Superior Foes of Spider-Man 8
Spencer (w) and Lieber (a) and Rosenberg (c)
Boomerang isn't having the best day. Between two dream sequences caused by concussions, we learn that Chameleon has come calling for the head of Silvio Silvermane, hearing that Boomerang successfully pulled off a heist. Of course, he doesn't know that Boomerang doesn't have the head of Silvermane but he vows to rip Boomerang's apartment to pieces to find whatever he's hiding. With Fred unconscious a second time, Chameleon finds the priceless work of art he'd stolen (and cleverly hid behind a movie poster) and leaves a note for Boomerang saying that that will suffice. Things only get worse for Fred as his old crew makes it out of the Owl's hideout and vows to find Boomerang and whatever it is he's stolen and as the head of Silvermane (which does exist) begins to cause trouble for Shocker. Boomerang, though, is blissfully ignorant of all this, believing his entire team to be dead and the head of Silvermane to be non-existent, and decides to come clean to his kind-of girlfriend about who he really is. She hears him out and isn't entirely disgusted with him by the end of their little date but is unimpressed by the fact that he had something he was trying so hard to get and simply allowed it to be taken. She inspires him to fight for the painting, though he may have limited time to do so considering the whole exchange is viewed by Bullseye through the scope of a sniper rifle.
Another fun issue with pretty tight writing and a compelling story gives way to a neat little twist in the form of Bullseye (or someone claiming to be Bullseye). Bullseye's a favorite villain of mine and I will, admittedly, be a little excited if he's back. However, the last time we saw him was in Waid's DAREDEVIL as the mastermind behind Ikari and the paranoia enveloping Daredevil at the time, a time when Bullseye was barely alive and incapable of any sort of life outside of his iron holding. Then a roof collapsed on him. Tricky situation to come back from BUT Boomerang certainly has made a few enemies in high places capable of, if they wished it, reviving Bullseye to work for them (in comics, severe injuries like Bullseye's have a dollar amount tied to their recovery). It could, of course, also always be a fake Bullseye. Regardless, the story continues to move well enough and the humor and sharpness of the writing, tied to the emotiveness of the art, really carry this book well.
Marvel Knights Spider-Man 5
Kindt (w) and Rudy (a) and Staples (c)
An exhausted and now non-fatally shot Spider-Man fights his way through Malta to try to survive and to find his way to the man he knows to be behind this, the only person who hates him enough and who has the resources to pull this all together, Kingpin. While he fights, he remembers his Uncle Ben talking about how much he had hated his job when he was young and how he made sure just to go and do it every day and he saved up all his money and eventually was able to use that money to buy May a ring, immediately forgetting everything bad about the job and replacing it with the happiness on May's face. With this in mind, Spider-Man keeps fighting, hoping to have some sort of similar light at the end of this tunnel. He finally reaches Kingpin at the top of Fisk Tower with his son Richard and Spider-Man unloads on Kingpin, beating him savagely. As Kingpin finds his footing and starts to get back into the fight, Richard calls for it all to cease, reminding his father that he had promised to let Spider-Man walk free if he survived this far. Richard reveals that he was behind all of this, behind hiring all the villains and organizing them, but claims he did it for Spider-Man, knowing that Spidey would be able to win and knowing that this battle would create a paper trail leading back to all of these villains and that it's enough to put them all back in prison. Spider-Man is angry and leaves where MJ greets him and he remembers Ben's story again and the two kiss and head home.
This is a bit of a tricky one to really get into. The art remains gorgeous and wholly worth checking out. The story has the trademark Peter Parker beat of remembering a story and a moral that his uncle instilled in him and using that moral to overcome his adversity. It's just, you know, kind of a weak ending. There are a lot of inexplicables here, like the new Fisk Tower in Malta (more believable, considering his wealth) and MJ's sudden appearance in Malta (I'm pretty sure it never mentions Peter hopping on a plane and heading home amidst all this; if it does, it's strange he doesn't change first), and Richard's line of "all of these guys had gotten out of jail time" inferring that somehow every single one of these villains is out at the same time based on some sort of massive court failure or something. There's plenty to pick at but it's also hard because you either enjoy a series or you don't. I did enjoy this one and it's hard for me to say what it was I was expecting. If I'm being honest, I wasn't expecting anything; I put it out of my head that there would be an interesting solution because how could there be? We just saw Spider-Man fight an absurd amount of his villains, did we need a story to justify this little limited series? Probably not, and particularly not given how great the art was. I'm not sure there even had to be words at all. Ultimately not a great series if you're looking for story or canon or anything but definitely worth peeking at if the lack of a story doesn't bother you and you want to see some solid and very interesting art.
Superior Carnage Annual 1
Bunn (w) and Jacinto and M. Henderson (a) and J.D. Ramos (c)
The Carnage symbiote has been taken by Spider-Man for further examination after the events of SUPERIOR CARNAGE but Cletus Kasady's appearance at the end of that series awoke both of them a little bit. One of the psychologists at the prison talks to Kasady, hoping to separate him emotionally from the symbiote. Later, Kasady is stabbed by one of the other inmates and brought to the infirmary. Carnage, feeling the pain of its other, begins to lash out but ultimately cannot break its restraints and appears to die. However, Spider-Man had taken pieces of the symbiote and chemically neutered them to send to other facilities as a show of good will and one of those thought-safer symbiote pieces awakens and infects the scientist working on it, prompting her to kill her abusive husband. The symbiote jumps from person to person leaving a trail of bodies in its wake until finally it arrives at the prison housing Kasady, only to find Kasady dead on the table. The psychologist opens his arms to Carnage, wanting to become as powerful as Carnage is but Carnage spurns him, instead opting for the seemingly dead Kasady and managing to revive him. Together, they kill the psychologist and kill most of the inmates in the prison before heading out to the world.
It's not often that a character who doesn't actually have an ongoing series gets an annual but here we are. Of course, it's easy to argue that Carnage more or less has an ongoing considering how many limited series he gets but this seems really to serve more as a prelude to the upcoming CARNAGE VS. DEADPOOL limited series, even instilling Cullen Bunn, not a typical Carnage books writer but certainly the typical Deadpool limited series writer, as writer on this annual. It's an okay book. There are a lot of strange questions that kind of get glossed over (why would Spider-Man ever deign to build good will by sending a piece of the Carnage symbiote out? How did he even attempt to chemically neuter it and why did he think it had worked? These questions can KIND of be waved away by saying "oh, his ego" but I also firmly believe his ego would make him think he's the only one who can possibly try to tamper with the symbiote) but in terms of serving as a way to team Carnage and Kasady again, it works well enough. Always a scary character, though you do start to wonder if maybe seeing him so often might make him a little less legitimate as a terrifying threat.
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