Slott (w) and H. Ramos and Olazaba (a) and Delgado (c)
People in Peter's life are getting understandably more suspicious as Spider-Man's raid on Shadowland makes the news. Meanwhile, Hobgoblin is panicking, burned by Kingpin and now in too deep with money problems, he goes to the Tinkerer to get new tech and begins robbing banks to make up the difference. The bank robberies are widely publicized and Spider-Man is astounded to find that his Spider-bots aren't picking up any sign of this Goblin. Green Goblin is wise to this too and directs his growing empire to break up for the time being, choosing to lie low and let Hobgoblin be caught by the fixed Spider-bots rather than risk them finding him. It culminates in a battled between Hobgoblin and Spider-Man and Spider-Man pulling out all the stops to bring him down.Dan Slott's been building Phil Urich as an important character for quite some time and it's all paying off now. His character hasn't been anything particularly deep, just an incredibly troubled man who happened upon the Hobgoblin identity at a delicate time. Still, as everything unravels for him you can look back and see years of development for the character coming to a head as Spider-Man finally learns his identity and quickly exposes it to the world. There's also talk in this issue of Spider-Man dropping the Peter Parker persona in all and dedicating his entire life to Spider-Man, thinking he could get so much more done without the double life. It's Anna Maria Marconi who keeps him invested now but it's an interesting idea to bring up. Doc Ock has brought everything where he wants it to be, including locking himself down a veritable army of henchmen and a headquarters as well as getting Jameson in his pocket. He could, with no attachment to Peter's life and considering how little of Peter's life is known (or cared about) to the Avengers, abandon the Peter Parker identity at the drop of a hat, cutting out characters who have mattered since the inception of the series. The good thing about Slott, though, is that the prospect of that doesn't enrage me or anything along those lines (though I could see it enraging people more concerned with the welfare of MJ or Carlie than I, if such people exist), it simply opens up another really interesting door for this series. Neat stuff.
Superior Carnage 2
Schinick (w) and Segovia (a) and J. D. Ramos (c)
The Wizard is losing his mind or may have already lost it and it's jeopardizing, or perhaps inspiring, this mission. He's still desperate to control Carnage, which would add a devastating member to the new Frightful Four but is proving difficult to do since Kasady's brain is fried. He brings in a scientist who is keep to their plan but who is unsure it can be pulled off and is very skeptical about Wizard's current state. He reveals to Klaw that Black Bolt messed with Wizard's mind and worries that it's showing, that maybe the genius Wizard once was can never be restored. Spider-Man is aware of some of these happenings (at least that Wizard and Carnage have broken out) but he's currently somewhat undisturbed by that. Both villains are broken and he assumes that he'll have to take care of Carnage once Carnage inevitably kills Wizard. Wizard, after several attempts, still has made no progress on finding a brain to control in Carnage and moves to the next logical step: giving it a brain.There's a lot going on here that's compelling, perhaps most of all Wizard's breakdown. After his plot involving the FF, Wizard has been seemingly irreparably broken. Spider-Man hints at the fact that whatever Black Bolt has done to Wizard's mind will likely kill him before long. Does Wizard already know that? Is this a shot at a legacy or a suicide mission? How desperate is Wizard to prove something to Bentley-23, who he keeps seeing everywhere and calling to, only to be brought back into the real world harshly. Klaw views Wizard as family (the man's resurrected him enough times); where does that leave him when this all shakes out? Where does it leave the way Wizard thinks about Klaw? All of these questions are compelling ones and they don't even invoke the titular character of this series. Stories with Carnage tend to be incredibly dangerous ones that end in a lot of murder (this one's already had plenty of that) and all of these questions don't even touch on his presence. Pretty solid layout for a mini-series.
Superior Foes of Spider-Man 2
Spencer (w) and Lieber (a) and Rosenberg (c)
There's a somewhat compelling story here made less compelling by the audience's lack of concern for the book's main characters. Hopefully over time they'll develop in such a way that we actually care about what they do and how they end up but right now they're simply C-list supervillains, making it particularly hard to care about them. They're still bad guys but digging up C-listers, while making for a more original and more fun story, lowers the stakes. Spencer's going to have to do a lot to keep those stakes raised and bring some amount of empathy to the characters. If you're a regular superhero book reader from the Big 2, you'll also have to break yourself of some of the preconceptions of how one of these books should be written to read this one. It's aiming far funnier than any other book and, again, the stakes are lower. Superhero books tend to need to push the stakes to their highest over and over again (it's why death is so prevalent in comics, which is why resurrection has become so prevalent) but here our stakes are, as I'v said, fairly low. The writing is typically sharp and pretty funny but there are moments where it comes off as trying too hard and feeling a little desperate. Overall, though, it's a pretty nice read and it moves well. It's a nice break from the tension and drama that accompanies a lot of superhero books and it's a really nice break from the weaker superhero books out there.
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