Alford Notes: ASM # 23/824: Hunted: Epilogue

Hold on to your hats, true believers, Hunted has an epilogue.  If you’re thinking, “Ho hum… another way for Marvel to milk too much out of a story,” then read on and let me show you how wrong you are!  Face front!

 

Credit Where Credit Is Due

Story Title:  Hunted – Epilogue

Writer: Nick Spencer

Penciler: Ryan Ottley

Inkers: Cliff Rathburn

Colorist: Nathan Fairbairn

Letterer: VC’s Joe Caramanga

Cover Artist:  Ryan Ottley and Nathan Fairbairn

Asst. Editor: Kathleen Wisneki

Editor: Nick Lowe

Published: June 12, 2019

 

Remedial ASM 101

Well, if you haven’t been following Hunted, this issue will make no sense.  Let’s see, short version..  Kraven makes clone son, hires Arcade to build murder dome over Central Park, rounds up all animal themed villains to be hunted/turn hunter by rich trophy hunters who will also turn into the prey.  Spidey gets in fight with Kraven87 (clone boy) and ends up in dome.  Kraven tries to make Peter embrace him hunter instinct, but is shown the true way and so Kraven lets him go and commits suicide by dressing up as Spider-Man and fighting his clone son.  Oh, and Bob died.

The Story – Pay Attention, This Will Be on the Test

The murder dome is down and Spider-Man, free to leave, has only one thing on his mind – Mary Jane’s safety.  He lets the Avengers, who have congregated around the dome, handle the villains, rich hunters, and Arcade.  In jail, Vulture uses his celebrity status to put together a new crew called the Savage Six consisting of himself, King Cobra, Rhino, Scorpion, Tarantula, and the one and only Stegron!  Black Ant is at the mercy of Yellow Jacket, Razorback, White Rabbit, the Fly, and Toad until Taskmaster comes in and rescues him, renewing the bromance of all bromances.  Black Cat reunites Lizard Clone Boy with his Lizard Clone Mom while Curt Connors lies crying in the woods of Central Park.  Vermin and his clone congress are living the high life. They all escaped and are living in the subway tunnels.  Peter burst into his apartment to find his visions were true, but not as dire as he believed.  She is safe and they hug.  Things then get creepy as Centidemon narrates the ending.  Kraven87 morns at the funeral for his father and finds a note left to him by dear old dad bequeathing the mantle of The Hunter to him.  Once everyone leaves the graveside, the Chameleon reveals himself to no one and then talks to no one to tell that no one he has plans for the destruction of the world.

Hey wait a minute… None of that

What Passed

True Love – You know in the movies when EVERYONE dies brutal deaths but at least the dog survived?  That’s how you feel here when, despite the dark tone of this arc, Taskmaster and Black Ant get back together and swing off into the sunset.

Kraven’s burial – One of these panels is from PPTSSM #132 (last book in the original KLH) and the other is from this issue.

I like the attention to detail.  The same grave stones and two of the original pall bearers came back to see him.  Plus the return of the grave digger that gets no credit in the Marvel Fandom Wiki either in PPTSSM #132 or in this issue’s entry.  However, we here at the Crawlspace are not so easily deterred and I have found the true identity of this man and it is none other than the 616 version of our reality’s James Clement, the grave digger contest on Survivor.

 

OOTI (Onomatopoeia of the Issue)

We have only one onomatopoeia in this issue.

On a scale of 1 (POW) to 10 (BLRKBQRKPQRBLNB), AAAAAHHH! rates a 2.  I don’t like verbal onomatopoeias as much, but I gave it an extra point for putting more As in than Hs.

 

What Failed

Nothing.  I do not have a single fault for this issue.

Analysis

This issue does everything an epilogue should.  It shows where all parties are without it being just filler.  The pacing is quick and the consequences for the previous story are satisfying.  I was not looking forward to this issue, but believe it was well done.

Mary Jane – We might as well start off with the most impactful scene of the issue – Mary Jane.  Spider-Man lets the assembled heroes handle the villains so that he can go after her.  When he gets there, the stakes are high for him and the reader.  I express my feelings before that I didn’t think MJ was in real trouble due to choppy nature of his visions, but with us going into the Centidemon story and with the images that we see as he enters the apartment, I was left wondering if I was wrong (hey, there’s a first time for everything).   I teach literature, so I am a bit jaded on the power of a story to move me, but I felt the exchange between the two here was powerful due to being just the right amount of words and pictures.

The scene is a nice flip on the ending of the original KLH.  In that scene, Peter is coming home to her with little knowledge of what has actually happened, while she is desperate for his safety. They have a similar embrace there as well.

Now, I have heard criticisms of how Spencer has Spider-Man leave villains to their fates to help out his loved ones (such as when he left Rhino to be captured while he searched for Aunt May) as being out of character.  Their belief was that Spider-Man’s MO is putting others before his family.  I don’t subscribe to that belief.  Peter’s loved ones get in danger or hurt because he is out being Spider-Man and not aware of their need of him, not because he chose to ignore their danger for others.  There was no need at all for Spider-Man to let MJ be in possible danger just to help out Torch with the Beetle.

And yes, Chi-Town, quite harassing me.  It is written that she is his one TRUE love.  I guess Deb Whitman will always be the one who got away.

