his Spider-bots pick up the signal that’s sending out the hologram, and track it back to it’s source. But that’s going to take some time, so they continue to fight. Eventually, Stunner is able to surprise Spidey by throwing a whole freaking bus at him. And of course, it wouldn’t be a Spider-Man comic if his love interest wasn’t in peril from acts of superviallins, the bus ends up nearly crushing Anna Maria and Dr. Lamaze, but Spidey manages to catch it. We have a tense couple of pages where Spidey is just barely holding the bus over Anna, and Stunner draws out delivering a final blow. You’d think after so many years, supervillains would just stop doing it, because once again, stalling ends up screwing the villain over. The Spider-bots have finally tracked down the secret lab that Stunner’s been using, and shut down the machine, causing a kind of feedback which knocks her out. Anna Maria also manages to get over her shock and crawl out from under the bus before Spidey lets it down. He quickly heads off to the secret lab to make sure that the hologram projection machine isn’t anywhere near Stunner when she awakens.

When she does awaken, she sees Otto before her, and we get to see that he’s moved the system to Spider Island, and is using it to talk to Stunner. Stunner is so incredibly overjoyed to see him, that they can be together again, but Otto has to turn her down. He tells her that he still cares for her, but that he has moved on with his life. It’s actually a pretty sad scene, in my eyes, though it is short and we don’t get to see what Stunner has to say in response, only that she’s in tears.

Since he’s got himself a handy Otto hologram that he can use, he decides to pay Lamaze a visit, and tell him that Peter Parker was a child prodigy who was responsible for all of Otto’s greatest inventions. The next day, Lamaze recants his accusations of theft for Peter, and congratulates him on earning his doctorate. Hooray! Side-quest completed!

But we can’t end on a happy note, no sir. Nope, instead we cut to the Goblin Underground where we see Menace has a gift for the Green Goblin. That gift of course being Menace’s sister, Carlie, who she’s been keeping tabs on. She also hands over the journal with a complete account of her investigations into who really inhabits Peter’s body, which makes Gobby incredibly giddy. Now, I said that I like Camuncoli’s pencils, but there are some problem spots, including our final panel here.

Jeez, just look at that. What in the heck is going on? His eyelashes look like they belong in a mascara commercial, and he has the mouth of a particularly creepy sex doll.

All in all, I thought that these two issues were pretty good. They are a bit slower, and have very little action, but they advance several of the subplots of the series rather well, and have some good character spots. We get to see this Peter being romantic and showing how devoted he is to Anna. He not only blew off one of Peter’s romantic interests, but he also passed up one of his own, even though he could’ve had some fun with either or both of them. Monogamy was not exactly something I was expecting out of this Peter. But that also makes him more relatable, and helps to illustrate that he’s not doing what he does out of malice, but because he feels that he is doing the right thing. We also get some resolution to Peter earning his degree, and advancement of Carlie’s plotline, plus a big, foreboding bombshell with the Green Goblin learning that Spidey is not what he seems. The slower pace is also a nice reprieve from the intense and fast-paced nature of the previous three issue arc, giving us a bit of a rest before the next plotline.

Next week I had planned on reviewing the Teen Titans cartoon, but unfortunately, I haven’t been able to re-watch it. So, next week will be a special, surprise review! Until then, farewell and happy Hanukkah!

Superior Spider-Man, #17-19

Greetings once again, citizens! Well, it’s that time again. We’re continuing our look at Superior Spider-Man with issues 17, 18, and 19! Let’s not waste any time and get right to it.

This cover’s pretty neat. Instead of our Superior Spidey being the focus, we have our guest star, Spider-Man 2099! I’m not as familiar with 2099 Spidey, but that’s not a big deal. Our Spidey is lurking beneath the… whatever the hell that thing is, hidden by shadows. This is kind of interesting because while they’re not together, they’re not fighting, so it leaves it open how these two will interact. For fans knowing who Spidey 2099 is, it makes them wonder what in the hell he’s doing here. For those unfamiliar, it’s a guy dressed up in a Spider-Man-esque costume who seems to be looking for something. My only critique of the cover is the city which serves as the background. It looks like New York, but there are a few details that make it seem like it’s Nueva York (what New York is called in the 2099 universe). It could be that Ryan Stegman was going for a look that sort of blurred the lines between which city it is, but if so I can’t figure out why.

