Superior Spider-Man 20, Scarlet Spider 23

Superior Spider-Man 20
Slott (w) and Camuncoli and Dell (a) and Fabela (c)

Doc Spidey has a lot on his plate at present. His time with Horizon Labs is officially ended and its put him on the job hunt once more but, being Otto Octavius and not Peter Parker, he has some big plans for that. He intends to start his own company, Parker Industries, with girlfriend Anna Maria Marconi and former Horizon scientist Sajani Jaffrey at his side. On his way to tell Anna Maria, Spider-Man runs into sometimes-villain, sometimes-hero, sometimes-lover Black Cat and, unlike what the cover would have you believe, swiftly beats her up and webs her for the authorities. Obviously, Black Cat is furious and swears to never forget this. Meanwhile, Carlie Cooper has what she believes is definitive proof of something weird with Spidey now that she's found a paper trail (albeit from suspicious sources) linking Spider-Man to Doc Ock's bank accounts. She calls MJ to warn her to stay away from Peter and that she should tell May and Jay to stay clear too. MJ is busy, though, trying to learn more about the firefighter who saved her life during her nightclub's fire. Finally, Peter goes to present his doctoral thesis, his last step in becoming Dr. Peter Parker. After a seemingly very successful presentation, Dr. Lamaze gleefully jumps up and calls Peter a fraud, saying that he's simply stolen the unpublished work of the late, great Otto Octavius. He swears to have Parker expelled for this and Doc realizes that this could ruin everything he's worked for unless he stops Lamaze somehow.

One of the really interesting things about this series has been Slott's systematic destruction of everything in Peter's life pre-Superior. It's typically come in little waves, with the hero community becoming a little suspicious of him and kind of wavering back and forth on their acceptance of him, followed by his friends getting sick of his new attitude, followed by this and that and so on. This is another great example as Doc absolutely ruins Black Cat. Slott and Camuncoli leave absolutely no room for discussion about it; it's a solid beat-down, remarkably swift and pretty brutal. Honestly, if they hadn't brought Black Cat into it, I probably wouldn't have thought about her as such a staple in his life; she just kind of comes and goes into it as she pleases. Now that it's been brought up and so thoroughly dispatched, though, I realize how important she is to Peter and how jarring this attack is. It's another example of a well-thought out and well-realized story for Slott. I think, as fans, we're all kind of aware that Peter Parker will SOMEHOW, at some point, come back. Of course, it's not a guarantee but it's as close to a guarantee as comics can make. The fact Doc has stuck around this long (ten months now, impressively) has been a remarkable show of restraint. Still, it leaves fans looking at these situations going "gee, that's gonna be tough for Peter to clean up" and the like, but issues like this one make it very clear that Slott knows what he's doing with these characters. Doc Ock isn't treating it like he's a placeholder for Peter; he is Peter now and he intends to stay as Peter forever, hence Parker Industries and his insistence that he become Dr. Peter Parker, even if it means sitting through school again. Really good stuff here and a very complete issue.

Scarlet Spider 23
Yost and Burnham (w) and Baldeon (a) and Sotomayor (c)

It's Kaine vs. Kraven in Kraven's newest hunt that can only be ended by one killing the other. To ensure that Kaine doesn't simply walk away, what with his newfound hero personality, Kraven has tied up all of Kaine's friends and swears to kill them if Kaine doesn't go along. Kraven is still a force to be reckoned with and it proves hard for even Kaine, stronger and faster than Spider-Man, to keep up. He continues to insist that he won't give in, that he won't kill Kraven, but the situation gets more and more dire. Kraven believes that Kaine is the only one who can kill him, as its Kaine's blood that brought him back from the grave in the first place and won't allow Kaine to leave until the deed is done. As they fight, Kraven sends Ana to kill one of Kaine's friends. She chooses Donald Meland and slashes him through the stomach. Furious, Kaine tries to go to him but Kraven holds him back, swearing that Ana will kill all of his friends before this is through. Kaine promptly kills Kraven with a force palm to the chest and rushes to his friends, slashing Ana across the face first. He tries to save Meland and eventually cuts his other friends down so they can help (particularly Meland's husband Officer Wally Layton). Kaine, meanwhile, goes back to Kraven and resuscitates him, bringing him back to life. Now, Kaine reasons, that he's killed him, just like Kraven wanted, and now any connection between them is through. Wally manages to stop the bleeding enough to transport Donald to the hospital but the surgeries are very touch and go and it's hard to say whether he'll live or not. Wally, through with Kaine, researches him for the first time in a superhuman criminal law enforcement database and learns about his past.

