Spider-Man and Carlie Cooper are hot on the trail of the Vulture’s new gang of teenage supercriminals. But can the two exes reconcile their differences enough to clinch the case?
“Great Heights Part Two: Partners in Crime”
Written by Dan Slott
Illustrated by Giuseppe Camuncoli
Inked by Klaus Janson
Colored by Frank D’Armata
Lettered by VC’s Joe Caramagna
THE PLOT: Spider-Man and Carlie break into the morgue to investigate the bodies of the dead teens who supposedly “jumped” to their deaths. At “The Wake”, the Vulture gang’s newest member Michael hassles Glory’s date, causing Mary Jane to call up Peter.
LONG STORY SHORT: This leads Carlie to know that Mary Jane indeed knows of Peter’s alter ego. Her and Spider-Man find the Vulture and his gang, and a battle ensues where the gang is taken out but the Vulture escapes. At the end, Carlies goes to talk about Mary Jane about Peter’s double life.
MY THOUGHTS: This issue like the last, was fine overall. It’s a basic superhero plot with not much to it but amusing for what little it offers. The main crux of this issue is Carlie dealing with knowing Peter’s secret identity, which Slott handles with appropriate skill yet doesn’t bring anything new to the table either. Carlie Cooper conspiracists won’t change their minds about the character reading this, and neither will “Parlie” shippers. In fact the very first page is seemingly made for those readers, and was my biggest hangup about the story so let’s get into it now.
This annoyed the heck outta me.
It’s harmless, I know, but it speaks so much about the TMZ mindset the title has been having currently. It’s…ridiculous. It’s like the book is trying to make the readers impressed with Peter in Carlie in some sort of celebrity type of way. I know that’s the point of the way the recapped image is presented, but it bothered me a lot. Peter Parker should not be objectively seen as a “Super Science Hunk”. That just…guh. That broke me.
Moving on, I did actually find Carlie’s reaction to Peter being Spider-Man interesting, reason being that she’s now the girl who happens to know he’s Spider-Man. Yes, Carlie’s smart and savvy and all that as the book never fails to tell us. That doesn’t matter in the long run. She’s the girl who’s not Mary Jane who knows Peter is Spider-Man, the ex-girlfriend of Spider-Man. I liked that she was freaked out by it in a way that harkened back to both Mary Jane and Felicia’s realization over it. Both acted as though they were scared of him, and I like that a secret identity revealed can do that to people’s perceptions.
The Vulture plot has nothing much going for it. Again, it’s not bad but it’s typical comic book fare. Toomes’ characterization was fine, the teenaged goons were fine too. Talking about the art, I had a hard time being able to tell who was what gender in the gang. They all had short hair and lipstick, so I genuinely couldn’t make out if they were guy or gal besides their names. I don’t think either Slott or Camuncoli were going for any transsexual insertions in the story. I blame Klaus Janson’s inks, who I still maintain is innappropriate for a Spider-Man book.
The ending was obvious, and again not wrong. It’s where the book had to go. It’s worth being said that the scene was uninspired. Web of Spider-Man vol.2 #12 had the same scene of Peter being uncomfortable with MJ and another ex talking about him, and he’s had girlfriends discuss him long before that.
It’s another comedic beat, so we can laugh at Peter’s expense. I thought the idea of Peter Parker was that we were supposed to identify with him. Oh well…
This was a decent issue, like last months. Not great, not bad, average overall.
3/5 webs
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I wish Spidey and the Vulture would have gotten to fight more but at least we have the classic version of a classic spidey character back
whoops… i thought yau said you liked her. that’s what i get for not reading slowly…LOL! going to work at 4am does that to ya.
@sthenurus. i like carlie also, but i do love mj. and i would actually really love a girl with a spidey tat like hers!
