Superior Foes of Spider-Man 7, Savage Wolverine 13

Superior Foes of Spider-Man 7

Spencer (w) and R. Ellis (a) and Loughridge (c)

The exploits of the new Sinister Six and Boomerang get a day off as the story shifts to giving us the origin of the new Beetle, who we learned recently is the daughter of notorious supervillain Tombstone. She's been honing her criminal mind since she was just a kid but her father refused to allow her to get into full-on supervillainy, preferring that she stick to being a financial lawyer and committing corporate crime. Though she loves her father and (kind of) understands his reasoning, she can't get the idea of being a supervillain out of her head so she jumps at the opportunity when her law firm hands her a case negotiating some sort of settlement between Baron Zemo and the Fixer. It happens just before CAPTAIN AMERICA 606 or so, the first appearance of this new Beetle, and the story ends as Fixer sets her up with her new identity, costume, and weapons.

Very fun issue that develops a nice little personality (of which we've certainly seen bits and pieces) for Beetle. It's also something of an impressive issue as it gives us a good look at her personality that slots really nicely with what we've seen from her already throughout the series and that, honestly, fits pretty well with her first appearance over in CAPTAIN AMERICA in 2010 or so, back when Brubaker was on the title and Bucky had only somewhat recently taken over as Cap. I went back and re-read the few issues she appeared in and the character slides smoothly into place. It's not so easy to go in with an idea of a character based on a quick look at her a few years ago and tailor your series to suit her, but Spencer's done a fine job with it. Continuing the recent trend, this issue is another solid one that moves well, gets its laughs when it needs to, and helps build character. Good issue, certainly one of the top two of this week.

Savage Wolverine 13
Jimenez and Lope (w) and Jimenez, Palmer, Florea, Olliffe, and Green (a) and Rosenberg (c)

Wolverine has discovered that old friend Tyger Tiger is complicit in the hunting and illegal trade of elephant bones and tusks and what-not and is not thrilled about it. As he tears through her men, he demands to know how she's okay with this and she refuses to back down, citing the shut-down of other illegal and arguably worse happenings in Madripoor (slavery, prostitution, etc.) as leaving huge expenses on the rest of the city. She's thrilled those other things have shut down but the city would have collapsed without other forms of income and this one, to her, was far more harmless than, say, child prostitution or whatever else she mentions. He shuts down some branches of the elephant trade and goes back to Africa to inform his elephant, who he's managed to find. Meanwhile, the X-Men have donated all sorts of arms and armor to the rangers protecting the land.

I like several parts of this issue and this little arc but overall it comes off as extraordinarily heavy-handed. There were plenty of times (because there is no shortage of Wolverine lecturing) where I had to put the book down for a minute because I was saying "WE GET IT" too often. There are some interesting ideas here, including Wolverine's passion for the fight, the idea that Tyger Tiger is trying to make the best of a bad situation and that, in turn, she's chosen what she believes is the lesser of two evils to keep the country running (and her argument isn't NOT compelling), and...well, that might be it. I'm torn on the idea that Wolverine can commune with these animals; on the one hand, I like that he's so attuned to nature that he can literally have conversations with these animals he's spent so much time with, but on the other hand I don't know that we really need to add more powers to Wolverine's repertoire. Also, there's this weird disconnect with his character that I felt pretty palpably that shows him this worked up and adamant about the issue (heh, adamant) but doesn't actually make him go berserker or anything. I think the book doesn't really need him to go berserker (besides, how would he make a heavy-handed lecture about the illegal animal trade then?) but it's weird that he's still rationally making all these arguments when everything we know about the character points to the idea that he should be going absolutely crazy over this if he's so angry. In the very least, I'm surprised there was no mention that he was keeping the berserker thing down to make his point. Weird not acknowledging it. Anyway, not a bad book in terms of effort but the execution is a bit lacking.