Avenging Spider-Man 20, Alpha Big Time 4

Avenging Spider-Man 20
Yost (w) and Checchetto (a) and Rosenberg (c)

Spider-Man, in his quest to gather the Sinister Six for some no doubt sinister plan, has struck the SHIELD helicarrier to try to free Chameleon. Black Widow and Hawkeye also appear, alongside Agent Coulson (whose nickname in this book and in Secret Avengers this week has been revealed to, inexplicably, be "Cheese" in what feels a little desperately like saying "Accept this movie character into your comic book world!"), fresh off an off-panel Secret Avengers mission. All heroes and new Nick Fury are brought into the debriefing room when Ock's plan to use his mini-spiderbots goes into effect. The power aboard the helicarrier goes down and Spider-Man starts to use it as a way to track down Chameleon before discovering that there are other villains breaking onto the helicarrier following the power surge also looking for Chameleon. They're two previously unseen villains, both wearing masks and one who has the power to kill with his touch. While the heroes fight them, Spider-Man slinks off to look for Chameleon only to find that Chameleon has killed his guards and escaped his cell. Doc starts to realize that his bringing the power down allowed the other killer villains on board and allowed Chameleon to escape and kill the guards so he is ostensibly responsible, despite his feelings that he's the better and more responsible Spider-Man than Peter Parker. He thus pushes the thoughts out of his head and starts to fight the villains, who have also made their way to where Chameleon should be, before Hulk shows up (Banner was also somewhere on the helicarrier.

Avenging Spider-Man (which, I should mention, is technically going to be cancelled I believe after next month's issue but will be relaunched, with Yost still at its helm, in July as Superior Spider-Man Team-Up or some such) continues to be as compelling as Superior Spider-Man, which is especially interesting given how the series started. I'm not saying it was a bad series to start but it was certainly a more puff piece kind of series. The team-ups were fun and no one's going to complain about getting to see Spider-Man in more places and interacting with different heroes than normal, but there wasn't a point to it beyond getting to see Spider-Man in more places and interacting with different heroes than normal. That's okay, but a full story is almost always going to make for a more compelling series. Doc Ock capturing the Sinister Six for some unknown purpose is certainly compelling enough, added to the fact that he's had his own interesting team-ups and complicated relationships with other heroes in this world as Superior Spider-Man. It's been a solid book and hopefully it will continue to be as, presumably, this Sinister Six arc reveals itself to us with the book rebranding in July.

Alpha Big Time 4
Fialkov (w) and Plati (a) and Rauch (c)

Alpha Big Time, the surprisingly good mini-series about the boy Peter Parker accidentally imbued with godlike powers before limiting them down severely for a bit of time, is roaring along to its conclusion (issue five). There's still plenty to get through, though, as the mugger whose face Alpha kind of smashed in at the end of issue one is now mutating and absorbing energy in the form of over four hundred people all the while growing larger and larger makes his presence known to Alpha, who can't successfully fight him. He has to leave midfight, though, as he hears his mom screaming from their house. He pushes his powers to the limit to race there only to find it on fire, a threat from the mysterious Boss Cohen who has been setting fires throughout Pittsburgh. Add to that the typical teenage angst Alpha is feeling (including girl trouble, as always) and the questions about his powers that are looming ever bigger and Joshua Fialkov has engineered a pretty solid book about a character that, when he debuted, nobody liked. I think people might have liked the idea of Alpha but he was designed to be unlikable and Slott made sure he was. Now, with his powers a fraction of what they could be (and eventually will be), Alpha has learned a bit about maturity and has a bit of a cooler head with these things.

I said that he has a bit more maturity but that still doesn't make him mature. He confesses to guest star of this issue Thor that he can't help but feel like everyone is so small compared to him (which is, on top of being remarkably conceited, supervillain sort of talk). Thor is the right guy to talk to and he admits that it's sometimes challenging even for him to keep his mind on task. He talks about the brash and arrogant young Thor but reveals that he has since learned that they feel bigger and so need to raise up everyone else. It's a nice message and definitely one that Alpha will have to take heed of if he intends to continue as a superhero. Despite what I said about it being supervillain talk, Alpha doesn't act like a supervillain. Sure he's young and cynicism and horrible events could turn him into a villain down the road, but he seems mostly good-natured throughout this series, even going so far as visiting the mugger in the hospital between almost killing him and him turning into a giant monster. Still, there are plenty of directions for this last issue to go and, though I wouldn't have expected to be saying this when the first book was on the schedule, I'm excited to see what the conclusion brings.