Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #17
Review coming soon
Friendly
Neighborhood Spider-Man #16: “Taking Wing” Part 3 of 3
Writer: Peter David
Pencils: Scot Eaton
Inks: John Dell
Colours: Matt Milla
Letters: VC’s Cory Petit
Plot:
The rapidly improving Deb Whitman/Vulture arc carries on, with
Spidey talking to a giant hallucination of Deb as he falls (due to Vulch’s
new claws) toward the NY pavement. She tells him how he ruined her life and
drove her mad, and Pete replies with a heroic, justified speech on why he
does what he does, which also wakes him up in time to save himself from
death. All this while Betty, Flash and Deb look on. Deb actually seems
very concerned about Spidey’s survival, Flash is too but mocks Deb’s
sentiments (her book’s portrayal of his hero didn’t sit well with him), and
Betty seems relatively nonchalant. Ho-hum.
On saving himself, the web-head swings back up to engage the
winged one, but collides all too suddenly with the old man, who collapsed
soon after getting Pete. Realizing it’s not a trick, Pete takes Adrian to a
hospital.
Meanwhile, Arrow bumps into Flash, Betty and Deb, who
explodes at Flash when he continues the jabs at her. Arrow nearly gets
angry and extends a wrist-spike, but Betty calms things down and proceeds to
make things awkward for Flash as he introduces his current interest to an
ex. Anyone else who’s been there in real life, it does suck this bad.
At hospital, Adrian learns he had a stroke, and begs for
death like his brother all those years ago due to being weak. Spidey sneaks
his way within in the guise of an orderly, and despite Agent Madrox of
SHIELDs’ efforts, pretends to be trying to smother the old man with a
pillow. Vulch fights hard, and Pete shows him he was just trying to make
Adrian realize how much he truly wanted to live, and leaves him to think
about this.
Betty and Deb, on the other hand, get on rather better, as
Deb reveals how she lied in her book, ‘helped’ by the Daily Bugle, in order
to pay her mother’s medical bills and recover from crippling debt. Betty
understands, and writes an anonymous story for the Globe about how the Bugle
exploited Deb. Jonah of course hates this story, but will never know who
wrote it as he asks Betty to find out!
Likes:
-
Really liked the Vulture’s death wish and Pete’s interesting, however evil-looking, solution to it. Nice to have some villain depth.
-
Supporting characters shine as ever, with mystery remaining in Miss Arrow and her spines. We shall see….
-
Loved the humour elements, particularly Flash in jock mode defending his hero Spidey. Jus’ like old times!
Dislikes:
-
Not a great deal of action, and with an unnecessary Madrox cameo (PD also writes him in some mutant book). Good stuff otherwise.
Rating:
4 out of 5 webs again. After a sub-par first issue, Peter David is really hitting his stride at last with this and the Mysterio arc. Rather than the more average stories early on in the title, David now skilfully blends supporting cast, clever plot, classic villains and short, punchy arcs (just 3 issues) to make FNSM a truly great title to read.
Friendly
Neighborhood Spider-Man #15: “Taking Wing” Part 2 of 3
Writer: Peter David
Pencils: Scot Eaton
Inks: John Dell
Colours: Matt Milla
Letters: VC’s Cory Petit
Plot:
Middle issue of this arc, and things already look better than last month.
We begin with a young Vulch taking his paralyzed older bro, Marcus, to the
beach, only for the latter to lecture Adrian on weakness, and ask him
(unsuccessfully) to kill him, as he believes himself weak and useless due to
the results of a motorbike accident. Marcus also tells the future villain
to “Show some backbone. Be an animal”. Which, of course, he did.
Meanwhile in the present, and the book signing is happening.
Vulture waits patiently for his moment, all the while insulting his “boss”
with whom he is talking through an earpiece. Pete-Reilly (see last issue),
meanwhile, makes a quick call to a surprised MJ regarding his visit to Deb,
saving a small dog whilst doing so.
Deb herself is within the “Barnes and Barnes” (heh!) bookstore, when she
is surprised by Betty Brant (yes! Another past character!). Betty’s
disappointed in Deb for betraying Pete—apparently, she took his revelation
rather well, as the weirdness of much of her life makes sense once more.
Deb meanwhile just looks nervous and unhappy.
Flash and Arrow meanwhile talk about the possibility of dinner, and
Flash decides to go to Deb’s signing. Arrow meanwhile is seen by us EATING
a spider. I jest not. Said singing takes place, with a fun moment as
Flash’s ex, Betty, locates him and catches up after a kiss. Awwwww.
