Superior Spider-Man 22, Scarlet Spider 24, Superior Carnage 5

Superior Spider-Man 22
Slott and Gage (w) and Ramos and Olazaba (a) and Delgado (c)

Flash Thompson is back in New York and on the trail of someone going by the name Crime Master, who he had recently fought in his own series and had rather brought his life to something of a stand-still. Meanwhile, Parker Industries has opened its doors and started work. Peter gives his first speech to the scientists (it's practically got super-villain written all over it) and meets with his Aunt May and Uncle Jay to show them around. He's called away from the offices (and from Anna Maria) by his Spider-Army, who alert him to Venom and Crime Master's fight. Venom has figured out that Crime Master isn't Betty Brant's brother, the most recent Crime Master, but some former Maggia guy who bought the name off of Hobgoblin and currently regrets it. Venom pretty easily takes this new Crime Master down a peg and the villain gives up when Spider-Man appears with a small battalion. But he's not there for Crime Master; he's there for Venom. Venom realizes that Spidey probably doesn't realize Venom's a good guy now and eventually is forced to show his face, revealing himself as Flash and hoping that's enough for Spidey but ultimately, this Spider-Man doesn't have any connection to the man and seems poised to kill anyway.

Pretty smooth issue, moves a little bit more quickly than the last handful of SUPERIOR SPIDER-MAN issues have and sets us up in a lot of different ways. We're no longer in the Parker Industries funding stages, nor in the doctorate-earning stages so we're able to move a little more efficiently through Doc Ock's newest plans. There's a nice character-defining line from Anna Maria as she points to Peter as someone who's quick to action, someone who goes out and does what he wants done and who takes what he wants taken. It's hard not to see that in stark contrast to OG Peter Parker who was constantly second-guessing himself and doubting himself on top of the difference in action vs. reaction we've talked about a lot in other reviews. There's also some more plot-building stuff than was highlighted above as Wraith discovers that Carlie's disappeared and her apartment's been ransacked with all of her notes on Peter similarly gone. She blames Spider-Man and vows to play as dirty as she thinks he's playing. Meanwhile, Jameson is sick of being under Spider-Man's thumb and supposedly has a plan to get out from under it. Plenty happening, plenty of groundwork laid for the next set of issues, and plenty of character development through it all. Pretty solid work.

Scarlet Spider 24
Yost and Burnham (w) and Baldeon (a) and Sotomayor (c)

Kaine still blames himself for Donald's injury and all of the guilt and the pressure he's felt from the start has reached its breaking point, leaving him frustrated and angry with himself, ready to throw away the Scarlet Spider persona for good. Both Annabelle and Aracely are firmly on his side but Wally feels differently, particularly after finally looking Kaine up in his police database and finding the laundry list of crimes attributed to him. After a long day of wallowing and being unable to burn his costume (unstable molecules), Kaine returns home to find Annabelle there, ready to make him feel better and taking a different and more sex-filled tact. While Aracely tries to not hear what's happening in the other room, she has another strange vision laced with plenty of ancient Central and South American imagery and claiming that either she has to die or everyone will die and the likes. As those events both wrap up, all hell breaks loose as Wally comes in to arrest Kaine, the real Annabelle shows up alongside a rocket-launcher-toting Zoe Walsh (unstable daughter of a Roxxon CEO who blames Scarlet Spider for his death but also has a thing for him from back in SCARLET SPIDER 7 or so), and the revealed-to-be-fake Annabelle transforms into a horrifying monster thing we've probably seen before but I don't remember off-hand. Amidst the chaos, Zoe fires her rocket, exploding the penthouse.

