The Chameleon Conspiracy is upon us, folks, and after just one issue, it is already better than the entirety of the Clone Conspiracy! Ok, so the bar was low. How does it stack up? For that matter, what about Preggo Betty? What about everyone’s favorite gambling goon Chance? How about everyone’s favorite Parker – Theresa? Is the romance still alive after all this time for the couple everyone is rooting for – Foreigner and Silver Sable? What do the Lethal Legion have to do with any of this? And why is Doc Ock looking at images of the Savage Land? Wow! Spencer has packed this issue tighter than me stacking Tetris blocks! Enough of this pointless opening drivel! The die is cast! Let’s look at how it all went down!
Credit Where Credit Is Due
Story Title: The Chameleon Conspiracy part 1
Writer: Nick Spencer
Penciller: Marcelo Ferreira and Carlos Gomez
Inkers: Wayne Faucher with Marcelo Ferreira and Carlos Gomez
Colorists: Morry Hollowell with Andrew Crossley
Letterer: VC’s Joe Caramanga
Cover Artists: Mark Bagley, John Dell, and Brian Reber
Asst. Editor: Lindsey Cohick
Editor: Nick Lowe
Published: June 2, 2021
Remedial ASM 101
Peter’s long-lost sister, Teresa, has been working for S.H.I.E.L.D., but has recently gone rogue on a vendetta to kill the Chameleon after he killed someone she loved. Betty Brant just came back from Europe pregnant. Peter’s school partner created a future predicting device that he can’t keep powered and has been using for gambling purposes. Doc Ock is back as his old self and Kindred has taken control of him.
The Story – Pay Attention, This Will Be on the Test
There are actually three stories here, which means Spencer should be more creative in his issue titles. A more Stan-esque title for this one would have been, “Tales Told Thrice (plus one!)” Here’s the breakdown by story:
Tin Roof Rusted – Betty is great with child and reveals to Peter that she is working a huge story and is expecting Peter to help her. She reveals the daddy is none other than Ned Leeds, which causes Peter to freak out, run off, agonize over the fact that he knew there was a Ned clone around, but since the clone had died, he figured it was no big deal. He finally goes off to tell her when he sees at her house none other than the progenitor himself, a very much alive Ned Leeds!
When the Chips are Down – Jamie is all ticked off that Peter won’t reveal the power source he used to power The Clairvoyant. Peter points out that Jamie has been using the device on his own, which prompts Jamie to pack up his stuff and leave. Jamie goes home where he gives his little sister a candy bar he bought with a five-finger discount and then visits his sick mother. On his way out, he runs into Chance, who wants to be paid. It appears that the precise moment of Clairvoyant’s battery drain with when Jamie needed it to recoup some financial losses at Chance’s casino. After Chance threatens to harm dear old mommy dearest (and at the same time reveal that Silver Sable is fully healed up and not happy at Foreigner’s handling of her financials), Jamie reveals that he could possibly make one for Chance provided he has the Catalyst.
Incognito Mode – Teresa breaks into The Hiding Place, a prison in Symkaria, where Chameleon is being held. Chameleon and Teresa trade a few barbs (Chameleon with his voice, Teresa with her fist) before Chameleon goes down memory road about that time his punked Teresa’s brother with robot parents. Then he heavily implies that she is a robot, so she shoots him in the shoulder. Then he shows her his next door neighbor, who just happens to be the guy who killed the parents in the first place – The Finisher!
The Die Is Cast! – Just when you thought the issue was over, Spencer drops a little Ock and Kindred story on us. Ock gets all salty, but thanks to a centipede in the brain, he settles down. Kindred says that Ock can’t remember all of his character development because he made a deal with Mephisto, but not to worry – Kindred will fix it if Ock just does this one little thing for him…
What Passed and Failed
Pass – Tight Weaving of Story Plots – So we know Spencer likes to throw up multiple plots and tease things to come, but after all this time, we are seeing that almost all of them are interconnected. The nice thing about it is that for long time readers, the fact that these things are feeding into and are related to each other are really cool, but for the casual or new reader, you don’t have to have read those previous issue to understand where the new arc is going. Well done, Spencer!
