What screams Spidey more than demons, mutants, and Limbo? If you like that combo, then you are in luck because we have a whole heaping of demons, mutants, and Limbo for you! Read on, dear reader. Help me to find love for this story, for I am in a pit of despair after reading this mediocre tripe. (Too harsh? Sorry)
Credit Where Credit Is Due
Story Title: Dark Web: Yes, It’s Still Happening
Writer: Zeb Wells
Penciler: Ed McGuinness
Inker: Cliff Rathburn
Colorist: Marco Menyz
Letterer: VC’s Joe Caramanga
Cover Artists: John Romita, Jr, Scott Hanna, and Marco Menyz
Asst. Editor: Kaeden McGahey
Editor: Nick Lowe (Albert Banaszak)
Published: The 11th day of the first month of the year of our Lord – 2023.
Remedial ASM 101
Well Ben is bad. Again. This time he teamed up with another bad clone. Together, they have unleashed demons on New York and pulled Peter and a few friends into Limbo. Ben’s grand plan: to get Peter to eat some sort of rotten fruit that will allow Ben to gain Peter’s memories. Or soul. Or essence. Something like that.
The Story – Pay Attention, This Will Be on the Test
Peter is in Limbo and will remain there until he eats the nasty memory/soul fruit. There are lots of demons in Limbo, but these are the discount kind of demons and not Ghost Rider-type demons. They are pretending to be humans as Ben as redesigned Limbo to look like New York. Jonah and Robbie are there too, and they have to pretend to run the Daily Bugle with demons as their reporters. The Goblin Queen is starting to regret this pairing with Chasm, allows him to continue to use her demons to create a twisted form of the Sinister Six that he calls the Insidious Six. One of the demons, a short little runt picked on by the other demons, wants to be Spider-Man, so he gets a bit of symbiote and gains the proportionate speed, strength, and agility of a demon spider, and goes off to save our hero Spider-Man.
What Passed and Failed
PASS – The art is good. Let’s keep this Ed McGuinness guy.
FAIL – This entire story arc
OOTI (Onomatopoeia of the Issue)
On a scale of 1 (POW) to 10 (BLRKBQRKPQRBLNB), CHRNCH gets a 7. Intriguing sound and nice play on ‘crunch’. Say it aloud right now wherever you are. It has a nice vowel-less quality. This is perhaps the best part of the comic. You could probably stop reading the review and end on this nice note.
Analysis
I can sum up my feelings for this entire issue in this one panel:
This issue is one of the biggest literature waste of time let down – and that’s saying something because I have read both “Mrs. Brill” and The Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. For both of those works, the title was the most interesting part of it. Heck, I would rather read Scarlet Letter again in its entirety before reading this again. Well, maybe that’s a bit too extreme.
Ben’s plan – OK, so I get that the set up is if Ben can convince Peter to eat the fruit, then he (at least he believes this to be true) will get all the memories he lost. He will regain his identity as a clone of Peter Parker. I also get that by putting JJJ and Robbie in danger, he may force Peter to give in. That, at least, makes some sense. It’s not a good story, but it makes some sense. The attack on New York, I assume, is for the X-Men part of this story. You’ll have to ask Ryan or watch the satellite show for more on that. Turning Limbo into a twisted New York makes not a whit of sense. But to have Peter Parker just relive a twisted version of his high school life until he gets tired of it? How does this promote Ben’s agenda? The demons themselves all seem to be buffoons who don’t seem to have anything else better to do. They are very much akin to the Beyond Corp villains and sentient sandwiches. Maddie is also seriously reconsidering aligning herself with Ben. I don’t blame her.
The forbidden fruit – I do like that the fruit looks like an apple because of the whole apple of Eden vibe it has going for it (though the bible never calls it an apple and some scholars with way too much time on their hands speculate that it was a pear, but let’s be honest, who in their right mind is going to risk God’s wrath for a pear of all fruits?).
