Last issue we were told that that #2 would finish here, so does it live up to the wait? Spider-Man is outnumbered more than I think he has ever been in the history of the comics (feel free to correct me if you can think of a time he had more bad guys than this) and he just want to get to Mary Jane. What is Kindred’s end game? What else does he have in store? Read on and let’s dive into Sinister War #3!
Credit Where Credit Is Due
Story Title: Sinister War part 3
Writers: Nick Spencer and Ed Brisson
Pencillers: Mark Bagley, Carlos Gomez, and Ze Carlos
Inkers: John Dell, Andy Owens, Andrew Hennessy, Carlos Gomez, and Ze Carlos
Colorists: Brian Reber with Andrew Crossley
Letterer: VC’s Joe Caramanga
Cover Artists: Bryan Hitch and Alex Sinclair
Asst. Editor: Lindsey Cohick
Editor: Nick Lowe
Published: August 18, 2021
Remedial ASM 101
Kindred has tasked the Sinister Six, the Savage Six, the Sinister Syndicate, the Foreigner’s Wild Pack, and the Superior Foes to take out Spider-Man or else spend an eternity being tortured in hell, so Spidey has his hands full. Why Kindred needs them to kill Spidey since he, himself, has already killed Spidey several times is a mystery. All we know is that Spider-Man is overwhelmed and every where he turns, there is another enemy waiting to get him.
The Story – Pay Attention, This Will Be on the Test
Spider-Man continues to take a beating. Mysterio almost tricks him into believing he has friends at his side , but the Lizard disrupts that. The fight moves from villain to villain and Spidey just gets weaker and weaker. Doctor Octopus pauses when Spidey reveals he may know what Ock is looking for and Boomerang risks his own life to give Spider-Man a chance to get away. Meanwhile, not feeling that about 30 bad guys is enough, resurrects Sin-Eater who gathers the Lethal Legion to join in the fray. The issue ends with Kindred smugly monologuing about how nobody can change.
What Passed and Failed
PASS – Lots of action – Spider-Man is outnumbered and he uses that to his advantage, like when he gets Stegron and Vulture tangled up.
FAIL – Toilet Paper Kindred – Looks like he had quite the problem in the old cemetery port-o-john recently.
PASS – Peter Tingle – I don’t need an explanation for why Spidey’s getting hit despite his Spider-Sense since he is being overwhelmed and it is not 100% reliable anyway, but it’s nice that Spencer gives us a reason.
I’m not sure it’s ever been stated that the Spider-Sense is affected by Peter’s stamina previously.
FAIL – Sin-Eater – I love Spencer’s take on bad villains and I was looking forward to a lot of that in this issue, but we already have so many villains that each one only gets a brief cameo to reminds us that he/she is there. Adding Sin-Eater and the Lethal Legion is not going to fix that situation any.
OOTI (Onomatopoeia of the Issue)
On a scale of 1 (POW) to 10 (BLRKBQRKPQRBLNB), SHUFFF gets a 2. Scorpion is not my favorite, but his tail attack should have more umph than just SHUFFF! I mean, come on! Try saying it out loud right now wherever you are in a menacing tone. It just doesn’t work!
Analysis
There is little to analyze here – and that’s not necessarily a bad thing – but I think the big take away in this issue is Doc Ock, Boomerang, and Kindred’s monologue.
Doc Ock hesitates – possibly a tangent of his subconscious remembering that hero move he had. Boomerang tries to buy Spider-Man some time – a hero move, but he does it on the sly, not ready to commit fully to the hero persona (probably a wise move at this point). Kindred, however, seems oblivious to these changes. One of Kindred’s go to complaints is that people cannot and do not change. So what can we take away from it?
I think the obvious is that Boomerang and Doc Ock are NOT going to fall in line with their predictable villain selves, which may through a small monkey wrench in Kindred’s schemes. There may be a larger move here too. If these guys can change, then maybe we will see a change in Peter or Norman that ultimately defeats Kindred.
Now I mentioned that it was not necessarily bad that there is not a lot to talk about here, but the caveat to that is we only have 5 issues left to wrap up Spencer’s run and he seems to be going nowhere.
And one Quibble
Shocker looks odd here.
My guess is that with all the artists, inkers, and colorists on this title, the artist drew Shocker’s eye slightly larger than normal. The inker, confused on who he was inking, drew Spidey eyes (you know, since it is his book and all). The colorist began coloring and stopped when he realized it was the wrong eyes, which is why just a tip of the inner eye isn’t colored. The colorist told Cohick, who said – don’t finish it, we’ll redo it. Cohick told Lowe who said, “Redo it? That’s crazy town banana pants (the saying, not the centipedes)! We have another issue to put out in two weeks. Run it. No one will ever know.”
