Underrated or Overrated: “Shed”

Greetings and salutations, wonderful readers! Welcome to a new series of articles that I like to call “Underrated or Overrated?” In this series, I take a look at some very divisive Spider-Man stories that the fandom seems to either love or loathe. I will break each of these tales down from start to finish, give my personal opinions on them and then determine whether they are “Underrated” and deserve the praise one side of the fan-base gives them, or if they are “Overrated” and deserve the scorn the other side heaps on them.

First up, we’ll be discussing Shed by Zeb Wells, Chris Bachalo and Emma Rios in AMAZING SPIDER-MAN vol. 1 #630-633 from 2010.

Seeking to revamp and rejuvenate one of the web-head’s oldest foes, Curt Connors a.k.a. The Lizard, writer Zeb Wells decided to tell a dark, gritty tale about the cold-blooded reptile persona finally gaining full control and destroying his human side seemingly forever. While an intriguing idea on paper, the reaction among readers was very mixed to say the least. Some considered it a shocking, emotional romp that made The Lizard a more tragic and terrifying figure than ever before, while others considered it a tasteless, nonsensical slap in the face that forever tainted The Lizard as a character. Which category do I fall into? Let’s take a look and find out!

Our arc beings innocently enough with Spider-Man and The Black Cat subduing a small gang of criminals fleeing in a stolen van.

Sure enough, they succeed…which unfortunately leads to this:

This highlights one of many problems with the Brand New Day era: the incredibly poor characterization of Felicia Hardy. Gone is the amoral thief with a heart of gold and an amorous admiration of our hero. In her place is a shallow, self-serving bimbo who only has the barest interest in casual sex with the wall-crawler. Thankfully, this is her only scene in the story–but it’s still bothersome all the same.

Returning to the meat of the plot, Curt Connors visits his son Billy in foster care where he attempts to win his trust. Sadly, it doesn’t go as desired for Curt.

This is an effectively somber scene that demonstrates just how badly Curt’s Lizard persona has affected his life. Even his own son wants nothing to do with him at this point because he knows of the monster lurking within his father, threatening to burst out at any time.

Peter Parker is later seen at The Coffee Bean wallowing in self-pity over The Cat’s cold rejection of his affections. Noticing this, Harry Osborn attempts to cheer his best buddy up.

Harry responds to Peter’s reluctance with this:

Yet another grievance many readers had with the Brand New Day era: instead of showing them why Carlie Cooper was oh so “perfect” for Peter, they instead had other characters constantly beat you over the head with talk about how awesome she supposedly was. And Marvel wonders why this character never caught on with the fans…

Later at work, we find Curt getting into a rather heated spat with his boss, Brain King.

Gee, I’ll bet everything is going to work out perfectly well for Mr. King…

The next day…

You’ll quickly notice from the inner monologue that Zeb Wells’s interpretation of The Lizard is very different from the classic iteration of the character. Instead of an intelligent beast with a burning hatred of humanity and a desire to see lizards rule the Earth, Wells’s Lizard is essentially a dumb animal driven by base instinct, desire and habit that exists as an alternate personality of sorts in Curt’s mind.

While certainly different, I wouldn’t say this is a bad take on the character. Not only does this play up the “Jekyll and Hyde” aspect of his character, but a more bestial Lizard with no ties to his humanity or discernible goal can serve to make him all the more dangerous and unpredictable.

It’s also worth noting that writer and artist Todd McFarlane once tried a similar concept with The Lizard in his Torment arc from SPIDER-MAN vol. 1 #1-5, but that’s for another day.

As Curt struggles to suppress his transformation, King walks in and only serves to escalate the situation from bad to worse.

Que transformation!

You mean King didn’t emerge the hero of this story? Shocking!

Quibbles aside, this was a rather strong start to the arc as it skillfully established this new take on The Lizard and how dangerous he truly is. Plus, he looks grotesquely great on that last page. Let’s see where it goes from here!

Part two opens with this:

This scene serves no real purpose other than to set up the forthcoming Grim Hunt arc. Next!

Oh wait, there’s this:

Apparently, the Kravinov family intends to assist The Lizard in some capacity for their own agenda. What kind of capacity? Let’s keep reading!

Carlie Cooper and the rest of the police are busy cleaning up the carnage (no, not that Carnage) left by The Lizard at the laboratory when Spidey arrives on the scene.

Knowing that The Lizard has returned, Spidey asks for Billy Connors’s whereabouts.

Sure enough, The Lizard has tracked Billy down at the foster care center.

The conflicting internal voices from both Curt and The Lizard a very clever touch; one that past comics haven’t really used.

Spider-Man arrives on the scene and attempts to reach the man within the beast. However, The Lizard isn’t having any of that and silences Curt’s voice by…knocking him unconscious?

I have no idea how that would knock out only one portion of his brain, but that’s hardly the weirdest thing we’ll see in this arc, so let’s continue.

As Spidey and The Lizard fight, some innocent civilians end up in the crossfire.

Not one to turn away from those in need, Spidey pleads with The Lizard to delay the battle long enough to help the innocents. The Lizard decides to use this opportunity to resume his hunt for Billy. Knowing this, Spidey plants a spider-tracer on The Lizard so he can track him afterward.

But as luck would have it, the Kravinovs have already taken Billy for their own nefarious purposes.

