Superior Spider-man Team Up 4 review

Octo-Spidey is forced to battle a super-powered threat that he’s inadvertently responsible for.

 

Superior Spider-man Team-Up #4

Writer: Robert Rodi

Artist: Michael Del Mundo

Color: Mike Del Mundo & Marco D’Alfonso

Letters: VC’s Joe Caramagna

Cover: Paolo & Joe Rivera

 

Spoilers to follow after the break:

 

 

 

The Plot: Picking up from last issue Octo-Spidey watches as Fulmina blacks out NYC and she explains why she thinks the world will be better without technology. Luke Cage then bitches Spidey out for teaching Fulmina how to enter the electric grid in the first place, but Ock assures him he can handle this on his own. Ock takes two pages to fight some aliens so this book have a token “Infinity” crossover banner on the cover then resumes dealing with Fulmina.

 

He enters his undersea lab and after making one more attempt to talk reason to Fulmina, don’s his mind transfer helmet and uses it to pull her into his brain where she reverts to her human form of Sylvia Prell. This gives Ock a chance to explain how the reality of the Middle Ages is not the same as whatever books she has studied and retuning humanity to that time would just lead to more people dying and less individual freedom.

 

Sylvia disagrees and in the process sees him as Ock for a second. She doesn’t realize the significance that Peter is possessed but instead realizes a person can change their self-image on the mental plane and regains her powers there. Ock assures her if she kills him on the mental plane while trapped in his mind they both die, giving him time to continue to talk sense into her. He seems to be making progress when more alien space ships arrive.

 

The two come to an understanding, and Ock frees her from his helmet gizmo. She then restores the city’s power and blows up the alien ships. For no discernable reason Ock assumes she has died in the process, but in the end feels both proud of her and himself for inspiring her to be a hero.

 

Critical Thoughts: Let’s start with the good. I really like the character of Fulmina. I like her argument on why the world would be better without technology. Maybe that’s just because I also studied medieval and Renaissance literature in college, so I find I can indentify with the character’s sensibilities even if she is taking them to the extremes. At the same time I really like Ock’s first argument that the art of the Middle Ages is not the same as the reality of it. Although, I think some of his points are also dubious. For example if Fulmina wipes out all electric technology that does not mean all knowledge of modern medicine is lost or that humanity will immediately return to superstitions and feudal governments; but then he’s trying to convince her in a hurry so showing her the worst case scenario is probably the most efficient way of accomplishing that.

 

I also like Ock’s characterization here. There’s a nice little touch in the middle where we see how being Peter is affecting him. He intellectually prioritizes the need to stop Fulmina but then still cannot resist first stopping a street crime and then taking down some aliens on the way to his lab. I also thought the last page narration was very strong.

 

That ending narration leads me to the final pro. I really think there’s great future potential stories for Fulmina based on this story as either a hero and a villain. As a villain she would have a unique motivation with the anti-technology thing. As a hero, she could still be connected to Ock as this good thing he accomplished in his time as a hero when we finally revert to the status quo. And since she saw his true form, if/when the truth comes out she could then doubt what he told her considering the source. Or she could remain a hero but always have a soft spot for him because he helped her find her way. Either way I’m hoping she does not become a forgotten character as so many new characters do because there’s a lot of potential here.

 

Now to the bad, which is everything to do with this being an Infinity crossover. For one, the alien threat is not serious in this story, something I complained about last issue. I mean Thanos (who despite appearing on the gorgeous cover does not appear inside this comic at all) is sending spaceships to a planet of super-beings that can be blown up with ease by electrical discharges? Not bloody likely given the character’s history as a master strategist.  More to the point I feel the ending undercuts all the pros I liked in the debate between Ock and Fulmina by having the returning alien threat be the reason Ock gets through to her. Before the aliens show up Ock makes some really good points to Fulmina in the mindscape to show her she’s become unhinged since her transformation and she seems to be listening. Letting the character interactions bring about the conclusion would make a much more powerful story and stronger future connection between Fulmina and Ock. Instead the aliens arrive and Ock is like ‘See if humankind has no electricity we’d be defenseless against alien invasions.”  After such interesting historical and philosophical points from both characters earlier ‘Oh no aliens!’ should not be the point that saves the day because even in the Marvel Universe planet scale alien invasions are not frequent occurrences.

 

I also didn’t like how the other Avengers are portrayed. That’s more of a quibble than a con because they are not in this story much but still reading this I was like ‘Who the hell is Luke Cage to be bitching out Spider-man.’ I mean yea, we know Spidey is Ock and is new to the hero thing; but Cage doesn’t. And while she’s only mentioned in passing, I fail to see why Spectrum (Monica Rambeau, formerly Captain Marvel v2.0) would be unable to eject Fulmina from the power grid given her years of experience with the same powers versus this girl’s 30-minutes experience. I mean narratively I understand it, because you want Ock to solve his own problem especially since he is responsible for it in a way. But in that case just say Spectrum is too busy fighting Thanos and his worldwide alien invasion to deal with this girl and her little citywide blackout at the moment; which is far more plausible than saying Spectrum can’t do anything to her or can’t find in her grid or whatever weird non-excuse they came up with. 

 

Also in general the interior art, particularly the action scenes is not my cup of tea. Spidey seems to be impossibly thin with ridiculously long legs in this. I do love that cover though.

 

Grade: C+. A lot of interesting ideas in this book that unfortunately do not get fully explored due to the alien menace sidetrack.