OK folks, Chi-Town here and I want to take this moment to recant everything I’ve ever said bad about MCU Spider-Man. He’s great and I vow to never refer to him as Iron Man Jr again. Now for the rest of this review, I’ll hand it over to Dark Mark, a wonderful human being who I admire greatly and who totally did NOT write the above words!
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Thanks, Chi-Town, for that amazing introduction! OK folks, Chi-Town’s too busy making money and being all responsible, so I’m stepping in for this issue. Today issue takes a blend of Iron Man, Prowler, Spider-Man, and the Rumor and spins it toward Spider-Man’s newest deadliest foe – Helminth. So why is Kindred on the cover? Read on, friends, and find out.
Story: Spider-Man approaches Iron Man with a different way to bring down Helminth. When he returns to Rumor, he finds that Prowler has left. Knowing that a supporting cast member will NOT be able to stand up to the main villain alone, he rushes to rescue him, even though this means messing up his carefully laid iron-clad plan. Prowler does well, but is no match for a guy who feeds off angst and quickly falls. Spider-Man and Rumor extract him, but Spidey needs Helminth to stay there until 9:00 pm, so he puts himself in harms way. Facing his inner demons, Spider-Man overcomes the sense of doom and failure and cleans Helminth’s clock. Iron Man shows up, with lawyers in tow. He has bought the crowd-source funding company and together, Spidey and Iron Man put Hobie in charge of the company.
Thoughts: This comic can be broken down into three parts, each with Spidey interacting with another.
Part 1 – Iron Man – Spider-Man feels like he needs to approach this another way. Trying to prove what Helminth is doing will be difficult, so he has a plan. While I am not at all thrilled about Spider-Man going to Stark for help, his plan to buy out the company and get rid of the evil in it is a good one. It is the kind of play we should have seen from Peter when he owned his own company. Did you catch that Spidey said “sorry” twice to Stark? The plan is a good one and it is one that relied on Spidey figuring it out, but in the end, Iron Man saves the day here.
Part 2 – Helminth – I am not at all interested in Rumor any more nor any of her former villains. This feels like it was an idea for a Captain America comic, but stuck here instead. That said, Spider-Man fights through the angst and guilt and feelings of failure that would have crippled your average CW TV hero and his plan to save the company to avoid harming those in need was effective.
Part 3 – Prowler – Prowler gets a chance to kick some low level guards’ butts, but is utterly ineffective against Helminth. However, Spidey moving Hobie to leadership of the company is a smart move and gives this side character an ongoing position that could lead to more neighborhood-level stories. I imagine that he will inform Peter to inform Spider-Man of someone in need, which will lead to a story.
Art – On top of it all, there are three artists on this book and it shows. The style is all over the place and is distracting to an already lackluster story.
Misleading Covers
I was hookwinked by Chi-Town. He asks, “Hey, would you do me this favor? Look the issue is all about Kindred!” and shows me this:
It’s a variant cover, but I didn’t know that so this indignity falls squarely on Chi-Town’s lap, not Marvel’s. I kept waiting for something to happen that connects Kindred to the story at hand. To be fair, the actual cover doesn’t really tell me much either, but at least it didn’t set me up for false hopes. You got me, Chi-Town.
Next – Now you know your regular reviewer will be back for the next one. The next issue is an all Mary Jane special!
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This was another just okay issue, I’m fine with Stark saving the day since it’s still Peter’s plan and it was kind of clever, but it still feels like a bit of a cop-out considering Stark wasn’t introduced into the story until the end of last issue, he felt like a walking deus ex machina. I’d have liked to have seen Peter work out a solution without relying on his billionaire friend to throw money at things. I like the idea of Hobie Brown teaming up with Stark to help people though, feels like a decent fit for him. I was really underwhelmed by Spidey being forced to overcome his guilt to beat the villain yet again, as he pointed out, it isn’t exactly a new idea. When it comes to this title, Taylor seems a lot better at the smaller character pieces than the bigger arcs, issues 5 and 6 (and most of 1) have been my favourites so far mostly because they were all about the characters and Peter was very well written. The two arcs so far both seemed to be at least one issue too long, and I haven’t been too keen on the concepts. Spidey teaming up with Prowler to take down a crooked fundraising company could’ve made for a decent two parter, but we got kind of weighed down with all the baggage from Rumour’s past, and it got tiresome to me. Still, an MJ-centric issue has a great chance of winning me back!
Dark Mark, ladies and gentlemen. The Fred Myers to Chi-Town’s Peter Parker!