Savage Six  – I hate the vulture, but I am liking Spencer’s Vulture quite a bit, so I am happy to see that he isn’t going anywhere.  Plus, with the inclusion of the Rhino, we get to see some fall out for Spider-Man allowing him to be captured by the Taskmaster.

This is the third Marvel incarnation of the Savage Six.  The first one was in Spider-Girl’s alternate universe and the second one was in Venom.  There doesn’t appear to be any connection besides the name to either of these groups.  We’ve already seen Spencer’s take on the Vulture, Scorpion, and Rhino, and it will be good to see him tackle Stegron and Tarantula. I am not very familiar with King Cobra, but I read somewhere or heard in an interview that the Serpent Society is one of Spencer’s favorite villain groups, so I’m ready.  Plus I like bad villains.  Plus, I LOVE Spencer’s bad villains, so I’m all over this.

Congress of Vermin – I can’t lie.*  I felt that Vermin’s inclusion in this story was an afterthought and something added in when Spencer added a new issue to the arc.  I don’t feel it added much to the plot.  This is a good wrap up for him.  He’s got his happy ending and is free to wander the tunnels.  Spider-Man will probably not go looking for him and we probably will not see him again in Amazing for quite some time.

Lizard – This guy, however, we won’t be getting rid of quite so soon.  I still think Spencer wants to explore Connors in the classroom and his arc with his lizard clone wife and lizard clone boy is not yet wrapped up.  We will see more of this, but my prediction is that it won’t be for a while.  I thought it was interesting to see Black Cat stay there with lizard wife for a while after dropping the boy off.  This whole experience has had quite an impact on her and I am interested in seeing how that develops.

Chameleon – His teaser is less interesting that the fact that with the burial scene.  With him looking similar to the men who were there at the first burial, do you think he was there last time?  I do.

Kraven87 – I like his ending. The guy has a messed-up life and with his growth acceleration, he has not had time to properly handle his emotions.  All through this arc he acted like an impatient teenager and now he is grieving like a CW show character.  However, with the note that Kraven left (unusually succinct for a Kraven missive), he now has direction and purpose.  He has the approval from the father he so craved for.  He has reason to forgive himself for killing Kraven and can now mover forward with his life, a life that does not necessarily involve returning to hunt Spider-Man.  Oh, we’ll see him again, but not soon and who knows in what capacity.  Stepping out of the plot for a moment, Spencer has fixed the Kraven problem.  Most readers feel that Kraven was best left dead.  However, this is comics and death is cheap (but not if Cebulski has his way).  Now we have restored Kraven’s death in a manner that is fitting with the original intent AND we have a Kraven to continue to roam the Marvel universe.  This is the best of both worlds.  Spencer is showing that, while maybe not advisable, you can have your cake and eat it too.

Rumor has it that JR has a similar tattoo design as Kraven87 has, but goblin-themed instead.

Centidemon – Can this guy get any creepier?  The frustrating fun of figuring this character out is about tapped out.  We need some more information and from the looks of it, that may be coming in two issues.  So, that brings us to this feature.

Chi-Town, BD, and I did a patreon podcast on who this character is, so I will not go over all of what we discussed.  I’m looking at the new clues given in this issue.  The problem with everyone’s theories that I hear so far is that they see the latest clues and make a guess based only on that.  We need a figure that meets ALL the clues – from leading Mysterio out of hell to Kingpin bowing – to using the word Pete and all the other clues as well.  In this issue, we get:

• Centidemon is not one to fight petty battles and will not be going after MJ or other loved ones
• Fixated on Peter and Peter’s impact on those he loves
• Does not set off the Spider Sense unless Peter was ignoring it because he was so focused on MJ
• And the solicits from Marvel for issue #24 use the male gender “he” to refer to Centidemon. This is the second time (at least) Marvel has done this.

What does this all mean?  I’ll let you make some suggestions in the comments section.  Maybe Chi-Town and I can get BD to let us do another podcast after we get a few more clues.

Extra Credit

Let’s keep it with predictions.  Who is Centidemon?  What sort of plan does Chameleon have?  What lies ahead for Kraven87?  Will taskmaster and Black Ant appear again in ASM?

 

Final Grade

This issue succeeds on everything it sets out to do.  It effectively wraps up the story in a way that smoothly moves our hero on to the next big thing.  It serves as a set up for stories to come.  I felt like I got what I needed from it and not that I was being given a filler issue or one more attempt to capitalize on the HUNTED arc.

A

Your Turn

What grade do YOU give it?

 

What’s Next?

All leading up to Nick Spencer’s Landmark 25th issue!

• One issue away from #25 and the chickens are coming home to roost.
• Who is the mysterious bandaged figure who seems to be in every shadow and what does he want with Spider-Man?
• This issue won’t answer ALL your questions, but it will answer some that will drop your jaw.

 

“Fear has a new name!” – Well, it better be Centidemon and not something stupid (and by stupid I mean anything that I didn’t come up with).

Interesting side note, the cover used here was originally designed for issue #12, which was the issue about JJJ.  So I’m wondering if Spencer meant to drag out Centidemon’s story this long or if editorial decided to hold it off until #25.

 

Nick Lowe has asked people to let the Spider office know how they are doing by sending an email to spideyoffice@marvel.com and to make sure you mark it “OK to print”.  If you get published, make sure to draw our attention to it!

 

* – That is, actually, a lie.  The six rule in my classroom is “Mr. Alford lies”.  It comes just after rule #5 – “Mr. Alford is a jerk”.

‘Nuff Said!