Superior Spider-Man, issues #22 and 23

Greetings and Happy New Year, citizens! What better way to celebrate this auspicious occasion than by looking at a series we’ve already looked at numerous times, and that most people don’t care about?

....

Okay, so there are probably better ways. However, we’re nearing the end of Superior Spider-Man, and I’m sure some people feel like I’ve drawn it out long enough already. However, I have my reasons for continuing to look at the series, not the least of which being that it is a new take on someone who was formerly one of my absolute favorite comic characters. So, let’s get right into Superior Spider-Man issues 22 and 23.

We’re back to Humberto Ramos doing the pencils for these issues, so the cover is also his work. I’m kind of at a loss for what to say about it, including whether or not it’s good. It is certainly eye-catching, being almost entirely black, and there’s a good balance to the whole thing. Spidey looking up at the title to this story arc is kind of a weird meta touch, and I don’t know how I feel about it. Speaking of the title, this is actually the first story arc we’ve had that’s not three parts, this one is instead a four-parter. Why are we only looking at the first half instead of the entire thing? Because doing three issues in a single review is difficult enough to keep a decent length. I think if I tried doing four, I’d lose just about all my readers by the end of the second issue anyway.

Before getting into the issue itself, I thought I’d bring up something that I’ve noticed with both Superior Spider-Man, and the re-launched Amazing Spider-Man. It’s become something of a cliché to start off a Spider-Man story with him swinging around New York. It’s a lazy and unimaginative way to begin a Spider-Man story, especially since we’ve seen it a dozen times, and we’re likely to see him doing more of that during the rest of the issue. Dan Slott has avoided this cliché with every issue of his that I’ve read, I think. Hell, most of the issues don’t even begin with Spidey or Peter, instead giving us the setup for the issue, and then showing us how Spidey/Pete gets involved. It’s a good way of playing around with members of the Spider-Man supporting cast.

The above is true with this issue’s opening, giving us Venom. Venom is one of my all-time favorite Spider-Man villains, which is impressive considering all the ways they’ve fiddled with him over the years. Currently, the symbiote is joined with Flash Thompson and is a hero. I was actually reading the Venom series when it first came out, but fell out of it after moving away to college where I couldn’t find a comic shop. It wasn’t a bad series, and I liked the struggle of Flash trying to maintain control of the symbiote, so I was pleased to see him here. He’s come to town because he’s heard that the Crime Master is doing business again, and Venom’s got some beef with the guy. Also, he’s supposed to be dead, so that’s mildly concerning. He takes the place of one of Crime Master’s men, having the symbiote disguise him. Ramos may not be my favorite artist, but he does an excellent job at drawing the symbiote. He makes it look like more than just goo, giving it a good sense of motion and life, so kudos to him on that.

We cut away to Peter, giving a speech to the newly hired employees of Parker Industries. It’s a little on the supervillain side of things, but it certainly gets across the kind of business he’s planning on running. After the speech, Sajani tells Peter that Jay and Aunt May are there, and he rushes off to greet his two investors, who are currently being given a tour by Dr. Wirtham. You guys remember Dr. Wirtham right? He was the “villain” Cardiac in issues 7 and 8. He’s going to be serving as a consultant to Parker Industries, which is kinda neat to me. Once Peter catches up with them, Aunt May insists on having brunch with him and Anna Maria in order to meet her. Peter accepts, and also informs May that his nanotech limb thingy is ready to be used, and insists that she be the first person to receive it.

Meanwhile, at the apartment of Carlie Cooper, we see Captain Watanabe going to check in on Carlie, but finds that she’s not there and her computer is missing. Kind of odd for a thief to only steal the computer, so she assumes that it’s connected with the Spider-Man investigation.

Back with Peter, we get a tender moment between him and Anna Maria in Anna’s lab. She’s been experimenting with bioluminescent light sources, so the lighting really sets the mood for the inevitable sex. I’m not joking, they start going at it right there in the lab. This is their first time together, too. It’s oddly fitting, actually.

But we don’t get to see any of this. Instead, we see that at Spider Island, the Spiderlings (as I have dubbed them) have learned of the situation with Venom and Crime Master, and decide that this is worthy of Spidey’s notice. He is annoyed at first, given what they interrupted, but tells them that they made the right call. He has them deliver a couple of special bracers and goes to the confrontation. Venom and Crime Master’s men are engaged in a firefight, except it’s not much of a fight, because Venom is Venom. Once Spidey shows up, Crime Master decides that he’s had enough of this and surrenders. He also unmasks himself and says that he’s not the real Crime Master, he just bought the costume and name from Kingsley. This makes yet another costumed villain that’s just leasing the name and such. Kingsley’s got quite the racket going on, if so many people are paying him obscene amounts of money for the privilege of being foiled by superheroes.

Anyway, with Crime Master’s surrender, Venom thanks Spidey for his help, and Spidey promptly shoots a jet of flame at him.