Extra Credit
OK, I’ll feel stupid when you guys answer, but it’s been a long day and I’m not thinking clearly, but who is this guy?
Final Grade
It was good, but I’m left feeling like the issue was short. I wanted Spencer villains, but there are so many, we can’t get that Spencer flair with them.
B-
But Wait! There’s More!
No, not more in the comic, but it is Grant Alford’s birthday today!
He’s a little older than that now! Hey, I wonder if that is a young Chi-Town under than mask?
Required Reading
Is this required reading for the final Kindred story? Probably not.
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!
‘Nuff Said!
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Listen Notes
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@Paul Penna and @Michael
Paul – “What’s there is good, it just isn’t enough.” Man, you concisely summed up Spencer’s run! I hate nitpicking on it, because all in all, it is good! It’s just we need more! Can you imagine if these last issues were really 50 issues with the pace picked up a bit? Man! They would be all As! The too many villains were just too much. Instead of getting Superior Foes on steroids, we don’t get much of anything and that makes it frustrating to see Spencer dumping in the Sin-Eater and his Sinful Friends into the mix. I want more Shocker and White Rabbit (well, maybe not them specifically, though I would buy that mini series) in detail rather than just more tears from the artist required to draw 40 characters in one panel.
Michael – I have to think that the Rose coming back from the dead was just he beginning of an idea Spencer had, not the end product. I figured that Kingpin still have Baron Mordo around so that he could continue to work Kindred into returning Vanessa, that way he gets the best of both worlds. I hope Rose’s story continues somewhere.
@Dark Mark- The problem with the stories being drawn out isn’t just that the plot takes a long time to conclude- it’s that other characterization is neglected. See Rose and Electro- both of whom have had hardly any dialogue since being brought back from the dead.
@Prof Warren – Man, I hope we get the conclusion. My fear is that Spencer is going to do a Stern thing and leave before wrapping up the story. We’ll see in a few weeks! And I agree 100% – if there is a fault to this run, it is how drawn out the stories are. Now, that may be for me because I like the ’80s approach of wrapping stories up quickly, but I feel like if I am dropping $5 an issue, I want to get some serious traction in my story for that.
Regarding the spider-sense, it’s probably overloaded. If you are surrounded by bad guys on all sides, it’s probably just monotonously buzzing.
No Dr. Strange revelations I guess. He’s still off somewhere, confronting Mephisto about Peter.
P.S. Whatever happened to Peter’s wrecked “mindscape”, with the evil MJ crouching on the rooftop? Or is that where Strange is at this point in the story?
@Stuart and @Aqu@
Stuart – The more I think about it, the more it seems plausible that there may be another death of a villain just to add weight to Kindred’s threat, but I just have a gut feeling that Spencer is not going to do that. Or maybe it was that burrito I ate last night…
Aqu@ – You’re right about Morlun. Mr. Sparkles down there is the Living Laser from the Lethal Legion. Your read on the spider-sense comment makes much more sense than mine did. The spider-sense is inconsistent at best and I do remember many writers having Peter say things like, “I shouldn’t have ignored my spider-sense!” and other comments that make it seem like it’s always there and takes some effort to focus on, like our eyes – we can walk right past something we are looking for, but if we are distracted, we can miss seeing it when it was out in the open. As for the bandages – well, that’s just the high quality commentary and analysis that readers come to the Crawlspace for! 🙂 And I WISH I have been clever enough to think of the drugged out drug pun, but I wasn’t! Wait a minute, I might as well take credit for it – Yes, of course I was super clever and wrote that “drugged out” with that double meaning in mind. I’m so smart! 🙂 As for the cat, I think I might start blaming it for all future mistakes!
Mark –
I think when all is said and done with Spencer’s run, the big question will be “why did this one overarching story have to take so long?” In the early days of Spencer’s run, when it was obvious he was going to tackle OMD head on, it was an exciting prospect to finally have this nagging piece of controversial Spidey history cleaned up or resolved in some way. The ultimate resolution might still be satisfying but why did it have to drag on and on this way? For me, at least. t has sapped all the joy and momentum from this run. I wish he could have gotten all this out of the way in his first year, then had a clean slate to take his run in other directions. But hey, we’re almost done. In a few more issues we’ll finally get to see what the last three years have all been leading to.
I know, I should have read the comments before posting, but…
@Sam, Mark: I agree, Kindred has involved so many villains just to torture Peter more. He is beating him up again and again. Considering he already killed him in many ways, however, why this should be worse remains to be seen.