Vulture then picks his moment and attacks smashing things and
threatening Deb, only to be shot at by Betty. He of course is armoured and
destroys her gun, just as Spidey emerges. The two move above the city and
fight, with Spidey falling prey to a more durable power pack on Vulch’s
back, and new hallucinogenic claws, which send Spidey seemingly down to his
doom at the issue’s close. Strangely, Vulture also collapses in mid-air for
some other, unknown reason, and is also sent plummeting. Such is life, it
would seem J.
Likes:
-
As I said last review, Vulture makes it clear here that he’s on the side of the law, for once, and Spidey is technically the felon. Except Vulture threatens innocent people in bookshops.
-
More old-school characters used, and a touching flashback to Vuture’s formative years. This and the humour is why we love PD so much.
-
Much less padded and more action-packed than last issue.
Dislikes:
-
Not much, other than the repetitiveness of Vulture fights.
Rating:
4 out of 5 webs. Big improvement on last time, and still leaves us wanting the next issue.
Friendly
Neighborhood Spider-Man #14: “Taking Wing” Part 1 of 3
Writer: Peter David
Pencils: Scot Eaton
Inks: John Dell
Colours: Matt Milla
Letters: VC’s Cory Petit
Plot:
Hot on the heels of his Mysterio arc, Peter David continues the three-parter
style with a tale featuring another old rogue, Vulture, and a certain Deb
Whitman. The story begins with a (still) deeply disturbed Deb on the phone
to a publisher, regarding her new book; “Two-Faced: How Peter Parker Ruined
My Life”. She’s not happy with the ‘tone’, and goes a bit crazy once the
phone has been put down. Few changes here, then. For anyone who doesn’t
know, and believe me I’m no expert, Deb and Pete dated a long while ago, but
her paranoia, partly ‘cos of being beaten by a past husband and partly due
to suspicions of Pete being Spidey, ended that and she left the
Spidey-verse. Seems she is back along with the revelation of recent times,
and is looking to cash in on it.
Meanwhile, at Midtown High, we see a rather long-winded and
drawn out scene of thugs trying to lure Pete back with child hostages, take
him out, and collect the reward. Sadly for them, Wolverine and Punisher are
guarding the place, and tell the hoods to tell anyone they meet that those
with similar ideas will be “punished”. Mwahahahahaha!
We then see that the two were both Peter, disguised using a flashy gizmo.
Bit crazy, but I’ll go with that. In a flashback we see Beast, of the
X-Men, give our hero this image projector to keep undercover (remember, he’s
a fugitive in the Civil War now, and the X-Men have no ‘official’ stance in
it). The joys of flashbacks also reveals to us the enigmatic Miss Arrow
convincing Pete to remain at the school—this being a comic, she of course
has some unknown ulterior motives besides keeping the kiddies safe.
Speaking of questionable behaviour, we now see the villain of
the piece, ol’ Adrian “The Vulture” Toomes, in jail. His captor, And unseen
governmenty-person, argues with him before proposing he get his wings and
gear back in order to hunt the now fugitive Spidey. Seems Vulch agrees.
Moving on, in typical Peter David scene switching style, we
see BEN REILLY apply for a teaching job, as a gym teacher, at Midtown High.
This is of course Pete disguised once more, but he’ll be assistant to Flash
Thompson. Walking along in his new blond and bookish-looking guise, Pete
sees an advert in a newspaper for Deb’s book signing in the city, promoting
her new book on him. Evidently not happy, Pete decides he must visit this
event—coincidently, Vulture figures this is exactly what his nemesis will
do…..
Likes:
-
Once again, PD continues his exploration of old-school supporting cast by using Deb Whitman. Finally, other characters who aren’t MJ, May and villains.
-
Though it’s Vulture once more, and he shall lose we predict, it’s an interesting twist that Vulch will be on the law’s side for once, and Spidey the “super-villain”.
Dislikes:
-
Sadly, very padded in places, particularly the Punisher/Wolverine scene at the start. Not what we’ve come to expect from PD.
-
What really brings this down, in my view, is the stupid image device. Yeah, the Ben Reilly reference was cool, and Pete needs a disguise to stay at the school, but it really does stick out as being contrived that Beast would suddenly give Pete this piece of super-technology, previously unseen according to my knowledge.
Favorite Quote:
Roger: “You’ll be working for coach Flash Thompson”
Pete (disguised as Reilly, and after a pause): “Swell”
Rating:
3 out of 5. Potential to be quite cool, but still with many problems, especially the imager and poor pace of the issue. 0.5 webs for using Deb.
