Spider-Man: Noir #4 Review

Will Spider-Man save Felicia Hardy and J. Jonah Jameson from the clutches of the Goblin?
Will Aunt May survive the menacing Vulture?
Has this series actually been worth reading?

For answers, see below.

SPIDER-MAN: NOIR #4
WRITERS: David Hine with Fabrice Sapolsky
ARTIST: Carmine Di Giandomenico
LETTERS: Artmonkeys Studios

PLOT:
We first see Aunt May attacked by the Vulture (the same mobster who killed Uncle Ben). Luckily, Spider-Man arrives to save her, but Vulture knows he can kill May before Peter can get close. Peter also knows this, so puts a bullet through the Vulture. Aunt May goes into a rage, arguing that Spider-Man is now no better than the Vulture, he could have used his webbing but used the gun instead. Peter apologises and hands over his gun before racing off to try and save Felicia.

Felicia is in the Goblin’s grasp and very surprised to see JJJ captured as well. She thought she had killed JJJ after he killed Ben Urich. As we know, that was the Chameleon and the Goblin decides to make her pay. If it weren’t for that darn Spider-Man. He makes his arrival, setting Jameson free, smashing the Ox’s face in and feeding Kraven to flesh eating spiders. That is what I call an entrance.

The Goblin runs with his hostage, Felicia, but Peter catches up quickly and disarms him. They rip each other’s masks off and Osborn now knows Peter is Spider-Man. However, the Goblin reveals his disfigured face and that he used to be part of a freak show. He knows Peter can kill him and insists that he does it, but Peter can’t, remembering Aunt May. Instead, Spider-Kraven takes his revenge on Osborn and Peter gets Felicia to safety.

Two months later…all of the Goblin’s corrupt associates in the police are arrested, thanks to Ben Urich’s evidence. Peter visits Felicia to confront her about her relationship with Ben…and how she left him for the Goblin. She refuses to talk about it and Peter leaves. He continues being Spider-Man, knowing that the city needs a hero.

LIKES:
-The Noir Peter Parker.
-Great conclusion.
-Art worked pretty well with this story.

DISLIKES:
-We probably won’t see more of this, not for a while anyway.

THOUGHTS:
I was very indifferent towards this series. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t great either. It just seemed to be going through the motions. All the characters seemed to be the same as their 616 counterparts. This issue changed all of that. We see the rage that Peter has, and that without his Uncle Ben, he has great trouble controlling it. We see Aunt May, being righteous throughout and hating murder, even if it was her assassin’s. Felicia Hardy was different, in the way that she was more corrupt than ever, with no regrets. Even Norman Osborn’s motives changed. It was great and the showdown was more than enough to conclude this series.

It did have a very noir tone to the book, being a lot darker than 616 Spider-Man would be, and it did have it’s fair share of surprises. Peter actually shooting somebody caught me off guard, even though he did eventually become regretful of his actions and he learnt from them. The art complemented this tone, becoming a lot darker and shadier. I especially liked how Spider-Man’s spider-sense was shown with the wavy, red lies. Good work on this issue.

FAVOURITE QUOTE:
There will always be good guys too…and in the end, when all’s said and done…good guys always win.

IF THIS SERIES WERE A MOVIE, IT WOULD BE:
The Maltese Vulture.

OVERALL:
4.5 webs out of 5.

If you can catch this series, catch it. Try and get the variant covers too. Here’s looking forward to Spider-Man: Noir II.