Superior Foes of Spider-Man 1, Thunderbolts 12, Venom 37

Superior Foes of Spider-Man 1

Spencer (w) and Lieber (a) and Rosenberg (c)

Boomerang is sick and tired of being a C-list hero and of being constantly shown up by Spider-Man. His new plan is to reform the Sinister Six (though, at current, there are only five members) and work together to propel each other to the top before inevitably betraying one another in the hopes of claiming a stake in the city for him or herself. The team he's assembled also includes Spider-Man villains Overdrive, Speed Demon, Shocker, and Beetle, all of whom fit nicely into their own little niche. Overdrive is the pretty boy driver, Speed Demon is the wisecracking scamp, Beetle is the pretty girl thief, and Shocker is the coward. It's not the best team but he's Boomerang so this is the best he could get. It still doesn't save him from being arrested after some other crime of theirs Spider-Man stopped. He convinces Speed Demon and Shocker to go to his apartment to drop off birdseed so his neighbor can feed his bird but, when they arrive with the bag, they're welcomed by Hammerhead, who reveals that the bag they thought they got (after robbing the pet store) is filled with diamonds (making them feel bad for robbing the store). Hammerhead thinks some of the diamonds are missing and takes it out on Shocker. Shocker and Speed Demon, angry that Boomerang set them up, accuse him of leaving them out to dry. Boomerang explains that Hammerhead is an in-road for bigger and better crimes, leading to better payoffs but they'll need to bail him out first. Shocker and Speed Demon, intrigued, gather Overdrive and Beetle to bail Boomerang out. Boomerang, meanwhile, meets in the jail with Chameleon, who has arranged his way into the jail and, we find, was the one who posed as Hammerhead in the first place. So, we learn after he's bailed out, that he's indebted to Chameleon and that there's no actual heist for his team to pull despite the promise of one, leaving Boomerang in a potential bit of trouble in the near future.

This is a weird decision for a series. I'm not going to complain about it because it's kind of interesting to see the lives of the C-list villains and the idea that they might be bounced around between various factions of B- or A-list villains is a nifty one. Adding to that is pretty fun writing, particularly between Speed Demon and Shocker as they head for Boomerang's apartment. There is a nagging feeling of "this book is trying to be Hawkeye" that's a little hard to shake but it's not executed nearly as well. There are a couple of callbacks, like Hawkeye, and a couple of winks to say to the reader that this is a comic book (like in Hawkeye when a naked Clint's privates are covered by an old-school Hawkeye costumed head, Boomerang flipping someone off is censored by an "approved by the comics code authority" patch). Hawkeye is a great book so making something feel that way isn't necessarily the wrong way to do it, but this book will have to establish itself as its own thing before the reader can be comfortable with those kinds of things. Still, a more entertaining read than this had any right to be for a first issue. We'll see where it goes.

Thunderbolts 12
Soule (w) and Dillon (a) and Guru eFX (c)

Daniel Way takes a day off with this issue, which focuses on Punisher and his suspicion that Elektra didn't actually kill her brother when she said she had. He asks her what she did with the body and she hesitates before saying she buried it. That was enough for Punisher who goes on a Punisher-kill-spree to hunt Orestez. He's followed him pretty successfully, usually running into him whenever he plans to but often unable to kill him for one reason or another. Punisher is patient, though; he's been at this a long time and he knows that he only needs to be successful once. Eventually Orestez has run out of allies to hide him and places to go and Punisher tracks him to a panic room Orestez has sealed himself in. They argue through the door about whether or not Punisher would kill Elektra in place of Orestez but eventually Orestez comes out. Punisher, of course, kills him, before returning to the team. He is tormented by the fact that Elektra let her brother go and does consider killing her for her choice but decides instead to simply slow their relationship. Bold move, Castle.

One of the slower issues of Thunderbolts for sure. It really does focus itself on Punisher and takes up an entire issue doing what probably could have been done in a B-storyline of an issue. I'm also admittedly not too versed in Punisher history (I've read most of his newest stuff but not a ton past that) but he seems particularly kill crazed here. Killing Orestez fits, just like wanting to kill the Leader the first time he laid eyes on him in this series, but there are times where he sees people doing drugs at a party and gets the bloodlust. He doesn't act on it but he makes a mental note. I'm not saying drugs are an acceptable thing or not a crime or whatever but it seems a little beyond what Punisher punishes for. Maybe he can't make those differences though; that's why he's the Punisher. Still, pretty slow issue with not much gained except that Orestez is apparently dead and Punisher and Elektra maybe will break up. Worth a miss.

Venom 37
Bunn (w) and Jacinto (a) and Loughridge (c)

Reporter Katy Kiernan has tracked Venom to Philadelphia and is asking questions of people in the school after Venom's latest ventures happened during a school day at Flash's work. She asks Flash if he knows anything but he denies, getting a little antsy in the midst of all the questioning. After Katy leaves, Flash gets upset that she's coming to try to smoke him out. His neighbor Andi, who probably saw him using the symbiote in a gym class, questions why Katy's asking him things. Meanwhile, Venom has been trying to track Lord Ogre and keeps finding himself a step or two behind. He's been able to free some of Ogre's workers but hasn't seen the man himself since their first encounter and it's driving him crazy. Suddenly he's attacked by a few super-powered mercenaries including a couple of Avenger knock-offs, Constrictor, and Lord Deathstrike. In the confusion of who actually bagged Venom (he falls at one point) he escapes, now knowing that Lord Ogre is willing to hire out to stop him. Venom realizes that he needs help dealing with this and contacts Katy to ask why she's on his trail and to try to see if she has anything on Ogre and his organization. She's optimistic that she can help but the last scene of the issue shows that Ogre is aggressively recruiting mercs to stop Venom, planning to make an example of him for anyone who might be watching. Among those mercenaries is Venom's long-lost arch-enemy Jack O'Lantern.

Venom seems to follow a pattern insofar as the setup of arcs goes. I'm not saying it's a bad pattern but there's often a break issue followed by a new set-up followed by a slow build followed by a big fight followed by a break and so on. Again, it's not bad and it seems like an easy way to get a story across and I'm sure plenty of other books use this set up but I don't know how many others use it this blatantly. It's a good book and this story is setting up nicely, as plenty of others have to this point, but it is a little weird to immediately have a tone set for the issue simply because that issue falls into a certain point in the rotation. Anyway, lots of action guaranteed for this arc. Jacinto's art was pretty phenomenal, giving a different feel than Shalvey's great art that we'd seen recently. I also want to recognize the amazing covers that Shalvey and Jordie Bellaire keep churning out. Every one of them impresses me every time, just as their team-up yielded at the end of Winter Soldier. Solid art coming from this book at all angles.