Friendly
Neighborhood Spider-Man #13
Writer: Peter David
Pencils: David Nauck
Inks: Robert Campanella
Colours: Lee Loughridge
Letters: VC’s Cory Petit
Plot:
The latest Mysterio extravaganza comes to a fast-paced close in this issue, as David plunges straight into the story once more. Flash lets the kids out of the building, before returning to help Arrow and Spidey. Of course, the kids are instantly knocked unconscious by the black Mysterio gas. Ah well, at least they’re outside.
Spidey, meanwhile, is caught between Klum and Berkhart, who are mocking each other’s appearance. In Spidey’s words, “this is so drenched in irony, I don’t even know where to begin”. After pushing Roger the principle into the school AV room for safety, the webhead prepares to attack Klum (who’s identity he just then discovers), but instead watches Berkhart begin the assault by firing two snakes at the Mysterio impostor. A big fight involving teleportation and electricity ensues, while Spidey reads the sports pages of a newspaper while he dangles above the villains.
As this goes on, the Quentin Beck Mysterio with half a head makes a start at explaining things to Arrow; apparently, when he shot himself, certain parties felt he could serve them. Being a suicide, and thus “cosmically detested” in his own words, Beck has been sent back in the service of unnamed individuals, the opponents of whom are apparently employing Arrow (though she says she knows nothing of this…hmmm…).
Beck then diverts attention back to his two battling “heirs”. Berkhart seems to be winning, but is stopped from killing Klum by Spidey, who at last intervenes. Despite more gas and poisonous bats, Spidey’s suit allows him to defeat Daniel by punching through his helmet. One down, two to go. However, Klum has other ideas. After boasting about how it was he who in fact had Berkhart on the ropes (yeah, obviously…), Klum tells Spider-Man to kill himself with a daggers he has thrown at his feet. Though mocking the second-rate illusionist at first, Spidey is then horrified to see that his hand is raising the knife to his throat!
Of course, this being a super-hero comic, our hero is saved by none other than Flash at the last moment, and the dagger is hurled into Klum’s shoulder. Though wounded, the teleporter’s last trick is played as he remote-activates the bomb in the basement. He may be bluffing, but Spidey and Flash won’t risk it, and head for the basement.
In another part of the building, and covered in flames, red Mysterio tells Arrow that Peter Parker must remain at the school, in accordance with the “great game going on”, and that her “superiors” would want this. Arrow still denies having any “superiors”, and Beck vanishes in a whirl of fire.
In the basement meanwhile, Flash and Peter seem to bond, with Flash at last accepting who his old enemy-turned-friend-turned-enemy really is. He even accepts that he had the dodgeball to the face coming. Spidey apologizes, and the two discover that there is in fact a bomb. Moving to disarm it, Spidey leaves Flash open to being winched into the air by a noose. As Mysterio’s ethereal voice points out, it would seem Spidey has a choice to make. In fact, he doesn’t, as he webs a barrel beneath Flash to stop him being choked, while himself jumping and disarming the simply-made bomb. Webhead then bluffs about having a number of over-the-top scanning features on his costume, hoping to scare Klum away. Not taken in, the remaining Mysterio makes a move to continue his plans, but comes up against Arrow. Not as vulnerable as she looks, the nurse stabs Klum through the chesty with some strange stingers from her wrists (like Spidey had in “The Other”), and Francis only just manages to teleport away before she finishes him off.
As Flash and Pete burst in, Arrow covers up by claiming Klum left on his own, and the three help those outside as the fog subsides. As Roger asks anyone if it’s safe to come out yet, Arrow mentions to Flash that she thinks they should find a way to keep Peter at the school….
Likes:
-
Really cool end to a not-too-long arc, with plenty of action, from the flaming visuals of Beck, to the preposterously overdone Berkhart-Klum battle.
-
The mystery elements behind the returned Beck and, in particular, Arrow, are tantalising hints of tales to come.#
-
Spidey and Flash’s dialogue and bonding in this issue was humorous and believable, and shows how great a guy Flash is despite his arrogance.
Dislikes:
-
Unfortunately, once again, the art was this issue’s weak point. Villains looked great, but Nauck really can’t manage decent-looking characters, and his Spidey looks bulky and off.
Favorite Quote:
Klum: “A…a nice trick…but it won’t save you…”
Berkhart: “You’re the one…who’ll need saving…”
Spidey (while reading a newspaper): “Boy, the Yankees sure got shellacked last night.”
Rating:
I’ll give it 4.5 webs on its own, 4 out of 5 for the whole arc. Despite mediocre art, the story and dialogue couldn’t be better. Peter David is brining old-school and modern Spidey together, and what a ride it’s proving to be.
Past Reviews
Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man#1-12