Fail – This Art – Holy crap, this art is bad! It’s not the worst art I’ve seen in a Spider-Man book, but for a flagship title, there is no reason to have this here. The thing is, costumes look fine. I particularly like the panel on page 10 that is slightly crooked with Spider-Man swinging through the city and someone is recording it on their phone. That is some nice art! But the non-costumed faces are horrible! My number one need for art is to be able to recognize the characters. There is nothing about Peter or Betty that I could look at that would tell me this was a Spider-Man book if they didn’t have to tell me who they were in the word balloons. Every time I make a comment about someone’s art, someone always brings up the inker thing and I know that I just can’t tell if it is the inker or the artist at fault, but Ferreira inked some of his own stuff, so I’m laying the blame there. And these eyebrows!
Of course, you know me, guys. These eyebrows led me off on a tangent which completely distracted me from getting this review finished (which is why it is coming out today instead of beating Ryan Read to getting it out yesterday). And I know that these things happen, but I couldn’t stop myself. Here is what I learned:
- Zheng Shusen, from China, has the world record for the longest eyebrows (at 7.5 inches long!), but even his weren’t as thick as Peter’s here.
- If you wanted to have Peter Parker eyebrows, castor oil applied to them daily might help that.
- Eyebrows are more important to facial recognition than even eyeballs, so if you are going on the run and they are going to use facial recognition to track you down, maybe do something to those brows you got there.
But I could not find what the average thickness of eyebrows would be. Did that stop me? Heck no! You are talking to the guy that figured up the cost of the Chameleon’s set up in “7 Little Superheroes” and cost of the Green Goblin’s adamantium tooth vault in the Aim giveaway comic. So I looked up the average eyeball height, which is 1”, and figured that in this picture, Pete’s brows are at least twice as thick as his eyeballs, resulting in 2” thick eyebrows, which is way beyond the pale. Hey, I know my audience! You came for the Spider-Man, but stayed for the eyebrow tangent.
While we are on art, let’s look at those two pages by Gomez, which made Chi-Town most certainly as giddy as a preteen anime fan. Gomez’s art is fine (I’m not a huge fan, but acknowledge that so many of you are and apparently Peter was able to pluck those brows of his between panels), but looked so out of place here. I’m trying to figure out what went awry.
I mean, there is no way that any thought that these two artists were compatible with each other, so this was not a planned thing. Plus, if it were planned, you would think the artist switch would be for the after credits scene with Ock. And it seems unlikely that if Ferreira fell behind, it would have been there of all places that he needed help getting caught up. So was it something bad about the way those two pages came out that needed to be changed or possibly even the story got changed and they had to do a quick two new pages?
PASS – Editor Boxes – Three of ’em!
OOTI (Onomatopoeia of the Issue)
On a scale of 1 (POW) to 10 (BLRKBQRKPQRBLNB), VVVVVOOOOO rates a solid 7. What’s cool about this? I’m assuming that this is 5 Vs followed by 5 Os, which is fun to try and pronounce (go ahead and do it as loud as you can wherever you happen to be right now) and is pleasingly symmetrical, but it could also be a seriously messed up series of Ws with them either not finishing properly or overlapping – either of which is also rather pleasing to me. I would also like to take the time to point out that no where else can you get this level of onomatopoeiaic analysis. In fact, I want everyone to lobby Brad for a new Podcast segment where we just rate and breakdown different onomatopoeias!
Analysis
Let’s look at each of the story lines here:
Jamie/Clairvoyant – While I have no interest in Jamie yet (let’s be honest, not a lot of time has been spent developing him much, though this issue seeks to make good on that some), I do have interest in this story mainly because it involves Chance and his casino, which is full of loser villains and that’s what I like to see! I see this as nothing more than a chance for Peter to be Peter (and to let down his friends because he was saving them as Spidey, but they don’t know that) and as a potentially light-hearted story to fill in the gaps of some serious Chameleon and Kindred stuff (though it looks like it might progress some more next issue). I like Silver Sable OK and the Foreigner is OK, so their involvement here is a probably plus as well. We could see a situation where Jamie is having to steal the Catalyst, and in a way to help him, Peter joins in as Spidey and maybe we get some Black Cat action here as well since Foreigner and Cat have a history.
Betty – OK, I did NOT see that one coming! So we know the original Ned is dead – yes, this is comics, but his dead body was cloned by the Scarlet Jackal, so we know there was a dead Ned body there somewhere. We knew it was probably not clone Ned since he seemed agitated and unable to reach Betty to warn her about something. Seems like if he was … holding hands … with her, he could have warned her. At least afterwards. So who is this Ned? I doubt he is related to the Kindred story line and he doesn’t seem to be related to the Chameleon story line, so is this a new arc being teased? Now, look at THOSE eyebrows! This is clearly EVIL NED (though I do like his nice shiny suit).