We begin in Nueva York, with forces of The Public Eye clearing the area around Alchemax. Like I said, I’m not very familiar with Spidey 2099, or the 2099 universe as a whole (yes, it turns out it is it’s own separate universe, according to the Spider-verse), so if I get something wrong, feel free to correct me. From what I can tell though, the Public Eye is the police force, and they’re run by Alchemax, a mega-corporation responsible for all sorts of sinister things. There’s some sort of crisis going on, and conveniently Miguel O’Hara is nearby. Miguel is Spidey 2099, gifted with spider-type powers through gene-splicing gone awry! He quickly assesses the situation, deducing that there’s some sort of temporal anomaly. Of course, seeing a t-rex and biplanes, most people would be able to guess that. Unless they’re LARPers of course… in which case I want to get in on that game.

The aforementioned anachronistic antagonists disappear quite suddenly, and Miguel crashes into Alchemax, demanding to know what the shock is going on. It seems that the CEO, Tyler Stone, is fading out of existence. This is a problem for Miguel, because Tyler is secretly his father. Alchemax’s scientists have determined that the source of the problem lies in the heroic age, otherwise known as our time period. This gives us a panel that perfectly reflects my thoughts on 99% of all stories involving time travel.

So they convince Miguel to go back in time to save Stone. But enough about that inferior Spidey, I’m sure our Superior Spider-Man is engaged in some sort of heroic struggle.

Or he’s… playing in a company softball game, showing off for Anna Maria. After the game, a helicopter descends with a couple of Men in Black saying they have warrants for Max Modell. This takes Peter by surprise because of his absence from the company of late, but everyone else saw this coming. Peter’s spider-sense informs him that he’s being watched, and we see that this is all going according to the plan of Tiberius Stone. He’s been leaking information about Horizon Labs’ activities, some of which haven’t exactly been legal. Why’s he doing this? I’m not sure, actually. I tried finding out, but didn’t have any luck. He used to work for Max, so I can only guess he was fired and swore vengeance, because that’s what one does when one lives in the Marvel universe.

We get a brief scene of the Goblin Court, with the Goblin Knight (formerly the Hobgoblin) saying he wants another shot at Spidey, but the Green Goblin just beats him and then gets an evil idea.

Back with Pete, he’s meeting with the rest of the Horizon Labs team and getting filled in on the legal problems. This is cut short however by the arrival of Horizon’s new majority shareholder, Liz Allan. Liz has been a supporting character off and on for a long while, but I’m not too familiar with her, except that she had a son with Harry Osborn and decided to name him Normie. You’d think that after the name of Norman Osborn became synonymous with “psychotic supervillain” she’d change the kid’s name. Although, I guess he’s probably called Normie Allan… uh, anyway, Liz says she’s the boss now, and is putting Tiberius in charge of things. And just look at this face when this gets revealed.

Dude, I know you live in a comic world and everything is going according to plan, but come on! Look less smug! So they leave, but Peter goes after them, because what’s the point in being a vigilante if you don’t spit in the face of the law? Meanwhile, the rest of the gang at Horizon decides that the situation can only be solved by mucking about with time, so they go an activate a time portal that one of them had been working on. Y’know, Peter is at this point supposed to be coming off as a guy drunk on his own power and abusing it pretty badly. So why is it that I find myself thinking that his plan right now is the more reasonable course of action? However, they can’t activate the time portal because it just activates on its own, dumping Miguel into this time period.

Back with Peter, we see that he’s stopped Liz and her crew. His spider-sense tingles again when he gets close to Normie, but he ignores it in favor of making threats to Stone. Before he can act on those threats though, Stone’s ass is saved by Miguel, ending the issue.

