Since the title of this issue is “Running Late” you can forgive the tardiness of this review (at least I hope)! Crawlspacers, we have another tie-in and this raises two big questions – will Spencer ignore it again and write his own story and how awesome will a Spencer written Miguel O’Hara be? Read the issue and then join me as we break it down Crawlspace style!
Credit Where Credit Is Due
Story Title: Running Late
Writer: Nick Spencer
Artist: Patrick Gleason
Colorist: Matthew Wilson
Letterer: VC’s Joe Caramanga
Cover Artist: Ryan Ottley and Nathan Fairbairn
Asst. Editor: Kathleen Wisneki
Editor: Nick Lowe
Published: October 23, 2019
Remedial ASM 101
I’ll repeat the entire recap page from the issue:
The Spider-Man of the year 2099, Miguel O’Hara, fell from the sky, landing on an offshore oil platform. Peter Parker has no idea.
The Story – Pay Attention, This Will Be on the Test
A bunch of Captain Planet villain wannabes figure that Spider-Man 2099’s falling on their oil platform is not a gift to pass on lightly and decide that they can use him for patent ideas and some insight into what moves they should make for their own future. Meanwhile, Peter is in the ESU library working on a project with his group, who isn’t at all excited about being paired with a former plagiarist, except for one called Jamie who is still using Webware technology, but not for its intended purpose. Theresa Parker shows up and fakes an emergency at the school just to pull Peter to the side and get him to suit up against the Foreigner and the Chamelon. Spidey and Theresa pop in and Foreigner releases his army of Jack O’Lantern henchmen. A fight breaks out and Silver Sable comes out of nowhere to shoot Spider-Man in the back. Whe end with Miguel again learning that Doom 2099 is somehow destroying the future and our oil execs realize that no place you put Miguel in is a “secure” facility. Miguel escapes, but seems to have some problems with his spider powers.
What Passed and Failed
Pass – The art – Patrick Gleason does a fine job on his first Spider-Man issue. I’ll be happy to see him fill in when Ottley can’t make it. Matthew Wilson does and AWESOME job coloring. I love how his colors are spotty so that it feels like I’m reading an old newsprint comic.
Not Sure – An army of Jack O’Lantern henchmen – well, I’m always game for some Jack O’Lantern. The visual is appealing and the memories of ‘80s era Jack O’Lantern is always a nice call back. If you didn’t read our very own Bill Slattery’s most recent Spider-Tracer – The Jack O’Lantern Legacy, then get to it! It will get you all caught up on Jacky’s history and is a good read to boot. Good timing Bill!
OOTI (Onomatopoeia of the Issue)
On a scale of 1 (POW) to 10 (BLRKBQRKPQRBLNB), KOOM rates a 7.5. Could have used an exclamation point and saying it out loud does not particularly sound to me like a metal door hitting the hallway walls, but I don’t believe I’ve ever seen that particular one before!
Analysis
Peter’s new supporting cast – well, it is about time that we get some more people in Peter’s life. In this case, it is hard to tell if we are going to like them or not as they don’t get to do much other than make fun of Peter and be introduced. We have Derrick, a smart college-era Flash Thompson-esque character, Kel, the sarcastic one, and Jamie, the kid who will pull Peter into the group. I’m willing to give them a shot. Who knows? Maybe they will last longer than the previous groups Peter’s been introduced to in the past ten years. Derrick’s comment about being a “patent goblin” gives me pause as it may be foreshadowing a new goblin character down the road. Peter’s suggestion for using clone technology to fix the genome accelerator is a definite red flag!
Theresa – she’s a plot device to get Peter into Spider-Man mode, and I wasn’t too upset the first time she was used that way, but I really dislike this character and did not feel that this particular assignment was one that Peter was absolutely needed for. I fear she is going to be a more frequent guest than I thought, especially since this instance involved the Chameleon and we know that Chameleon will be a major villain in an upcoming arc.
The Foreigner – Nice to see his return. For those of you who do not know, he and the Black Cat worked together in the ‘80s and before that, he was married to Silver Sable (which explains her arrival later). Foreigner seemed to be too fast for Spider-Man, but turns out that he can momentarily hypnotize a person so that they are in a trance for about ten seconds.