Chameleon – I think it is clear that Chameleon was about to tell Teresa that she was also a robot. I think that would be a great way to resolve this odd bit of plot. I find this panel curious:
So, Chameleon sought out David to find where the Finisher was. Then he said it was why Teresa had Chameleon placed there. Is it just me, or does that sound like Chameleon had Teresa put him in the Hiding Place? Because I don’t think Teresa knew the Finisher was there, or else Chameleon’s who surprise reveal would mean nothing to her. So it sounds like Teresa is a robot and Chameleon is manipulating her programming and having her do certain things. If that is the case, could we see a Peter vs. Robot Teresa fight?
Another question – Harry was behind the whole robot parents thing to begin with, so is he behind this too? Certainly, if Teresa is a robot, he was behind her being made into a robot, but I mean is he behind why they are dealing with it now or is it just coincidence that the robot parents arc is being brought up at the same time we are dealing with a demon Harry?
Another question – The Finisher is the guy who forced the Parkers on a helicopter rigged to explode. He is also the one who tried to kill Spider-Man years later when Spidey was investigating the death of his parents. He shot a rocket at Spidey, who led the rocket back at the Finisher’s car, blowing him up (and technically making Spidey somewhat responsible for his death). Spidey got the Finisher out of the wreckage and the Finisher revealed that the Parkers were not working for the Red Skull after all, but before he could give any evidence, he died. When this happens, Spider-Man is just standing there. He does NOT check for a pulse. He does NOT check for breathing. He just sees the guy slump and says out loud, “Well, my parents weren’t bad guys after all!” Now that we know The Finisher is alive, he must have been alive when Spidey said that, so does the Finisher know Peter’s secret id, or would that have been erased in that OMIT thing?
Doc Ock – I almost missed this! So the most interesting part of this is that we are setting up for Sinister War (WHICH I AM SO PSYCHED FOR!) and this panel:
Kindred clearly states that he has had some negative experience with a deal with the devil, which could mean:
- Harry made a deal with Mephisto to get out of hell,
- Norman made a deal with Mephisto to come back to life,
- Peter’s deal with Mephisto impacts harry (which seems obvious since it somehow brought A Harry back to life), or
- All of the above
The other thing this panel suggests is that Kindred can FIX the negative consequences of a deal with Mephisto. That would seem to imply that we could reset back to the marriage, but I am going to say again that while Spencer has been all about fixing Spider-Man’s past writing, he is also keen on making Peter deal with the consequences of his out of character actions of the past two decades. That would indicate that Kindred will NOT be fixing the problem. The other thing about this is Kindred could very well be lying. In fact, I would be willing to be go out on a limb and say that Kindred CANNOT fix a deal with the devil and is merely telling Ock that to give him hope or just saying he can help him fix it as a way of saying I can tell you what you’ve lost.
Final Grade
The writing is out of this world and even though it is a set up issue, it moves several things forward and gives us plenty of meat to sink our teeth into. But that art is so egregious, that I cannot easily ignore it.
B+
Your Turn
What grade do YOU give it?
Homework
Go back and re-read Amazing Spider-Man Annual #5 to revisit that whole original robot parents scenario, since it seems that it will be a factor in the upcoming issues. You also need to read Thomas Mets’s Tangled Webs article, “Who Is Teresa?” You may also want to read this CBR article that recaps the arc.
Extra Credit
Go test your Spidey skills over at the Cobwebs Final Exam! That guy who writes that column is awesome and we need more people like him around here!
What’s Next?
THE CHAMELEON CONSPIRACY continues! Spider-Man aims to get to the bottom of the Chameleon’s plan…but THE FOREIGNER takes his own aim.
Chi-Town has you covered on the next one as we continue to trade off this summer!
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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@Stuart Green, @ac, and @Evan
Stuart – I don’t think Spencer is going to restore the marriage, but you are right, a 900 issue has got to be big and maybe it will be restored or maybe they will have worked through their relationship and he will pop the question. If THAT happens, I bet that will also be the issue that Kindred reveals their deal with Mephisto. Hmmm… I’m liking that possibility. I’m locking that down as my guess for #900.
ac – Oh! I didn’t even entertain the thought that it could be the real Ned all this time. This is comics, so that could be possible! The only problem with that is what was cloNED cloned from? Not pooh-poohing on that idea, just trying to think it out.