The cover of issue 18’s not as good as the previous issue, but it’s not terrible either. Gone is any sense of ambiguity that was present in the previous cover, as the two Spider-Men are actively fighting. My complaint is that they’re fighting in a white void.

The issue begins right where the last one left off with Miguel confronting Peter. The two have met before, as Miguel explains, but the memory of those events belonged to the old Peter, so our current Peter is without them, and he’ll be damned if he lets anyone get in the way of his pettiness! The two square off, but before we see any action, Tyler Stone contacts Miguel and tells him how he can’t let any harm come to Tiberius.

We cut away to Horizon Labs, where we see the gang there making preparation to go through with their time travel plan. Or rather, Grady is planning on doing it (since it’s his stupid invention), and the others are voicing their concerns. This doesn’t really advance the plot though, so hooray for filler!

Back with the Spider-Men, the fight begins and Miguel lands a powerful blow, calling Peter “low-tech.” Peter then shows off his Hulk impression by shouting and lifting a car in order to do some good ol’ fashion spider squashing. Stone though has an ace up his sleeve, and by “ace” I mean “device that causes Peter’s spider-sense to go nuts.” He activates it, which causes Peter to nearly drop the car on Normie, if not for Miguel’s intervention. Peter’s come down off of his rage, and tries apologizing to Liz for the danger, which gives Miguel an opportunity to slip away with Stone. Peter attempts to track him down, but he gets a call from Anna Maria and suddenly remembers that all of his work on his thesis is at Horizon, and was done using their resources. That means that Allan Chemical will be the owners of his glorious work, and screw that!

Back with Miguel, he muses on whether or not he should be keeping Stone alive. On the one hand, keeping him alive means that Miguel won’t spontaneously disappear from the timeline. On the other hand, it also means that Alchemax will be around making life miserable for just about everyone. Before he can come to a decision though, Stone leaps off of a building, having guessed at what the situation is. Fortunately for fans of Spidey 2099, he saves Stone, ensuring his continued existence for the time being. Miguel uses his time-travel device to download his personal AI, Lyla, from 2099 in order to have some help in this era.

Over with the gang at Horizon, Grady manages to successfully find some proof that Stone’s a scumbag and responsible for at least part of the lawsuits aimed at Horizon. And Peter’s there, smuggling all of his stuff out of the lab with the help of his robotic lab assistant. I don’t know why, but I find it hilarious that he still has that thing. However, Max returns at this moment and catches Peter, pleading with him to not do this because of all the trouble it will cause. He gets interrupted by a call from Peter’s minions, and Peter takes off to deal with a situation involving the original Hobgoblin (actually the Green Goblin in disguise). Max is disgusted by Peter’s behavior, but before he can launch into an angry tirade, he notices all the chronotons just kinda floating about and demands that they shut down the stupid time door.

Peter has an internal monologue about how everything is falling apart all at once. He finally catches a break and spots Miguel swinging by and heading into Horizon. Max and the gang are all baffled as to why the chronotons are still everywhere if the machine is off, but Miguel comes in announcing that he understands everything, and they’ll all be fine if they listen to him. Naturally, Peter comes in and sucker-punches Miguel, knocking him out cold, ending the issue.

The cover for issue 19 is probably one of the best of the series. It’s nice and dynamic, with a large explosion happening just off of the left side of the cover, but the blast is still dangerously close to Miguel. Miguel is also riddled with more holes than Man of Steel’s plot, which is impressive on the part of the artist. Peter meanwhile looks like he’s swinging towards Miguel and trying to reach out to him. This raises expectations of those who’ve been following the story, and is also interesting enough on it’s own to attract someone who might not be following it. Very nice.

As a change of pace, this issue does not start us off where the other one left off. Nope, instead we’re getting some more advancement of one of the underlying plotlines. We see The Wraith trying to get at a banker whose clientele includes such wonderful people as AIM and the Red Skull. She’s trying to get this guy because this is where the money trail that she and Carlie Cooper decided to follow a few issues ago. It would’ve been nice if we had seen them actually following the trail, instead of just seeing the beginning and near-end of that little journey. But, considering how much is going on in the series already, and the limited time they had to work with, I understand why we don’t get to. Although they could’ve done it in a limited series or something, I suppose.

