Deadpool 22, Marvel Knights Spider-Man 4, Daredevil Dark Nights 8

Deadpool 22
Posehn and Duggan (w) and Hawthorne (a) and Bellaire (c)

Deadpool and Preston are still on the run from mercenaries hoping to claim corrupt SHIELD agent Gorman's generous bounty. Among those mercenaries is Gorman's own Preston-bot, which he's been using for illicit activities for some time now. Deadpool battles it and wins out, giving the head to Agent Adsit when he arrives on the scene to let Deadpool know what's happening on the helicarrier. They fight their way through mercenaries and are eventually picked up by Coulson, who informs them that Gorman has apparently figured out that something is up and has high-tailed it to rising SHIELD enemy Ultimatum. They follow the trace on Gorman and it leads them to what is apparently another helicarrier, somehow built in secret off of plans Gorman fed Ultimatum. Deadpool agrees to board the ship and disable its cloaking device so the SHIELD helicarrier can bring it down.

The plot thickens as it starts to invoke a new enemy for SHIELD (though, presumably, a rather short-lived new enemy) and the pieces start to slide into place. The dialogue in this one starts to stagnate a bit as both Deadpool and Preston are relegated to interjections and other sorts of quips and comments with Coulson and Adsit delivering plot. Not to say that the occasional interjection or quip is bad, just that such an abundance of them and the fact that it's coming from two separate characters this time out makes it rather annoying. One of the problems I've had with Preston through the series has been that she's played that role throughout, which has made me like Deadpool more (as he wasn't really doing that) but made me dislike her. There's also the continued weird hero-worship of Agent Coulson who, I get it, is a big deal for Marvel right now but this love is really kind of jarring. Still, not bad, the arc should culminate in a big ol' Deadpool fight and hopefully that will play better, as it will put Deadpool in the driver's seat of dialogue and not as the annoying child in the back.

Marvel Knights Spider-Man 4
Kindt (w) and Rudy (a) and Staples (c)

Spider-Man escaped the exploding Nitro on the sub, but only just. He wakes to find himself, inexplicably, in a comfortable bed and rather refreshed. He discovers that he's in a nice hotel and comes downstairs to find that, of course, it's being run by Kraven. The island he's been left on now has all sorts of his villains there, including some of his biggest villains who have so far been missing, including Kraven, Rhino, Vulture, Jackal, and Scorpion. Spidey fights each of these villains in the hotel before realizing that Kraven, krazy as ever, is hunting everyone there. He escapes and uses the last of his web fluid to get into a tree for the night. He's joined later in the night by the Owl, who admits that he doesn't want to be part of this game any more and so offers to fly him off the island. Without other options, Spider-Man agrees and the two begin flying away towards Malta, where Owl expects they'll be able to pick up the trail of the person responsible for this. Before they get off the island, Kraven shoots Owl down. Spider-Man is able to distract Kraven long enough to escape by boat to Malta, which he mistakes for Morocco, not remembering what Owl said, and gets himself shot by a hiding Spy-Master.

There are bits and pieces of the dialogue and the narration that are a little weird and maybe a little out of place but you kind of have to step back to appreciate this issue. We're looking at a mini-series where Spider-Man fights pretty much every single one of his villains (and Spider-Man's rogue gallery is the most impressive gallery in the Marvel Universe) and no one steps in to help. This book is crazy on the outside so the fact that we're going along with it at all seems like a huge get for Kindt and Rudy. THE GAUNTLET was an AMAZING SPIDER-MAN arc a few years ago that pitted Spidey against a handful of his biggest villains all in a row and that separated them and put him up against them one after the other. This book has more villains in general and for Spidey to fight at once and REALLY back-to-back. So go along with it and you'll have fun. Also, getting back to the first point, I don't think we're really here for the writing. I think the writing is absolutely serviceable for the book. There have been some really interesting bits about the villains here and there but, again, we're not here for the writing so minor issues like not following dialogue or narration is acceptable. We're here for the scale of the story and for the continuously amazing art. Seriously, this book, as I'd probably say for MARVEL KNIGHTS X-MEN as well, is worth checking out just to see the art. This one is certainly more experimental and more of an experience but both bring a unique style that's worth examining. Excited to see how this one ends.

Daredevil Dark Nights 8
Palmiotti (w) and Silas, Decastro, Pallot, Wong, and Cariello (a) and Mossa (c)

Meanwhile, I'm just excited that this one has ended. Misty is in the grasp of ex-boyfriend and current drug kingpin King (ugh, the kingpin's nickname is King, gross) and not thrilled to see him. Matt has to fight his way into King's palace (so mad that I just wrote that) and find Misty and his witness, Nestor, before they're both killed. Before long, Misty has been chained up (and changed back into her uniform from the dress King had put her in, which is extremely weird) and Daredevil has to fight through the hordes of guards, which he does with much kicking and robotic dialogue. Misty wakes up from her drug-induced slumber and breaks out of her chains in time to help Daredevil against King's number one henchman. They grab Nestor and leave, catching up with King as he tries to leave in a boat (a revolution has taken place on the ground to overthrow King). Everything works out in the end. Matt and Misty make out for a while (what).

Seriously, this arc was ugly from start to finish. From Misty dating a drug kingpin and not knowing it back in the day (Colleen Wing digs up info on him just in time for Misty to nearly be blown up) to Daredevil running into the sister of the maid King shot just days ago to the gratuitous Misty's-costume-ripping to the robotic dialogue to the weird sex-starved Matt and Misty relationship to just every single piece of this arc, things were ugly. Some of the art was okay but then it would suddenly get centered on a woman's body and boom, there goes the upside of the art. Also, because it's REALLY needling at me, Palmiotti seems to want to make Misty into a strong character but then is like "hey, check it out, back in 2000, she dated this drug kingpin and somehow didn't know he was a drug kingpin despite being a bang-up policeman and also it's never been mentioned and it happened sometime when she was actually probably dating Iron Fist but we're going to ignore any bit of history because I have a really sucky story to tell." Well, mission accomplished Jimmy. Sad this series had to end like this.