2099 – I love Miguel O’Hara and am very happy to see him in his old suit again. I’m not terribly interested in yet another problem with the future, but I’ll take that pretense to get to see Miguel in action again. However, I am not at all pleased that Spencer is being pulled into another tie-in. That will be five issues in a row that are tie-ins to bigger events. I thought Marvel said they were cutting down on events….
Extra Credit
After you’ve caught up on Bill’s article, catch up on the old Spider-Man 2099 issues by Peter David.
Final Grade
It was… OK. I’m not particularly jumping up and down for joy and excitement to read the next issue, but there were some good moments. It is a tie-in to a 2099 event and the next two issues will be so as well. I commend Spencer for not getting too sidetracked from his own stories when they put tie-ins in his schedule, so for that, I will give it a
B-
Your Turn
What grade do YOU give it?
What’s Next?
- Miguel O’Hara’s mysterious return to the present threatens his life and his entire future. But why?
- As for OUR time’s Spider-Man, he’s got his hands full with classic villains, family problems and international incidents that intertwine in terrifying ways!
Folks we have a major event going on here and if you are interested in following it, here is the checklist.
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!
‘Nuff Said!
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@Anthony Collado and PeterParkerFan
Anthony – Don’t hold your breath. I think she will be a part of the Chameleon arc. I agree with you – the less Theresa, the better.
PeterParkerFan – It’s no Ottley, but I liked it too.
The art was on-point this issue, especially the action pages.
I’ll give it an A-. Knocked down two points because of Spider-Man’s sister that I’ll be happy to never see again and while Gleason draws a great Spider-Man, his artwork didn’t do it for me on every panel. Maybe he’ll grow on me or maybe his style will evolve, but I like him more on covers and less on interiors currently.
@Evan and John Simons
Evan – I believe a B- is the lowest I’ve given him so far. I liked somethings in there, but I felt like nothing really moved forward. Miguel is in trouble and Spidey has some new supporting cast members. At the end of Hunted, Chameleon seemed a bit more bad assed than normal, but here, he looked like a pathetic loser in over his head. So I don’t have hope for the next two issues. Now I can hear the KOOM. Thanks!
For those of you who don’t get his bag-o-poo reference, years ago I realized that instead of the crappy comic arc that Slott gave me that I could actually buy real crap at https://www.shitexpress.com/
John – meh is a good description. I loved Miguel when he first came out. Haven’t been too fond of him lately, even when Peter David was in charge of his new title. Maybe Spencer can do that for me, but my bet is that Spencer is going to go into a holding pattern until this thing passes. I don’t blame him and I found his Kindred story in the Carnage tie-ins to be some of his best, so maybe we’ll get something like that. Who knows. All I know is that forcing five issues of tie-ins in a row was a poor editorial decision and Lowe should have known better.
Mark, thanks again for another great review.
I found this to be Spencer’s most forgettable issue yet. To be fair, that’s probably because I’ve been so ecstatic with practically every issue because he’s been fixing things that have gone wrong with ASM over the past decade, and this is the first arc that is just sort of there. Honestly, with Miguel, I wish I was more excited about his presence here, but I find myself kind of rolling my eyes and waiting for this arc to be over because I’m tired of all of these alt. Spideys in Marvel’s current publishing line. I’m fatigued by the over-saturation of the market with Spider-Books, both alt. and minis.
I’d agree with the B-, but this is the first time in Spencer’s run where I’m just kind of “meh” about the story.
@Mark — It feels to me like this event came out of nowhere. What happened to Norman and Carnage and Norman-Carnage? Incidentally, for whatever reason, when I read “KOOM,” I knew exactly what that closing door sounded like. To my mind it’s like a hangar bay closing in Star Wars, but maybe I’m mistaken.
Is a B- the lowest grade you’ve given a Spencer-penned issue? I’m having trouble remembering. I know everyone has a different standard so far as grading goes (I know you’ve written extensively on that elsewhere). It seemed like you at least quasi-enjoyed the issue, at least. It was clearly better than a commensurate amount of bag-o-poo, right? I just would have liked to see some more Kindred, so I hope there’s a way to unfold that plot thread a bit in the issues to come.