Huh, so that’s why this Spider-Man hasn’t really done any team-ups. Except for that one time with Deadpool, but that’s neither here nor there. The two fight for a few moments until Spidey manages to gain the upper hand. He also does enough damage to the symbiote that it can’t maintain the mask over Flash’s face, revealing his identity. Flash tries to talk to Spidey, but Spidey doesn’t recognize, what with not having any of the old Peter’s memories left. The issue ends with Spidey standing over Venom, about to execute him.

The cover for issue #23 is pretty good. It shows the Venom symbiote abandoning Flash, who’s reaching out for it with a pleading look in his eyes. Once again, I really enjoy how Ramos draws the symbiote, he’s got a great knack for it.

The issue opens where the last one ended, with Spidey about to kill Flash. Flash manages to do some quick thinking, surrendering in order to buy himself some time to escape. While he keeps Spidey distracted with talk, the symbiote sets off some smoke grenades, allowing Flash to fight his way free. The Symbiote’s weak though, so instead of throwing down, he escapes, disguising himself as an EMT. Spidey unfortunately has to leave in order to start getting preparations for brunch ready.

But enough about the struggle between good and… ostensibly good, let’s check in with some real villains. Beneath the city in the Goblin Underground, we see the Green Goblin, Menace and the Goblin Knight interrogating Carlie Cooper. Gobby is intrigued by Carlie’s findings, especially with who’s really in Spidey’s body, but he wants to know whose body that really is. Apparently all of Carlie’s notes omit Peter’s identity. Gobby decides to leave Carlie in Menace’s hands, while he goes out and pretends to be the Hobgoblin some more.

Back with Peter, we see him and Anna Maria arriving at his apartment to start preparing for brunch. Anna Maria is shocked to see that Peter’s place is cluttered with all kinds of equipment for Spider-Man. She’s not surprised by the equipment itself, just at how cluttered the place is. She insists on getting the place cleaned up, and Peter agrees, after mild resistance because some of the stuff is at “a critical stage.”

Over to Flash, who sneaks into a supply closet at the hospital and steals a bunch of stuff to help the symbiote recover. He finds a wheelchair and teels the symbiote it can relax, only having it provide him with clothes instead of also having to be his legs. Oh yeah, probably should have mentioned that for those not familiar with this Venom. Flash lost his legs while deployed overseas. He actually volunteered to be the host for Venom because the symbiote allowed him to continue serving his country. I don’t believe he’s working for the government anymore though. Last I heard he was with the Guardians of the Galaxy. Uh, anyway, Flash overhears a cop and a firefighter talking about MJ’s newly renovated club, which gives Flash the idea to lay low with an old friend.

And speaking of MJ, we get to see the re-opening of her club. While there, she gets a visit from Captain Watanabe. She tells MJ that the last call Carlie made before disappearing was to MJ. The two listen to the message, and Captain Watanabe develops suspicions about Peter, marking him as a person of interest.

Back to Peter and Anna Maria. Man, this issue jumps around a lot. Pete and Anna are continuing with the preparations when Flash shows up. Peter realizes this is a golden opportunity, providing he can figure out a way to get the symbiote away from Flash.

More jumping, this time to Aunt May. We see that her surgery went well, and she can walk just fine without her cane. Jay is kind of annoyed that neither Peter nor his son were able to be there though.

And speaking of his son, let’s see what Mayor Jameson is up to! He’s paying a visit to Alchemax, bringing them a big, fat government contract. What does he want them to do? He wants his own squad of Spider Slayers, and even wants them to use the research from the Smythe family to build them. This idea can’t possibly go awry.

Back to Peter! Brunch is more than a little awkward, with Anna Maria making wheat cakes better than Aunt May’s, and Aunt May is concerned about Peter dating a little person. Flash attempts to leave, in order to escape the awkwardness, but Peter insists he stays. He tells Flash that after how successful Aunt May’s surgery went, he’s ready to proceed to phase 2 of his nanocybernetics; full artificial limbs. He manages to pressure Flash into doing the procedure, because it will help other veterans who’ve lost their limbs.

So back at Parker Industries, we see Dr. Wirtham prepping Flash for the procedure, while Peter does some mysterious stuff. Flash is hesitant, but doesn’t change go back on his word. Just before everything starts, Peter comes back as Spidey, which surprises Wirtham. But because they’ve worked together before, he allows Spidey to do what he wants, which is to activate a sonic pulse. The pulse drives the symbiote off of Flash and into a containment tube. Flash demands to know what the hell is going on, and Spidey says that there’s nothing to worry about. The containment device was based on the designs that Reed Richards created. However, the symbiote has grown in power and breaks free from the containment unit, flying straight at Spidey. The issue ends with… well, I’ll just let the final panel speak for itself.

These two issues are not bad. My only real complaint is that the second one bounces around so freaking much. Most scenes are only a page long, and it breaks up the flow of the story. But the dialogue is, as always, good and the overall plot is also solid. The artwork is for the most part good, but there are a couple of weak spots. However, I think the excellent artwork on Venom makes up for any shortcomings.

Next week we’ll take a look at the second half of this story arc, which will bring us into the final plotline of Superior Spider-Man. We’re in the home stretch now! So join me next week! Until then, citizens!

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!