Where the heck am I?! Wait a stinking-burger-picking minute, that says Chi-Town Spidey’s notes, not Alford Notes!! That ain’t right, that ain’t right at all! I’m not Mark! I’m not even “Dark”, I’m dark pale at best! Truth be told Crawlspacer’s that our good friend Dark Mark is battling the after effects of Hurricane Florence and asked me to do him a favor and write this review. That’s right, he’s resting on an inflatable pink flamingo tube bobbing along in the street filled river with a drink in his hand and a cell phone in the other. So lets get our Spidey trunks on and dive right into Spencer’s next arc!
Credit Where Credit Is Due
Story Title: A Trivial Pursuit Part One
Writer: Nick Spencer
Penciler: Humberto Ramos
Inker: Victor Olazaba
Colorist: Edgar Delgado
Letterer: VC’s Joe Caramanga
Cover Artist: Humberto Ramos & Edgar Delgado
Designer: Anthony Gambino
Asst. Editor: Kathleen Wisneki
Editor: Nick Lowe
Published: September 26, 2018
Remedial ASM 101
Peter is Spider-Man again! Mary Jane is kissing Peter again! The same device that split Peter and Spider-Man apart brought them back together, because SCIENCE! Taskmaster and Black Ant have escaped their hysterical interrogation revealing that the job was never to steal the Genome Accelerator. KRAVEN SPLASH PAGE!
The Story – Pay Attention, This Will Be on the Test – Editor’s Note: No there won’t..I hate tests..
So this guy named Doug is driving a very expensive yellow car trying to get away from The Vulture. Apparently Dougie has stolen from Vulture and Toomes is about to make Doug street pizza when Doug’s shirt stain begins to talk! Black Ant springs out of the stain to punch Vulture in the face while leaving Dougie to fall to his death. Then Taskmaster fires an electric sparking net and captures the old bird. A job well done for the two villain’s they go and claim their jackpot reward for capturing Toomes
Speaking of hitting the jackpot…
Peter and Mary Jane make out session is put on an awkward pause because Pete’s roommate Fred aka Boomerang is watching them like a creep! Actually he’s just watching Mary Jane, didn’t even notice Peter was there. Fred is honoring “the roommate agreement” for like the first time ever by catching up the chores he hasn’t completed yet. Editor’s Note: It’s an excuse to be in the same room as Mary Jane. It’s creepy, but I can’t hardly blame him, it’s Mary Jane Watson we are talking about here. Peter gives us a brief history lesson on why Fred aka Boomerang is his roommate. Un-knownist to Fred, but knownist to us, Peter has place a spider tracer and tracks down Fred when he leaves the apartment. Which leads him to THE SUPERIOR FOES…playing..poker. Shocker complains that Speed Demon is using his powers to cheat at the game (he is) and Boomarang reminds all about the rules as of now. No Jobs. Just get together because they are all pals. Beetle mocks that “friendship”…
After the homage to The Superior Foes of Spider-Man, we cut to Peter explaining to Randy Robertson (his other roommate.) how bad Fred is, but Fred comes in explaining all is cool and here’s a funny false story about Spider-Man to which Peter calls him out on. Fred finds out that Peter knows more about Spider-Man than anyone else. With this new knowledge he uses plans a scheme to take Peter to the Evil Watering hole known as the Bar With No Name, to have Peter partake in….. SPIDER-JEOPARDY!! **CRAWLSPACE POINTS**
Once Peter finds out Fred’s plan (he’s cashing in on Peter’s knowledge of Spider-Man) he wants no part of it, until he hears some villain talk about hostages for a future job. He decides to stick around under the super villain alias “The Liar” and partakes in this game and comes to the conclusion that none of these villains know Spider-Man AT ALL! You guys thought the Crawlspace Panelists where clueless on Georges questions…that’s NOTHING compared to these D-Lister villains!
Peter becomes the new champ of this game (I wonder why…) and while taking a leak Fred answer’s Peter’s phone (which he stole) to tell Kingpin off and then flushes Pete’s phone in the toilet! Wilson isn’t too happy about that and breaks the Bar With No Name rule and sends a text to every villain there that he wants Fred’s head on a silver platter! CLIFFHANGER!!
What Passed
Bad Villains Passed with flying colors and Spencer brings back Superior Foes (art and all) to these Amazing Pages. I swear Spencer knows about our Crawlspace and listens to our Podcast! I mean come one…SPIDER-JEOPARDY!