The final issue of Scarlet Spider, issue 25, is just around the corner and it shows here as the rising action really speeds to a climax here, bringing everyone who might want to have at Kaine together at once and then firing a rocket-launcher into the room. For all of its last-second action, sudden characters, and confusion, the issue does a really good job sticking to the themes of the book and getting right to the core of everything Kaine's been going through, perfectly summed up by the critical injury to Donald (WAIT, if Wally and Donald got married, would Wally become Walter Meland because that just came to me and I'll never be happy again if I don't decide that's what's going to happen). He's been going through a lot of this kind of reformed villain stress from the first moment of this book, where he didn't intend to be a hero or to stop in Houston and he can't help thinking about how much better everyone would be if he had stopped, unable to even consider that that wouldn't be true because Houston would have blown up like, ages ago if he wasn't there. A lot of really good stuff and the book develops in such a way that Yost and Burnham really get to explore that stuff before turning the jets on ramping up the action, which also has the added benefit of making the action seem incredibly chaotic and shocking the audience with how quickly it moves. Good stuff, looking forward to the final issue though also pretty sad that it's about to be over.

Superior Carnage 5
Shinick (w) and Segovia, Crisostomo, Ho, and Mexia (a) and JD Ramos and Lokus (c)

Klaw has been killed but it doesn't stop him from being our narrator for the issue. As a being made of pure sound, his death has transferred his consciousness and his abilities into the sound wall, making him a part of everything but with the knowledge that he'll continue dispersing, soon to lose his consciousness in the sounds. For now, though, he watches as Carnage runs rampant in his friend the Wizard's body. He outmatches Spider-Man and knows his secrets, he bests all of Spider-Man's men, he rips the legs from Malus, and he still demands to see his son. One of Spider-Man's men reveals that he's there and eventually Spider-Man is forced to play his trump card. To the Wizard's surprise, it's not Bentley-23 on-site but rather the "son" of Carnage, Cletus Kasady. Klaw explains that he's realized over time that Carnage feels the sort of betrayal a teenager feels, passed around from host to host, wanting to separate from everyone while maintaining some sort of link to someone. However, he adjusts it to include the fact that it's Carnage who has left his hosts behind, evolving and changing, but that he longs for someone he can fully control, someone designed especially for him, and that perfect host then is Kasady. Carnage rips itself off of Wizard and makes its way to Kasady as Spider-Man and his men use a specially designed gun to try to contain him. They can't get it running in time but Klaw uses his remaining power from the sound wall to project unbridled sound at the reunited Kasady and Carnage, allowing Spider-Man the chance to contain him. The book ends with the reveal that Wizard's dementia has stopped and, for all intents and purposes, he's doing better than before now that Carnage has seemingly fixed his mind to an extent; that Cletus Kasady's mind has been similarly fixed from his short time with Carnage, fixed enough at least to wake him out of his coma if not to make him less crazy; and that Spider-Man has Carnage under his control for now.

Solid ending to what turned out to be a pretty compelling and well executed story. I wasn't terribly optimistic at the start after the first issue didn't exactly win me over but Shinick had a story that was pretty good and clearly wanted to play with a couple of characters in unexpected ways, showing Wizard as a broken man who wants nothing more than to impress his son, showing Klaw as an extremely loyal and very capable villain right up to the end, and showing Carnage in probably the most complex light it's ever been cast in. Instead of a somewhat mindless and blood-thirsty beast, Carnage has a whole range of purported emotions that have left it an efficient and extremely calculating killer. There's a lot of really good stuff to this and the Carnage bent, not entirely unlike the Deadpool-based but rather silly series (like DEADPOOL KILLS THE MARVEL UNIVERSE, DEADPOOL KILLUSTRATED, and DEADPOOL KILLS DEADPOOL), aims to continue, albeit with less of a silly tone than the Deadpool books and more of a "oh dear god why is this happening tone," with the next Carnage-based series (following up CARNAGE, CARNAGE USA, and now SUPERIOR CARNAGE) revealed as CARNAGE HOMECOMING. Get ready for a lot more Cletus Kasady.

