Daredevil: End of Days 5, Superior Spider-Man 3

Daredevil: End of Days 5
Bendis and Mack (w) and Janson and Sienkiewicz (a) and Hollingsworth (c)

I'm happier with this issue than I was with the last one. However, that's with the caveat that I got a little less happy with the last one the more I thought about it. It really was that "4 of 8" bit that got me. That teamed with the fact that it's Brian Michael Bendis, who I distrust with this kind of thing because of his Avengers run. I believe I've said it before here but I'll say it again to reiterate. I think Brian Michael Bendis has skills. I think he's good at a form of dialogue (that he uses a little too often and doesn't QUITE fit the medium), I think he makes compelling plots, and I've seen him use space very effectively as, say, Daredevil's old writer. However, his Avengers run constantly featured four or so issue arcs that could be boiled down to one or two issues if you took out the unnecessary banter, recaps, and the "well where are THESE unrelated characters right now? Who is Hawkeye going to love this week? Where is Luke Cage in all this?" (He also has some pretty clear favorites) I can't call him a bad writer because I know he's not. On the other hand, I tend not to trust a book he's writing moving slowly (more on that tomorrow).

This book moved a little faster, still lording the mystery of "Mapone" over us but giving us an explanation of Daredevil's thought process, the fact that Daredevil was training a replacement (presumably the Daredevil who's been following Urich this whole series), a prison break, some facts on Matt Murdock's life, and Urich being pushed out a window. So there's a bit more going on in here than in the past few. I will say, I'm not totally surprised by the things that are coming out in this issue which are meant as big surprises. Those things are essentially "'Mapone' was a word picked to drive Bullseye crazy" and "Daredevil trained a replacement." Both are decent plot points and obviously important to this comic but they're treated as massive thriller reveals, despite being revealed in issue five. I think 'Mapone' has been dragged on too long, letting the mystery of it fade and allowing Ben Urich to ask everyone he meets what 'Mapone' means. It makes it feel like Urich is desperately asking for us to care about the mystery. I do care. To a point. That point was sometime before issue five, admittedly. Stil, this is an engaging story. I'd just be mad if I had expected a hint at a resolution any time before the eighth issue.

Superior Spider-Man 3
Slott (w) and Stegman (a) and Delgado (c)

This was a step up from the last issue. First of all, there's less whiny Peter demanding to be heard and more Peter accepting his position. In fact, Peter finds out that he can access Otto's memories to some extent, though he seems unable to choose them. We get to see Otto and Vulture meeting each other for the first time, a rather amicable meeting as you might assume from two intelligent villains with a similar cause. That meeting drives the story as Doc Spidey figures out a plan to deal with Vulture "once and for all." All this language, on top of the moment in ASM 700 and/or 699, whenever it happened, when Peter Doc told Carlie that he was actually Peter, is driving Carlie to believe that Spidey is no longer Peter. I admit I have some trouble with this simply because I don't like Carlie Cooper, so for her to be a possible hero of the story gives me no great satisfaction.

Doc Spidey's plan for Vulture, it turns out, is simply to give him the money he wants. Not stolen money (at least, not stolen now, perhaps once stolen), his own money. In their flashback meeting, we learn that, while Doc Ock was always more driven by his genius, Toomes is driven by his want for money. It's a good plan, probably, except that Vulture doesn't buy it and gets angry at Spider-Man's perceived taunts. He has his new henchmen attack Spidey, who hits one across the room, only to break his mask and reveal a child. Vulture is using children for his henchmen, crossing a line reserved for only the craziest or the most unscrupulous villains. Peter is then tossed into a new memory, as Doc Spidey snaps into a rage. Otto was beaten as a child, a memory Peter is now forced to watch. While he's watching this memory, he's unable to see whatever fight is happening outside. The fight here involves an aerial battle between Spidey and Vulture. Spidey's prepared, but he didn't anticipate Vulture upgrading his own arsenal and finds himself outmatched. However, he uses new friend J. Jonah Jameson's spider-beacon (an homage to the Bat-signal) to blind Vulture as they fly over it (with Doc utilizing his new polarized lenses) and crash the villain into the glass and heat of the lights, nearly killing him. Carlie and a couple police officers rush to the roof to find the carnage there and Doc tries to make Carlie understand what happened. More and more, though, it seems she knows what's really happening.

This issue was a nice switch from the last. It makes the Peter-in-Otto's-head bit far more interesting than just having him critique everything Otto does. It's also another chance to see Doc Spidey handling things his way, both with science and with whatever force necessary. Peter wouldn't ever consider killing as an option, or even injury such as this. He even pops into Doc's head from time to time begging him to go easy on Vulture because he's so old. Of course, Peter wasn't there to find that Vulture's new assistants were children so jury's out on how extreme his force would have been. It's an interesting plot device of making Otto do something possibly necessary or at least driven by good motives and have Peter only come in at the end to judge the outcome without knowing the full facts of the problem. This series seems off to a good start.