@Evan
Who took a bite out of Sin Eater’s head, you ask? The shotgun did. 😀
@Mark
Kindred stories have been “drug” out? Is that to say the story is like sedated? Is that because you’re thinking about Kindred\Harry’s past? Or is that the cat’s fault too? :p
Ok, this issue let me down less than the previous one, don’t know why. Maybe because I lowered my expectations?
Anyway, I don’t think his Spider-sense is being directly affected by his stamina (unless some author really said so that I’m not aware of); I read it like: “I’m so tired I can’t even react to Spidersense” and\or “I’m so tired I can’t distinguish different threats in this chaos”. The last one is based on the assumption that spider-sense gives a lot of information within the tingle, so Peter has to be attentive to it to fine-tune them.
Yeah, the Sin-eater addition made little sense. It’s starting to seem like Spencer has a fixation for him…
Thank you, now I can’t shake the idea that those are NOT bandages on Kindred’s low body parts. Really, thank you.
I don’t need to read the comments to know that someone else probably has already given the answer, but that guy on the background is Morlun, based on precedent issues. The one I don’t recognize is the glittering guy on the lower left.
I think this issue upper the ante a little, but the story is due to be concluded next issue. I can’t help but feel like we’re going to get another non-ending.
And the villains just don’t matter There are too many, you need to give them room to breath, to explore their motivations, and that isn’t happening here.
All this issue was, is a brawl. The same as last issue. What was new? Boomerang let Spidey go, and Doc Ock hesitated. And Kindred brought a new team into the mix. That is not a full issues worth of content.
What’s there is good, it just isn’t enough.
@Mark Alford – Thanks for the response, I appreciate it. So Electro has five word balloons this time, huh? I assume this is the first time he’s spoken since his resurrection? I don’t believe that writer Nick Spencer will kill off villains like Doc Ock and Mysterio before his run ends either, but better safe than sorry. After all, Kindred has tried to kill Mysterio before and it wouldn’t surprise me if Spencer or Marvel killed him again if Mysterio defies Kindred due to his friendship with Mary Jane. I also hope that Part 4 of “Sinister War” actually gives us some substance and character development, as Parts 2 and 3 have been inferior to Part 1.
I hope you all are having a great day and stay safe, everyone.
@Sthenurus, @Evan Berry, and @Prof Warren
Sthenurus – I guessing we will see Norman in ASM. We’ll find out soon enough if I am wrong. There are enough villains in Sinister War without throwing Norman in too! 🙂 I would think that ASM will reference what is going on in Sinister War, but we will see Kindred dealing with Norman and MJ there, wrap up Sinister War in #4, bring Peter into the Norman and MJ story, have a big finale, make us all happy and exit stage left.
Evan – No, I scccccccccccccc`fttttttttttttaw Grey Gargoyle, I mean the guy at the very top above Whirlwind. I think Chi-Towvvvvvc OK, my daughter’s cat just walked across the key board and I am just too lazy to fix that. Anyway, 09888888888\ Dang cat! Anyway, I think Chi-Town is right and that just bugs the heck out of me. But I didn’t notice the hole in Sin-Eater’s head! Ha! Guess he’s decomposing pretty quickly or is that from when he shot himself?
Prof Warren – I’m not quite ready to call is a torturous bore just yet, but the odd pacing here is certainly an… interesting… choice. I’m happy to have Kindred stories, but maybe it shouldn’t have been drug out quite so long? Or maybe have Kindred doing more? There was a lot of him just standing around whining about how awful his life is. Once the reveal happened of who he was, I would have thought we would have moved on it a little faster. It is not unlike your counterpart, the Jackal, who started his career by having others got after Spidey, but the sheer length of this is, well, I don’t know. I’m liking it and at the same time I want it to move forward. I imagine that if I didn’t like the idea of Kindred, I would be hating this right now.
@stéphane & @Franz29
stéphane – Wow! It shouldn’t, but it always strikes me as amazing that things I write here can and are read anywhere in the world. I’m going to ask a dumb question (but I am an American and that is sort of our thing sometimes) – when you get the comics over there, are they in English or do they get translated into French? I’m glad you like reading the reviews! I got the Grey Gargoyle, I was asking about the guy just above the Whirlwind, but I did not know that the Gargoyle was French! The only French character I could name off the tip of my head as Batroc the Leaper. So thanks for teaching me!
Franz29 – Thanks for the kind words! I don’t really mind issues that we don’t need, but with time running out to get the answers of Spencer’s arcs, that becomes an problem. I do think you are right about the numbering and the different series name being done just for the key number issues (75, 900, etc.). That’s a shame, but I get it. At least they tried to work around it and gave Spencer a different title so that he could get his issues in instead of them making him cram stuff in to fit the numbers, so there’s that.