Superior Spider-Man Team-Up 5, Superior Carnage 4

Superior Spider-Man Team-Up 5
Yost (w) and Checchetto (a) and Rosenberg (c)

Alchemax has hardly opened its doors and already its the site of a supervillain attack as the Wrecking Crew start busting their way in, in search of an experimental particle engine. Spider-Man 2099 is inside getting ready to fight them when the Superior Spider-Man shows up with his own team, his new Superior Six. Finally we learn Doc Ock's plan for his former Sinister Six teammates as the villains he's captured are now working for him, mind controlled to fight and move on his behalf. It is...sketchy, morally, but it's effective. Spidey admits to himself that maybe he brought them out a little too early and he requires a little help from a new Sun Girl (apparently a hero! Wikipedia has little to say of her as yet) to bring the Wrecking Crew down. They scamper back to their boss Lightmaster, who assures them that next time they will have a bigger team to fight off this new Superior Six. Meanwhile, Spidey settles things out at home with the imprisoned ex-villains and Sun Girl, who was knocked unconscious during the fight and brought back to Spider-Island while she recovered.

An interesting repurposing of the Sinister Six that fits with this new do-what-it-takes Spider-Man and which has just the right level of absolute sketchiness and kind-of brilliance. It also slots nicely into the current events of Superior Spider-Man as we catch a glimpse of Spider-Man 2099 (albeit being very ineffective) and the newly formed Alchemax. Clearly there are some big plans going forward in the Spider-Man universe that will involve everything going on right now on both sides of the ball. How the superhero community (and the civilian community) will react to the new Superior Six is still up for debate and won't be answered immediately but BOY, someone's going to have to start realizing that, as off as Spidey's been acting lately, he's branching out into all new levels of crazy. Right? Like, one person will have to be like "hey guys, I know we already scanned him with our non-scientifically inclined people, but maybe we should like, kick the tires again?" Right?

Superior Carnage 4
Shinick (w) and Segovia and Chrisostomo w/Mexia (a) and J.D. Ramos, Gandini, and Rosenberg (c)

Spider-Man was lying in wait for the Wizard, Klaw, and Carnage at City Hall but it turns out even Spidey might not be enough to stop them. They out-power him at every turn before he eventually grabs Wizard, the one clearly in control of the situation (sort of) and escapes with him. He holds him above an ally in an attempt to get him to call off Carnage but Wizard reads his mind briefly and realizes he's Octavius, which causes Spidey to drop the villain onto a car below. Wizard's hold on Carnage is released and Carnage goes to town, killing Spider-Man's minions and following Klaw out to where Spidey and Wizard are talking. Spider-Man admits to Wizard that he is Otto and promises to get him to his son if he controls Carnage and puts him down. Klaw, thinking Spider-Man's attacking Wizard, charges him before being run through himself by Carnage's secret vibranium weapon, taken from Wizard armory. Klaw explodes in a burst of sound, launching Carnage off of Dr. Malus and onto Wizard.

Solid penultimate issue as we get an impressive fight scene with the ever-threatening Carnage managing to put the fear into the typically collected Superior Spider-Man. Wizard continues to shift back and forth between dastardly genius and sad, old man trying to reconnect with and impress his son, adding some pathos for both the character and the crowd who overhears his hopes. Spider-Man, for his part, keeps trying to fight what keeps looking more and more like a losing battle and whose only serious misstep is allowing Wizard to fall after hearing his own secret identity revealed. As Carnage launches from Malus to Wizard, we're in for an exciting last issue that could certainly go any direction and might even keep Wizard, a longtime Marvel villain, from completely losing his mind. Or maybe it will accelerate that EVEN MORE. Who knows? Certainly not me. Absolutely fantastic cover too, one that would certainly makes me interested in picking up the book if I saw it in my LCS. Mission accomplished, you guys.