Evan – I did too, but when Aqu@ brought that up, I could totally see Spencer pull this trick on us again. That man hates telling linear stories. Have I ever told you how much I had flashbacks? They are no where near in the quality of literary terms as the noble onomatopoeia.
I got the impression that the Teresa and the Chameleon’s activities in The Hiding Place are happening at the same time as the events in the rest of the story, and that seems to be confirmed by the opening paragraphs of the preview and the events that follow.
Now I’m just confused. Oh, well. At least Ned is offering an explanation.
Man, I got to be the smartest crawlspacer for a minute and a half. It was a fine minute and a half…
As for the Ned identity, I have a thought… what if he’s the real Ned? Back from the dead? Like Harry? Maybe the Betty Ned thing is not part of the Chameleon story but the Kindred story? This idea may look foolish in a few weeks, but I’m going with it is somehow the real Ned. Even if he just somehow never died, he was kind of a jerk long before he was framed as the Hobgoblin, maybe cloNED was worried about real Ned doing something bad to Betty…
Sorry, meant to write “does look”, not “does lot” in my previous post. Lousy auto-correct, lol
Have a great day, Web-heads!
@Mark Alford – Thanks for the reply. Going by your comments, sir, I do hope that the deal is undone and Peter’s marriage to Mary Jane is restored in “Amazing”, vol. 1, #900. That’s 30-plus issues away, right? What could be a bigger milestone for the 900th issue than Peter’s marriage to Mary Jane returning? Having someone die on a milestone issue has been done to death (no pun intended), like Aunt May and Peter himself in Ock’s body. I hope the 900th issue has something big to celebrate.
Like I said, Doctor Octopus being drawn as more muscular could be nothing. When Mark Bagley drew Doc Ock’s big return at the graveyard sequence two or so issues ago, he looked a whole lot more like the Ultimate Ock in terms of physique than the 616 “real”/”classic” Doc Ock. Still, Ock does lot a lot more fit post-Mephisto deal than he did before it in the pre-slowly dying/Clone Conspiracy/Superior Spider-Man nonsense that Slott did.
As a side note, do you guys think Betty telling Peter to keep her secret is Spencer’s way of countering Mary Jane’s secret of working with Mysterio? That way, when Peter is told and/or finds out by another manner, Mary Jane can call out Peter for being a hypocrite about keeping his own secret from her. I just hope that when the time comes, Peter and Mary Jane are still together and their love is as strong as ever after they become aware of the other’s secret.
Thanks for your attention and I hope you all have a wonderful weekend. Stay safe, everyone.
@Aqu@, @Chi-Town, @Evan, @Michael, and @Adam
Aqu@ – Holy cow! Man I must be dense. With as much flashback storytelling Spencer likes to do, it is very possible that what is going on at The Hiding Place is a previous story and Evil Ned could be Chameleon. I’m tasking everyone to keep a look out for any sign that Teresa and Chameleon story may not fit in with the current timeline. Brilliant! I take back ac’s praise and am now marking your name on my white board as Smartest Crawlspacer! You are right that with the Chameleon involved, that may or may not be the Finisher, but I think it is. Still not sure what he brings to this story, though. As for the vocabulary lesson, hey, it’s what I do!
Chi-Town – I didn’t skim your comments, I just didn’t like it and decided to up it to a more intellectual discussion. But since you are pressing the issue, I do not think cloNED is the baby’s father. I think cloNED knew about this Evil Ned and that’s what he was desperate to warn Betty about. And I think Betty has no plans to be showing off her baby bump to anyone since Evil Ned’s existence is supposed to stay secret until the story breaks (for his safety, I assume). So telling Peter to stay quiet about it has some bases. Though, everyone knows that if you tell a person something, you are by default, also telling the spouse. So it does seem rather silly to tell Peter specifically not to tell MJ.
Evan – Comments are why I keep doing these reviews. It’s like the old days sitting around with my friends (ok, friend (ok, guys who tolerated my presence)) talking comics. As to your points: 1) As Aqu@ pointed out, those prison cell scenes could have happened a while ago. I think he was in prison during the last Teresa story, but I can’t remember it clearly. However, I didn’t think of a link between the Finisher’s return from the dead and Evil Ned’s return. Hmmm… 2) I sure hope JR read that pun comment and inserts it (pun intended) into the next podcast! 3) I think that podcast would be a two-man job! The Evan and Mark show!