Tons happening in this issue and it's really a tremendous book. As much as I was bummed by Venom ending last week, I think I might be more broken up about this book when it comes to its end in the coming months. There's such a solid feel throughout this book and such a nice core to it. Kaine's a very complicated character and this is a great arc for him, as he has to directly face his past as a killer, something he decidedly doesn't want to be any more. It's been a nice transformation for him as the series has progressed, especially considering its start. Kaine was simply leaving New York so he wouldn't be apprehended or anything of that nature; he never intended to stay in Houston, let alone America, and to be dragged into his "brother's" heroic ways. But here he is, doing whatever it takes to try to save his friends and finding out that sometimes it's just not enough. It's a really well-written issue here as there has to be just enough sentimentality placed towards his friends and the way they view him without going too overboard and becoming repetitive. It works well and it creates a good picture of the new Kaine. The fighting is extremely well-paced and we see the pain in Kaine as Kraven works him over for a while before Kaine finally unleashes and immediately defeats Kraven and Ana. There's plenty happening here and it'll be interesting to see where we go from here.

Scarlet Spider 21, Ultimate Spider-Man 26

Scarlet Spider 21
Yost and Burnham (w) and Barberi, Baldeon, Pallot, and Olazaba (a) and Sotomayor (c)

Kaine has returned home from his trips to Westchester and New York City only to find himself afflicted with the degenerative disease he had thought gone long before. It's driving him a bit mad and he's snapping under the pressure. Meanwhile, each of his friends is hunted down and attacked (hunted down, that's a clue). While Kaine webs around the city, looking for some sort of relief, he's attacked by Ben Reilly, the original Scarlet Spider and the first successful Spider-Man clone (a. Kaine was the first clone but had the degenerative problem at first so Ben was the first one to be a complete success and b. that guy has a bunch of clones, geez). Kaine isn't prepared for the fight and finds himself quickly on the losing side. He escapes to gather his mind. He's convinced the attacker isn't really Ben Reilly, who he thought dead, but has no way to prove it. Reilly catches up with him (hunts him, almost) and rips off the mask to reveal that it is indeed Ben Reilly. Kaine puts up a good fight but his powers are degenerating and he eventually gives up again. This time, though, Reilly reveals that, psych, he's not actually Reilly and Kaine is just seeing things because of the heavy hallucinogenic dart he was hit with back at the airport and his attacker is actually Kraven the Hunter (Kraven's daughter has been attacking Kaine's friends one by one).

I wasn't sold on how fast Kaine decided he was losing his powers because I felt like there would be more skepticism to how fast the disease returned, with no warning, and how quickly it affected him. However, I think now that it works out pretty well as it leads to a bit of a breakdown on Kaine's part, which all works together to show how tightly strung Kaine is and how he's only barely managing to hold things together. In that respect, I think this plot works pretty well and it's a solid build for the arc and the character. Kaine has developed a decent little life for himself and if you remove Prey and the incident that caused it, he's been really very successful at turning his life around. But you can't remove those incidents and you can't remove his recent shake-up with Spider-Man and Jackal so he's understandably on a bit of a precipice here. It's certainly not going to help that he's up against the Kravinoffs, the family who killed him during Grim Hunt (guys, he came back, no big deal). Should be an interesting arc.

Ultimate Spider-Man 26
Bendis (w) and D. Marquez (a) and Ponsor (c)

Miles is back on the scene as Spider-Man and he and Jessica Drew team-up to find Bombshell after her fight with Cloak and Dagger. The story is interspersed with Bombshell's origin story and the goings-on at Roxxon as a result. Bombshell's mother had been in prison for armed robbery when Roxxon got her out in order to use her as a test subject in their attempts to create a new super soldier. She consents and they begin testing. It doesn't result in a super soldier like Cap was but does grant her the power to create explosions with her hands. Immediately after the first successful test, a scientist reveals that she's pregnant and Bombshell's mother breaks out of the facility. Seemingly she went on to live her life and give birth to her child without Roxxon nearby, though it seems they've been keeping tabs because Bombshell's name appears on a list of Roxxon test subjects, a list that Cloak and Dagger got a hold of in the hopes they could take down Roxxon. Meanwhile, Roxxon has hired a bounty hunter of sorts, codename Taskmaster, to track and bring back Bombshell and Cloak and Dagger. The issue ends after Bombshell's told her story to the Spiders and Taskmaster manages to knock all three unconscious.

There's plenty going on here and there's a lot to like about this issue. I do think there's still a bit of that back-and-forth dialogue that gets in the way of the good stuff but it feels a little more at home in this issue, as there's less fighting and fewer characters, meaning that it doesn't feel as excessive as it does when five or six people are doing it in one scene. Still, apart from that, the story is interesting enough and there are nice touches here and there to help build character. There's a joke that gets played out twice (which is the perfect amount, it will get annoying if it comes around again later) as Spider-Man misses Bombshell with his web and has to frustratedly explain to doubters that he's out of practice. There's also a scene between Cloak and Dagger which is good in explaining their motives a bit more and expressing their concerns with their own plan, though it does get a little weakened by its cutesy back-and-forth. Still, overall a good issue with some really good art and a solid plot to build on.