Superior Spider-Man 29, Superior Foes of Spider-Man 9

Superior Spider-Man 29
Slott and Gage (w) and Camuncoli and Dell (a) and Fabela (c)

The Goblins are out in full force and it's up to Spider-Man to try to solve the crisis while simultaneously finding a cure for the goblin serum and protecting the city and his loved ones (or, as the case may be, the loved ones of Peter Parker). He's called away from Parker Industries, where he and Sajani are trying to cure Carlie, when Goblin contacts him and says he's captured someone very important and that they should meet at Empire State University. Believing it to be Anna Maria, Spider-man leaves Sajani in control, which she's not happy about, and takes off for ESU where he finds Goblin holding Professor Lamaze captive. Goblin had seen Spider-Man save both Anna Maria and Lamaze earlier in the series and knew Lamaze to have some connection to Doc Ock and so had guessed wrong about their relationship but still gains the upper hand in the fight as Spider-Man pops the metal arms, which have been hacked by Goblin and immediately begin attacking their owner. As Goblin escapes, Lamaze dives in the way of one of the arms to prevent it from stabbing Spider-Man. A dying Lamaze reveals that he's felt like a worthless coward ever since Spider-Man saved them and he wanted a way for his life to mean something. As Spidey leaves, he's attacked by Jameson's newly launched Spider-Slayers, which prove more of a challenge than he assumed. Before it gets too far, they're disabled by Spider-Man 2099, who of course has been working at Alchemax while living in his past. They quickly reboot though to reveal that they've also been hacked by Green Goblin.

Plenty going on in this one. Just like any good Spider-Man massive event, particularly one with, say, Green Goblin, the story spreads across many civilians, many locations, and many adversaries. Slott made the interesting decision here to place Doc Ock against someone who is, potentially, smarter than him, at least in the way he's planned the attack, and forces Ock onto his heels while he reacts to a foe he didn't even see coming, let alone prepare for. This goes in stark contrast to the differences we saw earlier in this new series; where Peter Parker's Spider-Man tended to be a more reactionary, status quo kind of superhero, fighting against threats when they appeared, the Superior Spider-Man made sure that he and his city were prepared for any sort of foe, keeping situations in check before they even appeared. Now, thanks to Goblin's evasion of the Spider-Bots, Doc Ock is forced into a situation where he has to come when he's called and has to work on the fly, something Peter was far more used to than Doc Ock. Very interesting and subtle flip here and I think so far it's working. The stakes are still high, the problems still often seem insurmountable, and Doc Ock is getting more and more frustrated and irrational. This is just part three of Goblin Nation so expect things to get worse before they get better.

Superior Foes of Spider-Man 9
Spencer (w) and Lieber w/ R. Ellis (a) and Rosenberg w/ Redmond and Ellis (c)

Boomerang successfully deflects Bullseye's shots and he and his sort-of girlfriend start to flee but are followed closely by Bullseye while Boomerang's inner monologue talks about how much he hates competing for jobs against someone like Bullseye, someone seen as more of an A-list villain than a C-list villain. Being a C-list villain, though, has its advantages as no one expects much out of Boomerang. When eventually Bullseye corners the two of them and brings them to his boss Owl, Fred pulls out one of those "no one expects much of me" moments as he manages to talk Owl into the idea that it's possible Chameleon stole the painting disguised as Boomerang. Owl doesn't really believe him but Boomerang convinces him to give him a chance, sending him into Chameleon's home with a camera to see if there's something to see. When Boomerang goes into Chameleon's home, he promptly finds and turns the camera, sound off, on the painting, then convinces Chameleon, egotistical as he is, to change into Boomerang as icing on the cake for Owl to see. He's tossed out of Chameleon's house and given the nod from Bullseye, who turns out to be a robot programmed with Bullseye's skills by the Tinkerer, that he's free to go. Everything's coming up Boomerang except that his old team has finally tracked him down.

One of the things that has certainly been hard for Spencer and Lieber in developing this series is the need to create a character who is simultaneously very clearly not a good guy but is also someone who, when all is said and done, the audience can still, for one reason or another, get behind. It's hard to say, then, that we're particularly rooting for him in this situation; I'm not sure how fazed I'd've been if Owl or Bullseye chose to kill him, but you do still somewhat feel his triumph as he succeeds in convincing the higher ranking criminals of what he wanted to convince them. It's a fun book to read, one that moves pretty quickly even with Boomerang's inner monologue constantly going, and with a very-nearly compelling B-story about Hydro-Man discovering that Shocker has the head of Silvermane. Very-nearly. Still a fun book overall.