Avengers: The Initiative Reviews by Spideydude

Avengers: the Initiative #7
Writer: Dan ‘the man’ Slott
Art: Stefano ‘who name I can’t pronounce’ Caselli
Colors: ‘Delightful’ Daniele Rodduni

Story: The Vulturions take something that isn’t theirs, in this case classified documents that aren’t supposed to be in the wrong hands dealing with Gamma Radiation, forcing the Scarlet Spiders into action. Meanwhile, we see Peter at the same damn hospital that May ‘who-is-suppose-to-be-dead-by-now’ Parker is in, while he catches a glimpse of the new Vulturions, he also get pretty pissed off when the Scarlets are seen. So, what does Peter do? While kicking himself about letting him be subjected to the suits, he takes off after them. And when he does help take care of those guys, the Scarlet’s help Peter.

Thoughts: You know, Dan hyped this up quite a bit, and he was right: the issue is HUGE for the Status Quo of the Spiderverse in 2008. The Doubt is now there. You see, they used the feature that Peter used before in the suit mimicking the old suits. They used this feature to mimic his clothing, and came up with the story that Peter was one of four people who wore the suit. This also created doubts in peoples mind if Peter Parker was truly Spider-Man, or if he was just helping the ‘real’ Spider-Man out. This certainly gives that doubt, and so he can go back to somewhat of a normal life in Brand New Day.
While I was completely against the idea of these Stark Cronies being called my beloved friend Scarlet Spider, the core concept of the three being clones of… MVP, is something that makes me smile at least a bit, while they aren’t Peter Parker Clones, they are clones nevertheless and that makes me enjoy it even more. But My question is, are they really clones of Peter Parker? Because looking in the issue, you see MVP’s home is not real, so that makes one wonder…
Another thing that should be mentioned is while this suits are similar, they aren’t in regards to the extra arms, these have 4, while the original had 3. Other than that, these look like the real deal. By the way: Tony looked awfully pissed off when he saw Peter and Pat going at it. Also to note: JJJ and Betty are in this issue, and Betty helps Peter out by putting that doubt that he might just be helping Spidey like he did when fighting Doc Ock in Amazing 11.

Overall: 5 out of 5. As a regular issue, this solved the mystery that has been going on since the beginning of this book with MVP, that and a great issue in setting up Brand New Day for Spidey. Dan has the character down pat, and I can't wait to see what he does with Marc, Bob and Zeb in Amazing come 2008.

Reviewed by: Spideydude