Anyway, back at Horizon, we see the gang and Spidey trying to fix this soon-to-be-disaster. Spidey is able to deduce the cause of the problem, based off of the info that Grady acquired from the past. He begins sending the group off to go fetch the things he’ll need to prevent the time explosion that is about to occur. However, Max informs him that they also need Peter there, because he was the only one who could solve an equation that’s involved with one of the pieces of tech. Unfortunately, the memory of solving it has been erased, like 99% of all of the old Peter’s memories. Peter begins frantically digging through what few memories remained, but to no avail. However, we also get these four panels, which… well, I don’t want to spoil what they are.

Also, what the hell happened to Peter’s thighs? They’re enormous! I wasn’t aware that spider powers included thunder thighs.

Uh, anyway, back to the crisis. Turns out Peter was zoned out for a good little bit, leaving only five minutes before the time-plosion. In the time that he was zoned out, the others managed to cobble together a device that should save them all… provided that they have the equation. Peter’s confident that he can solve the equation, so he starts plugging along while everyone evacuates. Everyone except for Miguel and Stone, that is. Miguel decides that if this place is going to blow, Stone’s going down too, in order to save the future. He gets a call from the future, saying that it’s not just Tyler Stone and Alchemax that are disappearing, but all of that reality. Peter believes he’s solved the equation, just in the nick of time. Unfortunately…

Miguel decides to save Stone, and the two of them get out just before the place implodes. With the crisis averted, Tyler Stone decides to break the time-travel thing, leaving Miguel stuck in the past. He makes the best of it though, as we see a bit later on he has managed to set himself up as Tiberius Stone’s assistant, in order to keep an eye on him.

Meanwhile, we see the Horizon Labs gang back at the site of their former lab. Mayor Jameson tells Max that he’ll pull some strings to get the charges against him dropped, provided that Max doesn’t rebuild his lab in New York, to which Max agrees. After Jameson leaves, Max and the others manage to pull Peter back to the current time using their magic science. Max tells Spidey that this is it for their association with each other, and that they’re square.

Peter goes back to his place, where he finds a bunch of messages waiting for him, most of them from Mary Jane. He gives her a call, and the conversation is… terse. They pretty much both agree to get on with their lives apart from each other. This is only tangentially related to the plot, but I included it anyway because it does actually demonstrate how the Superior Peter is severing ties with the old Peter’s life. I also included it because of the significance of Peter and MJ’s relationship. I may have mentioned this before, but I never had much investment in their relationship since that was from an era before I was reading comics. I don’t necessarily agree with the decision to end their relationship, but I do like that they’re trying to move on from that, instead of reliving them dating again or retconning their marriage back into existence.

Son of a bitch!

Sigh. Back to the current comic, we see most of the Horizon gang leaving the city by boat for some reason, except for Sajani who gets a call from Peter, making her some sort of offer. The issue ends back with the Wraith and Carlie, getting confirmation that Spider-Man is really Otto Octavius!

These issues are pretty good. There’s very little to speak of in the way of awkward writing, which has been consistent throughout the series thus far, much to Dan Slott’s credit. The only thing I could really nitpick on is that the Green Goblin stuff doesn’t actually get much attention or serve much purpose in these issues other than padding. The artwork is pretty solid, with the exception of a couple of spots. I personally really like Ryan Stegman’s style, it has some exaggeration, especially with facial features, but it all works really well together, with very few exceptions.

These issues are actually the beginning of the Spider-Verse event that’s going on as of the writing of this review. They’re the set up for issues 32 and 33 of this series, which were produced after the “finale.” I recommend Spider-Verse to anyone who’s a fan of Spider-Man, even if you’re not fond of the Superior version of him. If you want to see more of Spider-Man 2099, you can also check out his series that’s going on right now as well. It’s been a pretty good read, so far.

That’s all for this week, but come back next week for the last Superior review of the year!