The purpose in question turns out to be serving Billy to his mutated father!

The Lizard then proceeds to mercilessly devour Billy with his father, still trapped in the monster’s mind, helpless to do anything to prevent the atrocity.

Many fans take umbrage with this sequence as they feel it is needlessly cruel and ruins the intrigue of The Lizard by destroying his final connection to his dormant humanity. Honestly…I don’t mind it. The scene with Billy accepting his fate with defeated resignation is very sad, as is the moment when a broken Curt finally surrenders to his monstrous alter ego; something that is creatively portrayed by his internal monologue literally shattering.

I also don’t think Billy’s death is pointless and only done for shock value because it serves as a catalyst for both the story and The Lizard’s character going forward.

So far, I’m very interested to see where this goes. Let’s continue!

Part three opens with our hero arriving too late on the scene and discovering the remains of Billy’s corpse.

Pulling himself together, Spidey continues his pursuit of The Lizard, only to discover…this.

?

??

Yes, Spidey, because The Lizard has never spoken before, right?

Oh wait, yes he has. Constantly, in fact.

I won’t lie; this bothers me. Reinterpreting The Lizard as a savage animal driven by base instinct is fine, but to imply that he has never spoken until this point is to blatantly disregard nearly everything that came before. We readers know this can’t be the case because all of his past encounters with The Lizard are still canon, so that means Zeb Wells is just deliberately ignoring continuity now to suit his desired outcome. This simply doesn’t work for anyone who has even the slightest knowledge of The Lizard’s character and only serves to damage continuity and confuse readers.

Moving on, The Lizard proceeds to explain that he has eliminated the Curt Connors portion of his brain entirely. As a result, his reptilian mind has merged with Curt’s “monkey” mind and made him a more intelligent animal.

Again, this wouldn’t be so bad if it didn’t blatantly contradict continuity. Oh, but it gets even sillier.

As Spidey and The Lizard duke it out, The Lizard does…this.

Confused? So am I.

Apparently, The Lizard combining his reptilian and mammal brains together gives him the magical ability to “speak” to the dormant “lizard” brains in people and make them behave like instinctual animals.

…what????

So The Lizard gaining full control over Curt Connors somehow allows him to take over other people’s minds by psychically tapping into their “primitive” side? How does that even begin to work? How does The Lizard expunging Curt’s consciousness give him immense mental abilities that would make even Charles Xavier tremble in his wheelchair? Apparently, we’re just supposed to roll with it.

Spider-Man returns to the lab where he and Carlie discuss what the flying fish-sticks is going on.

I understand that The Lizard was trying to destroy his human side, but that still doesn’t explain how succeeding in that particular goal somehow gives him psychic powers.

Regardless, Spidey gathers Curt’s supply of Lizard antidote and heads out to save his old friend.

Speaking of which, we cut back to The Lizard who is contemplating his newfound abilities.

The Lizard then decides to use his psychic powers to take hold of everyone in the city and make them all act like the animals they all supposedly are deep down.

So not only does The Lizard have psychic abilities now, but they’re apparently powerful enough to control an entire city.

Now it just feels like Zeb Wells is making this up as he goes along.

Part four opens with the city descending further into chaos as The Lizard eggs on their “reptile” brains in one of the most unintentionally hilarious sequences I’ve ever seen.

Seriously, I have no words.

Thankfully, Spidey arrives to diffuse this nonsense.

Knowing that brute force isn’t going to bring Curt back, Spidey begins injecting The Lizard with the antidote.

Unfortunately, it looks as though Curt Connors truly is gone for good.

Angered by Spidey’s assault, The Lizard calls upon the now deranged people of New York to attack the masked arachnid.

Resisting the urge to give into his primal side out of fear of hurting the civilians, Spidey is overwhelmed.

But unexpectedly, The Lizard saves him.

The picture of Billy seems to have stirred something rather unexpected in The Lizard’s newfound mind: guilt.

Unable to cope with human emotions, The Lizard runs off and leaves Spidey to pass out on the rooftop.

Now admittedly, The Lizard feeling human remorse for his crimes is a captivating concept…one that is unfortunately thrown out the window on the very last page of the comic.

So The Lizard is now a rapist apparently. Good to know.

 

IN CONCLUSION:

Dang this was a missed opportunity. The Lizard gaining full control over Curt Connors and eliminating his consciousness entirely is an interesting idea hindered by sloppy execution. Parts one and two offered a very gripping hook by establishing The Lizard as an unpredictable beast willing to do whatever it took to become the dominant persona over Curt…only for Zeb Wells to botch it in the closing chapters by including that absolutely moronic and nonsensical “psychic lizard brain” angle. Not only are psychic powers a very poor fit for the Lizard character, they also don’t make a blasted bit of sense. It’s a true shame because Shed could have easily shaped into one of the definitive Lizard tales if Wells didn’t outright ignore established continuity and implement ludicrous new developments for a classic character.

The artwork by Chris Bachalo and Emma Rios is suitably grotesque looking and really enhances the story, but not enough to entirely save it unfortunately.

While there are great moments in Shed, it takes too many bizarre and unfitting turns towards the end to fully recommend.

 

VERDICT: Overrated

 

Let me know what you thought about Shed in the comments below!