Mark: Hey Everyone, I’m taking a day off and I’m going to let my good buddy Chi-Town take over this review for me. He in no way, shape or form wrote this intro. It’s all ME! Let me honest here, I’m just lazy, but Chi-Town has all the time in the world. Sure he’s catching up to Spider-Man Cosplay interviews and prepping The Amazing Mary Jane reviews, being a wonderful husband to his wife and a terrific father to his kids and then there’s his day job, but I just feel he didn’t have enough on his plate. The man needs more and who better to give that to him, than me? Okay..Okay..maybe I’m still frustrated that he has made the letter section 3 times in this series and I haven’t even got one of my letter’s printed. I just don’t see the appeal to this guy! I’m sure he’s humorous at times and can be quite the charmer, but I bet that he’s just on bad day from…
Chi-Town: Should I cut you off right now or give you more cheese for your WHINE?
Mark: …Fine. You KNOW I’m right! Okay everyone, he’s Chi-Town!
Credit Where Credit Is Due
Story Title: Doom’s Day
Writer: Nick Spencer
Artist: Oscar Bazaldua
Colorist: Steve Firchow
Letterer: VC’s Joe Caramanga
Cover Artist: Tony Daniel and Edgar Delgado
Asst. Editor: Kathleen Wisneki
Editor: Nick Lowe
Published: Dec 4, 2019
Remedial ASM 101
Spidey 2099 is back in 2019! Peter’s classmate decides to trust Peter with his most ingenious creation in hopes that Peter will improve it, rather than Web-Ware it. Hitman takes the shot and hits Doom. Spider-Man figures out that it is not Doom at all, but yet another Doom Bot. Doom Bots go on a “KILL KILL KILL” rampage, calling in hundreds of other Doom Bots to make New York pay. Spidey 2099 appears and tells Spider-Man that he is not just an alternate timeline future, but actual 616 reality and if his world collapses, so does Spidey’s world. Don’t you hate time travel?!
The Story – Pay Attention, This Will Be on the Test
Hitman assignation attempt on Doctor Doom has failed, especially since he hit a robot and not the real deal. Now Dr. Doom wants to know who made that attempt and is locking down New York until someone comes forward with the truth. Spidey complains that he get’s shot all the time and doesn’t make a fuss about it. Spidey and his sister, Teresa find the Chameleon and make him spill the beans on who the killer is. Chameleon takes them to a already dead Hitman. Apparently Hitman has an ultimate amount of flour he can use to make clones of himself and transfer his brain consciousness in them. Flashback of the god-awful-character-assisgnation-Clone Conspiracy and “Gotcha!”LifeTheift storylines are used. Teresa is ready to kill Chameleon when Spidey gives her the prep talk into not doing that. Spidey uses his school experiment device to see possible future action they can do to thwart Doom. Issue ends with that plan not working out so well
What Passed and Failed
Passed: Chameleon. I always thought of him as a C-List villain, I mean Mary Jane beat him up with a baseball bat! In this issue he showed he can get up to at least B-List. Opinions will differ I’m sure, but you gotta admit, over the last decade he’s been more of miss than a hit. I’m very much reminded of the Spectacular Spider-Man personalization of Chameleon which doesn’t surprise me since Nick Spencer did say that Spect Spidey was his favorite Spidey cartoon. So that’s a win.
Lyla is back! Sporting pants and haircut! Peter activated his school project and Lyla showed up to help him figure out how to get out of this mess. There are certain plot holes you won’t know till next issue, but it’s all apart of the plan.
Failed: Oh man, in the beginning of the issue Spidey characterization is spot on, but when he gets to following his sister, he starts to fall back into that rookie superhero mode at the end. Not thinking. I really didn’t like how Spidey is talking to Teresa and saying things like “Sis” and “My parents” out loud when the Chameleon is basically only 10 feet away! Also, The Clone Conspiracy makes a cameo to remind us that spoiled baked flour is still running a-muck in this town.