Reading this issue, the phrase “limping to the finish line” comes to mind. What a frustratingly nothing issue this was. And when are we getting back to Strange and Mephisto? That seemed like a pretty big plot point in SW #1 but we haven’t gone back to it since. I really wish the end of Spencer’s run hadn’t become such a torturous bore – it began so promisingly! – but here we are.
On the upside, there’s the hope that after another few issues, Kindred will never darken the pages of ASM again. And never hearing the word “sin” in a Spidey comic again would be nice too!
Yeah, that’s definitely the Grey Gargoyle. I was puzzled when people were saying he was Morlun, because I’ve never known Morlun to have a mustache. At first I thought it resembled Dr. Strange! (That would certainly have been interesting.) Also, who took a bite out of Sin Eater’s head? Yipes.
Another useless issue of sinister war, another great review by you!
Ya. I agree with most people here. The pace of this is ridiculous. 4 issues left to wrap up a run and NOTHING of importance happens. It reminds me of the fear itself event. The last issue introduced and wrapped major plot point within 20 pages. I’m afraid the same will happen here.
What I’m curious about though is Norman. His sins should be back to him. Will we see if he has a role to play here!
Solid review as always. Another why? Issue for me. Was it really needed or could it fit in rectangular ASM? I’m guessing it’s a case that they wanted to wrap up at 75 (whether Spencer was leaving at that point of not) so added these specials.
I always read your reviews from France and I really enjoy them. Many thanks from a french fan, and just FYI, the character you didn’t recognize (at the other end of the big red arrow) is the grey gargoyle….. believe me or not, a french super villain. You can read all his background on wikipedia.
Take care.
@Sam & @Adam
Sam – Your explanation of why Kindred wants the others to kill Spider-Man is as good as any and will be my working understanding of that as we go forward. I agree 100% with the too many villains. I love bad villains and thought I was going to really love this series, but like you said, anyone can say these lines. There is no real connection to those characters. Not like some of those old Avengers mags where we would see the mansion from far away and there were just several word balloons coming out of it and despite not seeing who said what and despite no names being used in the dialogue, you could tell who said each thing easily. Your comment about Kindred being invulnerable to physical attacks is a good one. How is Peter going to overcome this villain? He can’t punch him out. There doesn’t seem to be a search for the macguffin that can vanquish him. I’m wondering if this is something Peter needs to win or just needs to survive. He might have to be rescued in order to come out of this alive.
Adam – Yeah, I really thought there was going to be something to Chameleon backing Threats and Menaces. At the end of Hunted, Chameleon was talking about a plan to make the world burn, but I haven’t seen anything since that would fit that tease. I think your are right in that this will read better in a binge format. I’m still optimistic that Spencer can pull this out, but perhaps a bit less optimistic than I was to start with.
@Chi-Town, @Stuart Green, @Michael
Chi-Town – I’m like Shakespeare – I aim jokes at the royalty, but also through in some potty humor for you groundlings. Ah! Morlun! I knew I would feel stupid when I found out. My only thought was, “Why is Casey Jones from Ninja Turtles here?” Bonus points to you for getting it right!
Stuart – I thought of you immediately when I saw that Electro has a small part to play here (four panels and five word balloons – pretty big compared to the others) and I wondered if it was nice that he was at least acknowledged as existing or more frustrating that this acknowledgment just flies in the face of his miraculous return? I think Michael has the answer to your Hydro-Man, but I will get to that when I reply to his comment. I do not believe that Spencer will kill off anymore villains, with the possible exception of Sin-Eater again and who knows the fate he has for Kindred. He’s worked too hard to bring them back, I doubt he’s just going to kill them off again.
Michael – I think that is a good point. I believe at this juncture, we have to assume that Spencer had plans to go longer than he now has left. Either that, or there is a complete breakdown between what Spencer is doing and what the editor is doing. I don’t think the misleading covers are intentional here, so either there were plans to go in one direction and Spencer’s sudden departure has changed that, but the frenetic pace of distribution is making re-doing the covers a no-go – or – Lowe is just asleep at the wheel and really has no clue what is going on, so the cover artists are at best just getting vague information about what to draw. I don’t think we will find out until years pass and someone mentions it in a small interview somewhere. I’m guessing the Chameleon/JJJ hero thing will never be resolved to our liking and if Spencer had plans for the Rose, I hope he reveals them in an exit interview sometime soon. I know that BD has been working non-stop to try and get an interview with him. I would think that once he leaves Marvel, he would want to, if nothing else, to promote his new platform.
