Purple Reign!
DARK REIGN: THE SINISTER SPIDER-MAN #1
Women Love Him, Men Want to be Him
WRITER:Brian Reed
ARTIST: Chris Bachalo
INKS: Tim Townsend
LETTERS: Jared K. Fletcher
PLOT:
Mac Gargan (now known as Spider-Man) stops General Wolfram (no idea, sorry) from robbing a bank, but takes the money from him before eating his arm. Delicious. Meanwhile, Mayor Jameson pushes away reporters and rejects Dr. Gunderson’s proposal of a supervillain rehabilitation program. The good doctor isn’t very happy about it…
Gargan gets a lecture from Norman Osborn (after discovering the hooker he hired) about public relations and Gargan puts Osborn on his Most Wanted list, along with Jameson. The first step is to plant his hooker (now deceased), Cherry, in the Mayor’s room. Meanwhile, the Redeemer (the crazy doctor from before) recruits a number of villains to go after Spider-Man. When I say Spider-Man, I mean Venom, I mean Mac Gargan.
LIKES:
-Being inside Mac Gargan’s mind is a pretty good ride.
-Bachalo’s art has improved.
DISLIKES:
-More Z-List villains.
THOUGHTS:
Well, I expected a lot worse from this issue. It’s Brian Reed after all, the writer behind Secret Invasion: Spider-Man (which didn’t have Spider-Man) and Timestorm 2009/2099 (which currently doesn’t have any plot), so you can excuse for me for low expectations. He’s surprised me with this one. It had some good moments and didn’t bore me tears, which is a definite improvement. Not world class, but still a good read.
Mac Gargan is more interesting than Eddie Brock ever was, and this issue just clarifies this as we peek into his mind. He definitely isn’t Spider-Man and this issue shows how the façade may be disappearing, not all of his actions can be hidden by H.A.M.M.E.R..
Chris Bachalo’s art is not to everybody’s taste, but I have liked some of it, especially his panel layout. He uses panels well again in this issue and you can see what’s going on, which isn’t true of all his work. I don’t like his constantly grey backgrounds but his use of black and white panels are good. Definite improvement from him, though not everyone will be convinced.
FAVOURITE QUOTE:
“Who is Spider-Man? Who does he sleep with? Does he do it on the ceiling?!”
OVERALL:
3 out of 5 webheads.
Decent issue. Worth $3.99?
…I’ll get back to you.
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Thanks for all the responses guys…my thinking was that 24/7 was a very public campaign by Spiderman and the Dark Avengers are also consistently making public appearances…i just figured someone may have saw them both out at the same time and wondered why that is…the scarlet spiders definitely confuse the matter as well…
Well, the impression I got was that due to the big press conference showing the new Dark Avengers, people think that Gargan as Spider-Man is the real Spider-Man. Though Avengers: The Initiative #7 suggested to the public that there are Scarlet Spider still around that can change their appearance to any Spider-Man costume.
I hope this answers your question, Dr Folsome.
666andahalf, the Mac Gargan better than Brock opinion is my own. I believe that more has been done with him effectively then Brock, who I feel in the comics has been very one dimensional one more than one occasion.
I read the preview pages but the art pretty much put me off this one, yet another book that would sell a lot better at 2.99. Nice to see you acknowledge 3.99 is not worth a 3/5 issue Paddy, I personally would hold any 3.99 book to higher quality standards then a 2.99 one to ensure I don’t feel conned.
I thought it was fun but I won’t be getting the next issue. I’m still not sure why Marvel decided to turn the former Scorpion into a cannibal and a thing like that needs to be downplayed IMHO, not brought to center stage. I think Eddie at least has some kind of moral center, this Venom doesn’t and it feels like you are just reading yet another book where a bad guy does evil stuff and gets away with it. This isn’t the only book on the book doing that and currently Dark Avengers, Ms. Marvel (also written by Reed) and Dark Wolverine have found a better formula for making this kind of thing work.
I happen to like Reed’s writing, most of the time. This is the first time he’s written something I enjoy a lot less compared to his other works. It’s partly true that I don’t really like Gargan Venom but I also don’t like Daken and I was able to enjoy Dark Wolverine just fine.
I think Dark Spidey should focus more on why he hates JJJ and less on him just running around murdering people. They need to make the readers care about Gargan first before they give too damns about Venom.
Well I’m sure there’s that whole Grand Theft Auto audience who doesn’t care and will like the character just because he’s randomly offing people. I suppose I may just be the wrong audience for this one.
I can’t get past the art. I had to reread pages a couple of times to know what was going on. Needless to say I’m not a Bachalo fan.
And between costume changes, clones, and symbiotes, I’d guess the average Marvel citizen just figures there’s a bunch of these guys running around.
don’t forget the scarlet spiders who were running around in the spider armor
I was so turned off/grossed out by parts of this issue that I have no interest in reading the rest of the story.
Dr_Folsom,
You have to remeber that spidey did once run around in both costumes and that since in the last issue of Kraven’s first hunt they said Kraven died in 2005 that means that he was only doing this a few years ago and he just decided to do it again.
I completely disagree with your assertion that Gargan is more interesting than Eddie Brock.
Am I correct in assuming that the current citizens of the Marvel U believe there to be only one Spider-Man running around? No one recognized the Spidey in the black costume that usually rolls with the Avengers and the other in the red/blue costume who was on a tear not too long ago during 24/7 at two places at once? Or do people believe Osborn grabbed someone ‘new’ as his Spiderman?