Michael – Maybe. Don’t LMDs have memories too? I’m not sure exactly how that works, but I believe they do and they have enough memories to believe they are the real deal, so Evil Ned could still be a Nedbot.
Adam – I’m trying! I used it lots today!
@Sthenurus, @Stuart Green, and @ac
Sthenurus – I think there is only one cloNED. The Spider-Man stories involving clones seem to be around the Jackal’s ability to make a clone and there was no real reason for Warren Jackal to make a clone of Ned and since Ben Jackal believed he was only making a new body for the original soul to reside in, there doesn’t seem to be a reason for him to have made more bodies. Of course, that doesn’t mean he didn’t, and maybe homeless cloNED had the soul and Evil cloNED is a spare body devoid of a soul. I wasn’t thinking that earlier, but that’s an interesting possibility you’ve brought up here. And the more I think about it, the more I think that you are right and Kindred isn’t really promising to undo the deal made with Mephisto as much as he is willing and possibly able to get Ock all of his character growth/memories back.
Stuart – It could easily be Spencer lining up with the fans on this one or it could be just using it as a saying or maybe a bit of both. Whatever the case is, it is certainly another tease that Spencer will be addressing the whole deal thing eventually. Maybe issue 100 (or at the rate we’re going – 200!). I don’t know how Electro will be coming back, but as the guy is in control of electricity, maybe his soul is electrical, meaning he can eventually regenerate – much like Sandman and Hydroman. Ha! I didn’t think anything about buff Ock! I’ll have to go back and look at it with a more attentive eye.
ac – To the head of the class, sir! I didn’t mean to say that was the robot parent story, but just the original parent story. I’ll pull the old teacher trick – I did that on purpose to see who was smart enough to spot it! Nice going, ac! Smartest Crawlspacer! 🙂 I completely have no memory of a story of Chameleon knowing, but my old brain is like Swiss cheese and there are holes here and there. Like you, I wasn’t particularly looking forward to this arc – I was looking ahead at Sinister War, but this issue grabbed my attention for sure!
Disappointed CloNed hasn’t cause on
The previews for issue 68 are up:
https://aiptcomics.com/2021/06/04/marvel-preview-amazing-spider-man-68/
“Ned” proves his identity by referencing the time Flash punched him. That would seem to suggest whatever this Ned is, he has Ned’s memories. It’s not like Chameleon or whoever could have read about Flash punching Ned in the newspapers or something.
@Mark — Wow, that was quite a review. That was a lot to take in, so I think I might re-read it more slowly, as I found myself eager to read it and probably missed some details. I have only three points (and then I’m going to scroll through all of the comments, which is my favorite part).
1) My first thought was maybe the Chameleon is the father of Betty’s baby (impersonating Ned), but that wouldn’t be the case if he’s in a cell in Symkaria. But could whatever brought Ned back also be responsible for the return of the Finisher?
2) Was Betty making a Ned Leeds pun when she said “burying the Lede”? And if so, was that some kind of euphemism or double entendre?
3) Bring on the Onomatopoeia podcast! (It’ll be like a conversation with Michael Winslow or Fred Newman!)
@Mark: You skimmed through my first comment didn’t you? Typical. Betty is pregnant with “Flour” Ned’s baby, that clone that dissolved in ASM 15. The Ned you see in Betty’s apartment is (in my opinion) a Robot Ned. Like Peter’s Parents where. Like (what is implied) Teresa is. That being said, not sure WHY Chameleon would want a Ned in his Conspiracy, but that’s my best guess on who this new Ned is because makes sense coming from this direction this issue is going.
We’ve talked about this before, but Peter can stay hush about the “story”, he doesn’t need to stay hush about telling Mary Jane that Betty is pregnant. Can’t REALLY HIDE 9 months pregnancy walking down the street. She’s asking a lot out of Peter to not tell MJ about what’s going on.
@Chi-Town, @Geoff, @Adam, and @Michael
Chi-Town – Wow! High praise from Chi-Town?! I don’t know whether to take it as a compliment or to focus on the “lame excuse” insult you snuck in there. 🙂 If it is a robot Ned, then how is Betty pregnant? Or is she? Is she housing some robot baby or something? Ned could very well be a robot or a clone or just a guy in disguise, but whatever the case, I’m thinking that it is not just an ordinary baby she is going to deliver. I think what we should be trying to figure out is what is the story she is wanting to tell? And, granted, I don’t know much about journalism, but it seems that she got this information at conception, and still hasn’t written the story. Seems like 9 months is a long time to write a news story. And it sure does seem like Teresa is a robot, and since Spencer is known for both leading us in one direction and then turning as well as leading us in the right direction all along, who knows?