I agree with all of you that Carlie is annoying. Worst part is that we will have to go through MJ giving her blessing to her… Agian! It’s sad when you just can’t make a character likable and resort to have a long standing character basicly saying what the editor wanna say. Why can’t she exit stage left like EVERY other characters BND gave us (back): Harry, May, JJJ Sr Sr, The gonzales, Lilly etc…
About the Vulture: Meh, i’m with Enigma_2099, I tough Vulture always had super strenght.
As much as I don’t like Carlie’s character, I can’t help but feel very sorry for her. She’s been manipulated and used by Peter, and now MJ is going to use her to make Peter happy. She’s caught between two adolescent lovers who don’t have the maturity to come together when it’s so clear that they love one another.
I really like that crowbar idea!! I know he’s a lousy character, but I’d rather see the Freak, than seeing Carlie in any more issues of a Spidey book.
i hated this issue if only because of the CONSTANT vulture/bird jokes from EVERY character
honestly it was like every other line of dialogue could have come burgess meridith as the penguin
Yo, I used to go by “The Dark Spider” (I greatly prefer my new name screenname) . Anywho, I’ve gotten rather bored with comics lately. Nothing really catches my attention and entertains me like in the “good ol’ days”.
I’ll probably stop buying comics for a few months, occasionally coming here to see if there’re any issues I should buy or comment on other things.
So yeah.
Also, a while back I checked out Seige: X-men TPB from my downtown library and I discovered, at the back, some pages from Spider-man 1602 (I think it’s that). Can anyone elaborate on why those pages are there and if they’re Spider-man 1602?
I’ll truly appreciate it.
~Lament~
I, for one, am happy that the Vulture gang story line wasn’t longer then two issues, or I would’ve gotten annoyed. I also hoped there was more of a fight between the web head and Vulture. But I am pumped for the sinister six to return.
@Donovan – So… did you like the issue?
I know it’s just two scans, but the art doesn’t look very good. Janson was the colorist for the Avengers for a while, so I’m familiar with his work and it’s not bad, but it’s not impressive, either. Camuncoli’s pencils are just… weird. That first scan makes Peter look like Robert Pattinson.
Also, since when’s “typical comic book fare” a bad thing?
I liked the story overall but am really, really tired of Carlie Cooper. I’ve yet to find anything interesting about her. She only recently has been drawn as an attractive female. There’s no chemistry at all with her and Peter even though they try to say there is. I admit that I do miss Mary Jane as the love interest but Peter doesn’t even have to be with Mary Jane. Anyone but Carlie. Just give us an interesting female love interest. She’s a cop, that’s the thing that is supposed to impress us about her? I respect cops but come on. I hate to be negative but am just so tired of that character. It was exciting when she and Peter broke up and it felt like oxygen came back into the room. It seems pretty obvious that they are back trying to show us how perfect Carlie is for Peter again and they want to show us that by showing us how badly Peter needs her when they aren’t together as a couple. The thing is… he doesn’t need her.
Please Marvel, stop beating this dead police horse. Redo Secret Wars Two (ugh), make Gwen Stacy the Phoenix (double ugh), make Peter gay and have a love affair with the Hulk (triple ugh), just please make Carlie Cooper go away.
Perhaps Marvel you could do like the death of Jason Todd storyline at DC and ask fans what they would like to see happen with Carlie. I have a feeling a crow bar would be in her future.
Isn’t Toomes supposed to be super strong?
That depiction of Peter on the first page made him look quite a bit like Joey Tribbiani, doesn’t it?
I’ve never understood how Toomes gets away with stuff with Peter. If Peter gets within arm’s reach, Toomes should be toast. Look at that cover — Peter ought to break the bone in Toomes’ arm with a twist of his ten-times-stronger-than-normal hand. Let’s see Toomes fly around with two busted arms. Theoretically, Peter ought to be able to chuck a rock at Toomes and knock him right out of the sky.
Toomes, at this point in Spidey’s experience, shouldn’t be able to keep up. He ought to become a DD villain.