Avenging Spider-Man 22
Yost (w) and D. Lopez (a) and Roseberg (c)
It's the final issue of Avenging Spider-Man before it switches over to Superior Spider-Man Team-Up, which means that Spider-Man has to pull in another member of the Sinister Six. This time, he comes across Mysterio but not really. Mysterio, Doc knows from Peter's memories, is still locked up in the other universe (meaning the Ultimate Universe, after the events of Spider-Men). This Mysterio, calling himself Mysterion, is not so talented as Quentin Beck and pretty quickly reverts to poison gas on the attacking Spider-Man. As Spider-Man tries to get answers from the fake Mysterio, Punisher shoots at him from another building. Spider-Man is furious and saves Mysterion, who flees. Punisher and Spider-Man get into a scrap with Punisher warning Spider-Man that he has to know how far he wants to take this new personality as more brutal personalities tend to be hard to break out of. The two of them separate and both pursue Mysterion but Spider-Man manages to trace a call Mysterion is making to his benefactor, the man who gave him the Mysterio suit and powers. It's Hobgoblin, the original Hobgoblin, and Spider-Man quickly webs him up, angry that he's selling off old allies' powers. Of course, Hobgoblin convinces him to leave him, allowing him to escape, in order to save Mysterion from Punisher. Spider-Man reluctantly does, capturing Mysterio for his collection of Sinister Six while letting Hobgoblin get away.
It's certainly going to be interesting when Hobgoblin decides to sell off the Doc Ock identity and runs afoul of Spider-Man again. Doc Ock's emotions were interesting in this one, as he runs the gamut on his feelings about Mysterio. When he originally thinks this Mysterio is, indeed, Quentin Beck, he's furious at the coward who betrayed him during Ends of the Earth but he becomes more angry when he finds out it's an impostor who has taken the guise of "one of the greatest villains on the planet." After he escapes, Spider-Man turns his anger to Punisher who, he admits, he rather understands. Finally he focuses his anger on Hobgoblin for selling off old and unused villain sets. There's plenty of outrage to go around here from Doc. It'll be interesting to see how his respect for the Sinister Six plays out as he now has the majority of them stored away for his own uses and as we enter Superior Spider-Man Team-Up. Hopefully that book reads as well as this one did. Avenging Spider-Man was always entertaining and, over the last few months, it's gotten much heavier in terms of story. Good series that would have been just as easily excused if it had been garbage.
Alpha Big Time 5
Fialkov (w) and Plati (a and c)
Alpha arrives at his home just in time to save his mother and grandmother. He absorbs all the fire and manages to save his mother's life after he finds her not breathing. She delivers the message she was given about Boss Cohen being behind this and Alpha swears revenge. His mother shoots that down, insisting he leave him alone and not risk himself. For the time being, Alpha agrees. He still has the mugger-entity to deal with, which is rapidly growing and consuming everybody. Alpha, unsure what to do at this juncture, speeds to New York where he grabs Spider-Man mid-fight with Constrictor and whisks him back to Pittsburgh. Spider-Man is not pleased with this but, when he sees the entity, he understands. With the help of Alpha, he figures out what the problem is and tells Alpha how to fix it, which involves changing the entity on a cellular level. It breaks apart (the root of the entity gets away) and everyone is saved. Alpha goes to wait for Soupcan (who, it turns out, was given that nickname by her mother long before her mother died so she keeps it out of love, making it a far less stupid nickname, which Fialkov addresses when Alpha says more or less the same thing by having Soupcan ask if Alpha thought it was because she had so many piercings on her face. Look, it's described better in the book than I'm describing now) and eventually the two admit to having feelings for one another. The would-be tender moment is interrupted, though, when one of Cohen's men shoots at Soupcan's head. Alpha senses it in time and manages to destroy the bullet just before it can make contact. Soupcan is understandably very shaken up and Alpha attacks the shooter, demanding to be brought to Cohen. He is and the two talk, as Cohen blackmails Alpha with a picture of him bashing in the mugger's head. Cohen says that he doesn't mind Alpha being in the city as long as he stays away from the crimes Cohen's committing. The book ends with Alpha not being able to fight Cohen and with Soupcan distancing herself from him, but he still has a friend in Kilgore from the beginning of the series and his mom has seemingly been brought out of her depression.
I've said it before about this book but I'll say it again; Fialkov did a pretty good job making Alpha a more likable character without fully changing who he is. When Alpha first emerged in Amazing Spider-Man, he was a jerk and unanimously disliked. However, Fialkov changed the way that he saw the world, now that he had been given powers and had them taken away, and used that change to ground Alpha a bit more. He's still interesting because his powers are, even at about 1%, astounding, and he still remains a little conceited as a hero but he's far more down to Earth and he knows now what it means to fail. As an individual book, this one was pretty solid, with the bits between Andy and Spider-Man bringing the most levity and fun. Solid book, solid mini-series. Good job by both Fialkov and Plati to re-establish Alpha in this world and give us a reason to ask about him going forward.
Venom 36
Bunn (w) and Larraz (a) and Loughridge (c)
Flash is trying to simplify a little bit, trying to just live his life without overcomplicating it. He goes to school as a teacher during the day, stays in AA, works out, etc., and at night he fights pretty straightforward villains in Philadelphia. Drug runners, thieves, hoodlums, Batroc, the works, but nothing to complicated. That's his hope as he settles in. He complicates things a bit for himself as he tries to knock the school bully/jock down a peg by hitting him with a dodgeball the way the jock is hitting all the nerds with dodgeballs and his arm goes full Venom for the throw, increasing the speed and power of the ball. It knocks the jock to the floor but no one seems to know who threw it. Flash suspects, though, that his neighbor and anti-gym student Andi may have seen. which could complicate things if she happened to note that his arm went all black and fluid-like as he released the ball. His life gets a little more complicated that night as he finds the head of the big drug running operation he's been trying to put a stop to, a brutal man calling himself Lord Ogre, and his henchmen. Ogre releases his dogs on Flash and his own underlings before escaping himself. Venom deals with them quickly then finds that his men are running more than just drugs: they're running people.
Another solid issue from Venom as Bunn slows things down a bit before starting the newest arc. Bunn has been really good at this in the Venom series, with the issue immediately after Flash had moved to Philly and now this one. Both gave Flash (and the reader) a chance to reset a bit after long arcs dealing with multiple enemies and big personal problems to Flash. Bunn adeptly gives Flash some recovery time and a way to refocus while also nudging in the newest plot points to keep an eye out for. In this case, we're going to be watching as Flash tries to keep his normal life intact despite the fact that Andi probably knows who he is and the fact he really can't be getting that much sleep as well as watching this new drug/person running operation and this Lord Ogre character, as well as his gaggle of direct henchmen who look colorful enough to each have their own personality and super-ish power too. Should be an interesting new arc as we move forward.
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