What also passed was Taskmaster and Black Ant in the beginning of the pages. They weren’t after the Genome Accelerator in the previous arc, so if they kidnapped Vulture now, it leads me to believe that they were after Spider-Man’s villains so being at the university..I’m guessing their job was to obtain The Lizard! Spencer isn’t throwing these characters into the story to drive a plot along, he’s actually giving them their own sub-plot that will lead in, with our mysterious bug villian and Kraven no doubt.
What Failed
Honestly I can’t think of a thing that really failed. Mark is been waiting for this issue since FCBD and ASM #1. The humor is there, the characterization is there and this just happens to be a fun Spider-Man book to read. Peter is still Peter. Fred is better than ever in this issue and if I could “complain” about one thing, not enough Mary Jane. I mean she should have seen right through Fred, her “creep-factor” should have been at a 10, or an 8 at least, but I’m sure we’ll get more that in the future issues.
I prefer Ottley’s art over Ramos. Not saying there’s anything wrong with it, but we’ve seen it in this run already and I’m really enjoying Ottley’s artwork. Here’s a variant cover the Ramos did though!
OOTI (Onomatopoeia of the Issue)
What the what?! Onoma..Ono..O.. I can’t even pronounce this Mark!!!! He explained to me this portion of the review is the best sound effect and Speed Demon wins this with his “PEW!”
Analysis
Spencer sets up his second arc with Ramos in toe. Definitely a spotlight on Boomerang! So Bad Villains up the wah-zoo!
Peter: He’s coming around to seeing that these villains are not that bad, but this is typical Parker Luck, although the Bar With No Name is a safe place for them, it’s about to get un-safe REAL QUICK.
Boomerang: The issue really focuses on him and what he’s been up to. Spencer clearly loves this character from his Superior Foes days and give all other villains a shine in the spotlight. The humor between him and his foes and allies is worth the read. I laughed out loud at a lot of these moments
Mary Jane: Not enough..you know me folks. I wants more of MJ and Peter together, working together!
Extra Credit
Can you guess what questions were asked to Peter?
Final Grade
Mark’s Grade: A+
Chi-Town’s Grade: A
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This issue was expressive, fun, and full of life! It almost felt like I was reading a combination of an 80s Spider-Man book and a Superior Foes of Spider-Man book. I usually don’t like Ramos’ art, but his art was great in this issue… he absolutely nailed Peter’s facial expressions during the trivia quiz! Can’t wait to read the next issue!
A+
My guesses for the questions:
1) “Who bought the Daily Bugle from J. Jonah Jameson and renamed it “”The DB!”” Answer: “Dexter Bennet”
2) “Who framed the White Tiger from stealing something from ESU? And what did he steal?” Answer: “Professor Vasquez with the Erskine Papers”
3) “What is Jackson Arvad’s super-villain name?” Answer: “Will O The Wisp”
Question 2 could be phrased better.
@Danny: That’s a good theory!
@Mark: Glad you liked it! This issue has you written all over it and I knew you would love it. Bad villains to you in a issue is like Mary Jane to me in a issue. Black Ant is great! I’m going to have to go back and read when he first appeared.
@william: I agree. Like in the Superior Run, Mary Jane should have seen right through Fred’s BS. Given the cover of this issue, it looks that way. She was there to keep Peter steady though. That’s only my biggest gripe.
Peter answering his own trivia questions is pretty much the funniest thing that’s ever happened in the title, I actually cheered at some of the references he made! I also loved seeing the Superior Foes again, I hope it inspires more Spider-Fans to check their title out. I was glad to see the Boomerang plot progress at last, though I totally get Spencer wanting to do something more introspective with Peter before diving into it. Very excited for next issue, it should be incredibly entertaining seeing Peter and Fred take on a bar full of super-villains.
I did have an ‘oh are you for real?!’ moment with MJ being unable to see through Boomerang’s bs, she’s way smarter than that, and I don’t like her being dumbed down for the sake of a joke, but that’s just one moment (and for now, I can tell myself she was just being really sarcastic).
Great review, Chi-Town! This was by far my favorite issue of Spencer’s run, even though Spider-Man technically was absent! I love the knock off Living Brain! I love trivia night! I love Black Ant! A++++++++++++++++++
Hmm. Kinda wonder if Kraven isn’t trying to cater to his urges whilst maintaining his “good guy” streak by rounding up and hunting all of Spidey’s animal-themed villains. “Predators”-style.