Like Chi-Town and Stuart I thought it was Morlun. Who knows at this point l, the pages are so crowded. I’m starting to think next issue will be the return Big Man and Thieves Guild then all Spencer’s villains will have returned. Though I’m starting to wonder what is the point of this mini other than sales. This run has gone from rushed to dragged out and back again.
Like others have said, it’s looking less likely all of Spencer’s mysteries and plots are going to be resolved. This is disappointing as I think we all have our pet favourites. I want to know more about the Chameleons involvement in Threats and Menaces. Though since CC didn’t go into our, I guess that’s forgotten.
I am looking forward to rereading this run, I think it will be fun to revisit in one go, I just wish the single instalments were more satisfying.
Good lord, the pacing on this arc is glacial.
The last two issues could’ve been condensed into a page or two of a regular ASM issue. It really feels like a book being edited by the marketing department, where they’ve handed down an edict that it must run for X number of months/issues and include X number of characters.
Electro just hanging out in the background, not talking, and not being spoken to, feels like an artist penciled him into the scene without consulting with Spencer. It’s pretty clear something weird is going on behind the scenes, and at this point, I’d be more excited for a new editor to be announced than any artist or writer.
Also, regarding Kindred ordering all these villains to kill Spider-Man when he could easily accomplish the task himself, I think the implied reasoning is that it would be more torturous this way.
In all their encounters, Kindred has been shown to be nigh-invulnerable to physical attacks. He killed Pete several times over without any real resistance. I guess by getting 30+ villains to attacks Pete, it means that what little resistance Pete can offer will make his defeat prolonged and therefore Kindred’s revenge sweeter.
Am I the only person that’s wondering when Spencer found out he was leaving? Because he seemed to be starting new plots like Jonah looking for a new hero to back in issue 66, and Ned’s return in Chameleon Conspiracy, relatively shortly before the end of his run was announced. Now I’m wondering if maybe this issue was partly drawn before Spencer knew he was leaving.
Then again, maybe the plot was changed at the last minute. The cover of issue 1 featured Hobgoblin, Rose and the Enforcers and this issue’s cover featured pumpkin bombs. I’m wondering if the final Sinister Six was supposed to include Hobgoblin, Rose and the Enforcers instead of Sin-Eater and his thralls.
Either way, now we’ve only got 4 issues left- Sinister War 4 and Spider-Man 72-74. Not much to resolve everything.
I believe the villain you’re pointing at might be Morlun, but I can’t really tell. I never cared for Morlun any way. He’s an over-hyped Spidey-foe, in my unpopular opinion.
What I want at this point, almost as much as more answers and more substance, is one artist on “Sinister War”. Doctor Octopus has on his classic costume in one sequence, then the weird fingerless suit with different looking tentacles in the “people don’t change” panel. I’m also curious as to what Shocker’s wearing too, since I don’t recall any of his suits being “backless” in terms of showing off the yellow quilted area of his costume when it’s mostly been covered by the brown vest. At this point, I’m also suspecting that Hydro-Man being a member of Ock’s Sinister Six was either a fake-out for Mysterio or changed before the covers could be changed. I also assume Mysterio could fall into the “people don’t change” quote, considering his friendship with Mary Jane. Then again, I was expecting Marvel to have Hydro-Man in place of Electro to not spoil his surprise resurrection.
On that note, did Electro speak in this issue? Has Electro spoken at all since his resurrection? As I’ve mentioned here before, I still can’t believe Marvel didn’t hype up the return of an A-list classic Spider-Man foe since Electro has been dead for the past few years. Electro hasn’t spoken, none of the other villains or even Spider-Man mention or react to Electro’s return from the grave, he isn’t interacting with and/or trying to attack the female Electro (or has he?) after she killed him in “The Clone Conspiracy” — heck, Sin-Eater has gotten more lines with his re-return from the dead than Max Dillon has! At this point, why is Electro even there if he’s just reduced to being a background character? The original Electro is in my Top 5 favorite Spidey villains ever list, and I hope Marvel has big plans for Electro after “Sinister War”.
Also, Marvel, please don’t kill off villains like Doctor Octopus, Mysterio, and/or Boomerang during or after “Sinister War”. Spidey villain deaths are pointless and get retconned anyway. I’m also curious if Harry and/or Norman survive after Spencer’s run ends. I’d love to see one of them remain and reclaim the mantle of the Green Goblin.
Also, Happy Birthday, Grant Alford!!
Thanks for reading my nonsense and I hope you all are doing well. Stay safe, everyone.
I give it a C+ and you made me LOL on the TP joke. Love your “potty humor” buddy. Oh, speaking of things to wipe your butt with, that would be Morlun you are asking about.