Morbius the Living Vampire 9, Superior Carnage 3

Morbius the Living Vampire 9

Keatinge (w) and Elson (a) and Fabela (c)

The Rose has shot Morbius with the not-quite Ultimate Nullifier and left him for dead. Becky sees him fall but is pulled back from helping him or checking on him (hint: it's comics, that means he's totally alive). He, of course, tracks Rose back to his secret lair and goes berserk there, killing all his guards before finally being led to Rose himself. The two fight and argue about what's going to become of them now that they've outlived their usefulness to the Rose's employers. Morbius admits that he knows what's happening now but enjoys the catharsis of slaughtering Rose. Morbius does end up talking to Rose's employers and learns that they're mostly in it to develop Brownsville now that Morbius has lifted the residents' spirits. One year later, Becky is in Manhattan hosting an art exhibit focused on Brownsville and dating Michael, who is in hiding (if he's seen, it could somehow mean Brownsville won't climb out of its poverty.

I haven't exactly been a fan of this series from its start or, really, even from its inception. I do think this issue helps a bit because it feels a lot more focused, like it always knew it wanted to be here (I don't know that that's true; with cancellations, sometimes you have to cut your story shorter than you'd like, but this feels more focused). That certainly helps the feel and the flow of this book but ultimately we see that the villains are pretty weak (and still a little confusing), which weakens what we had been seeing too. Also, not to ruin the exact ending of this one for you diehard Morbius fans out there, but it ends with an obvious reveal (Michael is alive and dating Becky or at least still pals with Becky) and the even more obvious and cheesy ending of Morbius saying that he's enjoying he's current plan, the one he hasn't tried before...LIVING. I think my eyeballs actually audibly rolled. People could hear my eyes. It was weird, you guys, and I don't appreciate it.

Superior Carnage 3

Shinick (w) and Segovia and Chrisostomo (a) and J.D. Ramos (c)

The transfer of Carnage on to the brilliant surgeon Karl Malus has been successful and it's left Wizard able to control Carnage, though the control is tenuous at best. Malus warns Klaw that he can feel Carnage trying to overpower Wizard and knows that the moment Wizard slips, Carnage will be in control. For the moment, though, they're going to take on Jameson to take over New York in Wizard's attempt to impress Bentley-23. It's a little chaotic and Wizard nearly slips and loses control of Carnage. When they arrive in the mayor's office at City Hall, they find Spider-Man with a couple of his minions waiting for him.

There's a lot of really good stuff here. It's a lot of what we've seen in the first couple issues as the power of Carnage is overwhelming but the plight of Wizard is still real and well-focused. In addition, we build a little more on what Klaw said to Malus about Wizard being family to him. Here, Klaw asks wizard about his mental state and what happened with Black Bolt and Wizard admits that things maybe aren't great but that he's more desperate than ever to show his son the man he is, not the failure he may have seen all of his life. There are real moments there, especially as Wizard drifts into the past tense when talking about himself before sheepishly correcting himself. Still, the threat of Carnage is a real one and it's one that everyone finds compelling enough to hear Wizard out. It'll be interesting to see where Spider-Man takes this book as the series wraps up (I believe that this story ends with issue four but I'm not totally sure and I tend to question myself when I get this way). There's a lot to like here, not just limited to the writing, though the writing is pretty good and the story is perhaps better. The art is solid and the colors remind everyone of the other two Carnage minis we've had in the last couple years (which featured distinctly different art).

FF 5, Scarlet Spider 15

FUN FACT: I like this team-up of books because they're my displaced books this week. I would have matched them with Fantastic Four and Superior Spider-Man (for seemingly obvious reasons) but both of those books were direct tie-ins to Age of Ultron so it seemed silly to split it that way. A LOOK INTO THE PROCESS, dear readers.