“Call me Teresa “baby-hands” Parker” – Symbiobro
OOTI (Onomatopoeia of the Issue)
NONE! There were so many missed opportunities on this one. Spidey crashing through the window, lighting crashing behind Megasaur Doom, even when Doom fires rays from his hand…nothing, but HEY! Here’s what a gunshot sounds like.
On a scale of 1 (POW) to 10 (BLRKBQRKPQRBLNB), BLAM rates a 1
Analysis
I’m on par with Mark here folks. I really want to like this issue, but it’s really doing nothing for me. True there is some story substance given with the events that happened in The Amazing Spider-Man #30, but other that that…not much to go about unless you are interested in the 2099 Omega arc that is going on right now. We’ll find out how Spidey and team get out of this one next issue, but it’ll be releaving to know that issue will be the conclusion to this arc.
Extra Credit
Where’s Mary Jane?! She’s actually in Cali filming a movie with Mysterio. WHA?!? The events are happening in the new mini-series The Amazing Mary Jane. On sale NOW! You can always catch my reviews on that series right here on the Crawlspace. It’s actually really good and the art is bloody fantastic! Yes…I can act with a British accent sometimes…don’t judge me. Be sure to check it out!
Was It Worth it?
It was better than the first issue, that’s for sure and if you are avid Spencer ASM reader (which I am) sure, but if you walked into a comic shop you would be better to wait till next week to read Spider-Man 2099 Omega #1 than picking this up. Seems that’s Spencer’s main focus at this point with this arc.
Final Grade
I like it, but not that much.
C+
Anyone else saw the gif below pop in their head when they saw Doom towering over the buildings?
What’s Next?
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! Not that anyone is keeping score, but…
Chi-Town Spidey: 3 Dark Mark: 0
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@Neil and Dark Mark — Heck, I work at a college, and I get things wrong all the time.
@Dark Mark- I would know! I’m in college, and I get things wrong all the time! The more things change…
I’m giving this one a B-. I’m not as down-and-out yet, but I’m kinda running on fumes with the Chameleon stuff taking precedent when I was promised 2099 shenanigans. Don’t want one of the better books at Marvel getting weighed down by a tie-in, because that never ends well.
@Evan – I do love it! For all the good I give him, Chi-Town’s reviews are spot on and everybody here should be reading them.
My memory of the Theresa story is a bit cloudy, but I’m pretty sure there was always some doubt as to the actual nature of her truly being a Parker. I could be wrong. I was once in college and it is bound to happen again at some point.
This issue’s art was not on par with the last three issues. It seemed kinda rushed in some spots.
@Evan: Fun Fact! I was given permission from Mark to do that and plug my own reviews. Granted I would have done it anyways, but still…I obtained Mark’s approval for that.
@Mark: Just doing my substitute reviewers job as best as I can, buddy. That would actually be a good prediction IMA. Great, now you’ll want to print out more “Dark Mark was right” shirts.
I suspected as much when I saw that published letter from “DebWhitLover”
@Mark — Don’t you love how Chi-Town uses his guest spot as an opportunity to plug his own reviews?
@Chi-Town — Great review! At this point, I’ve completely forgotten how Teresa showed up in Peter’s life, though I vaguely remember her debut in a Kingpin story. I had just assumed that she is actually Peter’s sister, that that was confirmed somehow, or else why would he call her “Sis” and such without any skepticism whatsoever? I now know from Mark’s comment that there hasn’t yet been such a confirmation, and I guess he’s just humoring her at this point.
Ha! Nice of you to leave my opening comments in the review…
Great review, Peter! I am ready for this tie-in to be over. I think I would have given it a C-. Loved the Ooti analysis.
I have a prediction. This is certainly not the big arc Spencer has in store for Chameleon, and since he is trying Theresa in with Chameleon, I think she will play a big role in that, but I believe that will be the end of her. Either we find out that she is not really the sister, or she is removed somehow either by death or some spy thing.
By the way, I have had four letters printed. I just use fake names because I’m humble and don’t like to brag…..