Geoff – Thanks for the high rating on my review! The Chameleon was one of the forces behind the robot parents, but the robots were defeated before they could tell the Chameleon what they had learned. So supposedly, he doesn’t know Peter’s identity from them. However, it was stated earlier that he was behind Threats and Menaces (I guess he set up funding options BEFORE going to prison), so if that is indeed the case, I imagine the data he gained from the suit would let him know more about the identity of Spider-Man. I’m pretty sure that Spencer is going to mine that suit for more story than just a Peter/JJJ split.
Adam – They are all yours, man! Your homework is to find a panel of the day that has a character with bigger eyebrows than Peter here!
Michael – Yeah, the Clone Conspiracy clones are supposed to be the real people, so that would have been Ned’s soul in the homeless clone that died saving Aunt May. And I do not think we are supposed to believe that the Ned Betty saw that magical night nine months ago was clone-Ned-but-one-with-real-soul. I think it is Shiny Evil Ned that we see in the Gomez page. Teresa probably didn’t go to Richards because I believe she is a fugitive from the law. Isn’t she supposed to be a rogue agent now or something? As for going to Chameleon, I have two theories – she is used to interrogating criminals, so this may just feel natural to her and if she is a robot, maybe this is a part of Chameleon’s programming to bring her back to him. Good point about Chance, but I think we can get around it by saying that Chance doesn’t want the Clairvoyant, his new boss Foreigner wants it and has tasked Chance to get it. But you may be onto something and maybe Chance will destroy it before Foreigner gets it.
I’ve got to get to work – I’ll address the other comments later! You guys always have the best discussions!
This review was a bang! And all thanks to eyebrows!
As someone with thicker eyebrows than the norm, I have to say that was the best part of the review. It’s also good to know what to do in case of facial recognition! It’s true you never stop learning!
Weird, I expected a note from the editor addressing the “five-fingers discount” and telling readers “stealing is wrong! If you can’t help it, get professional help!”, like they did when the sin-eater committed suicide… 🙂
I do think Ned is related to the Chameleon Conspiracy, after all we don’t know for certain when those scenes in prison are taking place, do we?
Also I don’t believe in coincidences in comics, so Harry-Kindred must be behind this too, in some way.
I think you’re reading too much on that Finisher thing: it’s the Chameleon we’re talking about, that may not be the real Finisher. Also, I don’t think he knows Peter’s identity, since even if he didn’t die that day, he was surely out cold, so he couldn’t have heard what Spider-man said.
Thank you for the VWOTI, it saved me the time to search for what lede means.
Great review, I read the issues as quick as I can because I look forward to reading your reviews… but…. sorry to be nitpicky, but the robot parents aren’t in amazing annual 5. The Finisher is, but that story is about the real parents. The robots are in Amazing 375ish through Amazing 390ish, as an ongoing storyline.
And as far as Chameleon knowing Spider-Man’s real identity, I want to say he knew it for a while, but lost his memory of it in a story before One More Day… A story related to Kraven while he was still dead? I think?
Even though I wasn’t looking forward to this event, I must say I was intrigued by the first issue… curious to see where it goes…
In regards to the Doctor Octopus panels shown, I’m surprised more people aren’t talking about what Spencer has done in regards to Kindred’s talk with ol’ Otto Octavius: Kindred specifically says “you made a deal with the DEVIL, Otto.” Right over an image of Mephisto. Spencer didn’t say A devil, he said THE Devil. Ever since Marvel infamously published “One More Day” and the massive backlash and negative fan reaction that continues to this day, Marvel insists that Mephisto never was THE devil, but rather A devil. 13+ years later (ugh…) and writer Nick Spencer is telling us, the readers, that Kindred says Mephisto IS the Devil after all and that fans were right. We’re getting more “One More Day” acknowledgements in the build-up to “Sinister War” and I’m sure we’re going to get more answers as to why Otto selects the new roster as his “five more friends”. I’m still not sure why Lizard is going to be on the team, since I don’t recall Otto being particularly good allies with the Lizard during “The Clone Conspiracy”, but we’ll see. We still need to find out how Electro gets resurrected, but then again I personally found “Clone Conspiracy” just awful from Electro’s cringe-inducing and literal kiss of death to the evil 27th Ben Reilly (it was 27, right?).