FF 5
Fraction (w) and M. Allred (a) and L. Allred

Quick second fun fact (because we're all having fun): I don't think I would be at all upset if Laura Allred decided to color every single one of her books entirely red.
The FF is a little bit falling apart. Medusa is a bit...problematic, at the moment. Scott is freaking out about losing Alex who Darla assures him is 18 and well within his rights to leave if he wants. Old John Storm is still pretty crazy and has wandered off himself. She-Hulk and Darla both seem okay but it's still not an easy position for anyone to be in. In a beautiful bit of homage to early Fantastic Four, John Storm wanders into the former bowery mumbling about how it's as good a place as any for him to mix with the other derelicts in the city. John's lines in this scene are direct quotes from the first appearance of Namor in F4 from way back when. Johnny, then, was also walking around the bowery mumbling to himself before stumbling into Namor, who has lost his memory and made himself at home among the city's derelicts. Whether it's done to indicate that John is aware of his past or crazy or whatever it might be, it's a wonderful little toy that still fits pretty well in the story even if you don't know the history. Fraction is among the industry's best (I think in general, but specifically) at fitting in nods to the past in his work and it's almost always a delight. Anyway, here in FF 5, John then gets his flame on and starts to burn the city down little bit by bit. The F4 rush out to try to stop him and are aided by two members of the Future Foundation, old Atlanteans Vil and Wu, who summon a many-spouted beast from the river to help keep John extinguished. A member of the press catches the team at the site and belittles them in the paper. Then, cliffhangers abound as Alex shows up at Castle Doom to talk about this new FF and Medusa brings Bentley to his father, Wizard (who refers to Medusa as his wife). Weird and creepy.
There are a lot of fun things happening in the forefront of this book with just as many sinister strings waiting to be pulled just under the surface. It's an interesting place for this book to come from and it's interesting to watch it all come together. I particularly like what Scott's going through right now, as he hasn't really been looked at since he was resurrected in Young Avengers (not that he knew he was resurrected) and after his daughter's death shortly after that. In this issue, he snaps a bit with Darla as he screams about everyone just being stupid kids. There's a lot going on in his head and I'm excited to see more of it. Another fun issue.

Scarlet Spider 15
Yost (w) and Pham, Edwards, Siqueira, Pallot, Bit, and Olazaba (a) and Fabela (c)

Speaking of books that have gone to an interesting place, Scarlet Spider. After two issues ago saw Kaine killed and last issue saw him revived and giving up his humanity to try to save Aracely. This issue finds Kaine as a hideous spider-like monster, now calling himself and/or deeming everyone else "prey," intent on killing just about everything. He finds Aracely and the two wolves and stabs one of the wolves through the chest. The other grabs the fallen wolf and rushes him away hopefully to safety. Kaine lunges at Aracely and, just before he's about to kill her, she's able to get him to revert back to human. The experience, naturally, upsets Kaine a bit though it opens his eyes as to his possible true nature. It's an interesting look into the mind of Kaine and exactly how he's feeling about everything that's been going on in his life over the last few weeks. We're also getting closer and closer to figuring out who is behind everything here and what Aracely's true role in everything is.
I'll be honest I've gotten a little bogged down in this story. I think that's probably on me, in truth, and the amount of books I read. I kind of can't believe this series is already at issue 15. I don't think I've missed issues along the way but I've definitely pushed some to the back of my mind here and there and I think that's all going to come back to bite me as Aracely takes center stage for whatever story eventually comes our way. I don't know if it'll be the next arc the focuses on Aracely or if it'll just be something that makes its way to us over time but I feel equally uncomfortable delving into Aracely-centric stories. Maybe, though, that's the way I'm supposed to feel. She's touted as a mysterious character who kind of sprung up out of nowhere and has some amount of power but seems unsure on using it. Maybe I'm supposed to know exactly as much as I feel I do (very little) and that it will be revealed over time. I'm going to go with that.
Overall not a bad issue. Some things come to a head. I don't remember the specifics of last issue but I wouldn't be surprised if this and the last one could have been combined. Not my call and I sure don't feel like digging up that issue to nitpick. I think there was probably enough in each that neither would could be effectively cut down to half an issue or less, so both might have ended up feeling a little padded out but were still worthwhile.