Thursday, February 27, 2014

Superior Spider-Man 28, Indestructible Hulk 19

Superior Spider-Man 28
Slott (w) and Camuncoli and Dell (a) and Fabela (c)


Spider-Island has been bombed and Spider-Man takes what equipment he can with Robot and flees, leaving his Spiderlings to try to fight off the Goblins. Spidey heads to Parker Industries to try to concoct a plan, where he's set upon by both Sajani, mad that he's been gone for so long, and Wraith, who believes he may have a hand in Carlie's disappearance. Speaking of Carlie, she joins all of them in her new Goblin costume and deformations and chases Peter and Sajani through the building. Eventually Peter pushes Sajani into a separate room, assuring her that Monster will follow him, which she does, and it gives Carlie a chance to talk to Peter without spectators. She needs Doc Ock to fix her brain in only the way he can so that she can be saved and so she can tell him of what's coming next. Meanwhile, MJ has been gathering up friends and family of Peter's, having realized it's Goblin attacking the city and Spider-Man, to keep them safe. Unfortunately, she misses Anna Maria and Lily Hollister, the Goblin known as Menace, gets to her first.

Plenty happening as GOBLIN NATION continues. Slott's created a pretty good tone, and one that he's usually pretty good at maintaining and controlling, a tone of war and destruction. Spider-Man has the best-known and biggest supporting cast of any of the Marvel heroes so when a war is waged on Peter Parker, there are a lot of moving parts. On top of that, Spider-Man never has just one issue to deal with so, on top of Goblin's attack, J. Jonah Jameson has launched "Goblin Slayers" into the city, though MJ recognizes them as Spider Slayers. Slott's always been good at threading multiple storylines and multiple antagonists through a story and it making the story read pretty quickly in the midst of it all. Of course, he tends to have more words per issue than some of the best at it (looking at you, Kirkman) so the over-explanation can sometimes slow one of these fast-paced, high-energy issues down, but he always manages to tell a compelling story and build the characters up through it. Even with three or four concurrent plotlines all led by different characters, Slott's going to make sure we see enough of everyone to get the full feel for it. Should continue to be a good event moving forward.

Indestructible Hulk 19
Waid (w) and Raapack, J. Bennett, R. Jose and Grummett w/ Kesel and Hennessy (a) and Staples (c)


Banner has been thrown out of a moving jet by the newly Terrigenesis'd Randall Jessup, whose new form seems to feed on anger, making it stronger and calming down the other person. Like most Inhuman powers, it's a reflection on the person, as Jessup was always the one to try to stop fights and smooth situations. Unfortunately now, it means that Banner is falling from the plane and can't Hulk out. He resorts to breaking his own finger to surge Hulk back out. He leaps into the air to battle Jessup's new form while his other assistants parachute out of the plane. Hulk realizes that the monster's eyes are the key to his absorption and keeps Jessup from looking at him. Able at last to keep his anger, he defeats the monster and reverts Jessup back to human form. They try to find a cure for him only to find, right as Banner thinks he's done it, Jessup being kidnapped away by one of the numerous evil organizations out there intent on experimenting on new Inhumans. Hulk tries to stop the kidnappers but fails, making it look like, to all Banner's assistants, Hulk killed Jessup or something.

One of the cool things about the Inhuman mutations, as it's been explained during this REALLY prolonged event, is that they tend to reflect the person as much as they're just a cool power. Thanos' son Thane held the power of life and death (well, really death and worse death), the new Inhuman in IRON MAN is a giant jerk, and now Jessup absorbs anger. It's a particularly neat idea because that mutation does reflect Jessup but it also acts as a perfect foil to Hulk. This is pointed out fairly often in the issue, even going so far as to compare the fact that Jessup was at the bomb site when Banner's Terrigen bomb went off to Hulk's origin. When I first realized what Jessup's monster form was, it felt very much like it could have been a situation where it was just a writer saying "this is a cool foil to Hulk and I can do anything so here he is!" There's a new Sonic the Hedgehog cartoon coming out (guys, shut up, I'm pretty well-connected) and the teaser for it shows a scene where Robotnik has created a robot named "Burn-Bot" that Sonic quickly figures out doesn't actually burn anything and blames Robotnik for "false advertising." It's played as a laugh moment, a moment where you're siding with the cool and funny Sonic for pointing this out but behind it, you know the writers named it Burn-Bot just to have that joke and it's not a worthwhile joke to introduce such a stupid concept. I should really get back to talking about Hulk but ANOTHER EXAMPLE is something comedian Kumail Nanjiani brought up about Casino Royale. The stakes at the poker game aren't as high for the audience because it's writers writing a poker game so the incredible fact that Le Chiffre has four of a kind but is beaten by Bond's royal flush isn't as incredible. ANYWAY, this monster could have been that sort of situation but instead, thanks to Inhuman/Marvel canon, Jessup's transformation makes sense and acts as a perfect foil to Hulk. Pretty cool stuff, you guys.

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