Also, is it just me, or does it look like we’re getting Silver Age/mid-60s to mid-80s buff Doc Ock back? I mean, look at his physique! He’s round at the middle like always due to his tentacle harness, but judging by Ock’s arms and chest, Doctor Octopus looks more like he was in his earliest appearances again where he was fairly muscular. Granted, this could be artist Mark Bagley making Otto look more like his Ultimate counterpart, whether it’s intentional or not, where Ultimate Doc Ock was muscular and stronger due to his lab accident, but since Doc Ock came back in Spencer’s run, he just seems more stronger looking and more buff after his deal with Mephisto. Maybe it’s nothing, or maybe Spencer will explain it. Who knows?
Thanks for your attention and I hope you all have a great night. Stay safe, everyone.
Awesome review! Sinister wars is up to a great start.
I didn’t think of the Theresa is a robot theory but it would make sense. And explain why no one EVER mentioned said sister to Peter.
I think cloNED (See what I did there?) Was the father… But not the only clone. After all no one ever said only one clone had to exist at the same time (case in point: the gazillion clones of Peter during the clone saga)
I don’t think kindred is lying. He might be able to help Otto with his particular deal. After all he only needs a back up of Otto’s memories. It’s easy enough to get ahold of since Octavius is know to make regular back up of his mind!
That last part should be “have LIZ and Normie be without facing up to his sins”.
Here’s the thing about Clone Ned- Strange claimed that the clone of Billy Connors had the soul of the real Billy Connors. So wouldn’t the same be true of clone Ned, since they were created using the same process? So clone Ned would have to be the original Ned.
I don’t think Chance would really want the Clairvoyant. The entire point of his personality is that he lives for the thrill of the gamble. I wouldn’t think he’d want to always win. (Which might be what he realizes at the end of this story.)
I think Spencer’s bringing the Finisher back to explain why Peter never felt any guilt about his death.
Why did Teresa go to the Chameleon to find out if she was a robot? He’s likely to lie to her anyway. Harry Lyman claimed his memories of being the Goblin were vague and incomplete (which now looks like it has something to do with Kindred), so she couldn’t go ask him, but she could have gone to Reed Richards, for example, to examine her and see if she was a robot.
It’s interesting that Teresa is going through what she is now because of something that Harry did in his Goblin days- a sin Harry Lyman never acknowledged or made amends for. Maybe Kindred is Harry’s sins and Harry Lyman is the part of Harry that wanted to have Harry and Normie back without having to face up to his sins?
Sign me up for more huge eyebrows.
Hey Mark! Your review was A+++. I had a.question that I was hoping could be amswered. I went back on Marvel Unlimted to see the story where Peter’s parents were found out to be robots and Peter finds out Harry was behind it. Does Chamleon know Peter’s secret identity? I feel like given his involvement he put two and two together. Also if hes behind funding for threats and menaces, how was he able to do that while in prison. I might have been just confused, so correct if I made a.continutity mistake.
Hey Mark! Your review was A+++. I had a.question that I was hoping could be amswered. I went back on Marvel Unlimted to see the story where Peter’s parents were found out to be robots and Peter finds out Harry was behind it. Does Chamleon know Peter’s secret identity? I feel like given his involvement he put two and two together. Also if hes behind funding for threats and menaces, how was he able to do that while in prison. I might have been just confused, so correct if I made a.continutity mistake.
Nice review Mark, I think that’s the most detailed review I have ever seen you do! I can’t even roll my eyes back on your lame excuse for your tardiness because you actually showed your work for it.
Ned is a Robot! I am going with that theory. So we have Dead Ned, Flour Ned, now Robot Ned. Betty is pregs with Flour Ned’s baby. That’s girl is gonna have go through therapy by the time this is over.
Teresa has got to be a robot as well! Otherwise why bring up the story of what happened during the 90’s Parker Parent Droids? Storytellers often leave in a little tidbit in the beginning that factors very heavily as a key moment for the rest of the story (which I’m a fan of). Spencer handles that beautifully.
Yes, I didn’t like the art at all, HOWEVER…Gomez’s Art did make me giddy, not going to lie. It fits so well with Spider-Man. Fight me if you think otherwise.