The Insidious Six – I love bad villains. You know this. However, this version of the Insidious Six holds no appeal to me. Why? Shouldn’t this be right up my alley? The problem is there is nothing for me to be invested in. They aren’t losers that I can root for, root against, hope they find some success, or anything. They are just meant to be jokes without substance. Again, this is much like that final showdown in the Beyond arc with the crazy villains that had no story to them. I don’t see how facing these guys would make Peter reconsider damning his soul voluntarily. The demons going after Mary Jane and Black Cat are much more frightening than these guys.
OK, I have to admit, I do like Spidey’s response to them.
Parker-Man/Rek-Rap – The little demon whose life (un-life) parallels that of Peter and wants to be the hero is probably the most interesting bit, but that is a low bar to clear. So when he is a little nerd villain being picked on, Peter saves him. This little act of kindness is enough to make Peter his idol. When the demons were getting powers to be mock villains, he wanted powers to be a hero. The demons kept telling him that he had it backwards, thus the name ‘Parker’ backwards and the back spider logo on his chest. I do like the back spider logo on the front look here.
I really want to like this character, in no small part that his Parker-Man persona reminds me of Neil Bogenrider. Tell me you can’t picture Neil running out in the streets in nothing but a Spider-Man t-shirt and underwear. Neil, I challenge you to deny that you HAVEN’T run around in the street with your Spidey shirt and some tighty-whiteys! In fact, you may not have noticed, but I replaced my usual Chi-Town graduate Spidey with Parker-Man. You probably had a difficult time noticing the differences, but Parker-Man doesn’t wear a graduation cap, while Chi-Town does.
My problem with the whole Limbo story – Well, I have many, but the main issue is Peter has a complicated history with the Marvel underworld. We need to either address the elephant in the room or leave Spider-Man out of the underworld. I know Limbo is a different place than Mephisto’s realm, but the overall feel is the same. After Spencer all but led us to a confrontation with Peter and his deal with the devil, only to have it all flushed away, any flirtation with demonic activity is going to carry that weight. It may be unfair to put that burden on other writers who had nothing to do with those events, but the reader (or at least this reader) will anyway.
Extra Credit
I will give anyone extra credit who can convince me to like this arc. I hate it. I hate that I hate it. If you are enjoying it, I am happy for you. I just wish you could share your light with me. Show me the way!
Final Grade
If you haven’t guessed, I’m not liking this book. It is silly in all the wrong ways for me. It’s not offensive in that it isn’t really impacting anything important. I have no fear for Spider-Man. I’m not even rooting for Spider-Man. The villains do not move nor do they inspire any emotion in me. The art is pretty good. To that end, I’m going with:
BALDERDASH
*EDIT* So, BD has just informed me that I am not allowed to give non-letter grades, so I’m going with:
D
Review Grade
To be fair, I’m giving my own review of this issue a:
D-
This is not my best work. I would hate for this review to be the one anyone judges my work on. I cannot find inspiration to like, rant, or even joke about this issue. This feels more like a non-canon series that has no impact on the canon (like that story where Spider-Man had to keep the city together with his webs and people kept falling apart – I forgot the name of it). Maybe we see Rek-Rap in some Spider-Verse story later, but outside of that, I see no real impact on the Spider-Man canon here. I feel that this is largely just me and the chagrin I feel for not being able to present this issue better for you, dear reader, is overwhelming.
But Wait! There’s More!
Well, my best buddy Chi-Town didn’t get a letter published (that actually might would have made the issue better (yes, the issue is THAT lacking)), but his good friend did, I mean got a letter mentioned! Let’s hear it for our very own Bruce Wechtenhiser whose letter was so inspiring, that it sparked another person to write in and mention it. And that person brought up Deb Whitman too! Double win for Spidey fans everywhere. Nice going, Bruce! I’m always a fan of when a fellow Crawlspacer gets a letter or mention in the letter pages!
What’s Next?
Well, at least we are over half-way through this! One more issue for me, so there may be light at the end of this tunnel.
‘Nuff Said!
Apple Podcasts
Google Podcasts
Spotify
Pandora
Amazon Music
iHeartRadio
Podbean
Amazon Alexa
Player.fm
Listen Notes
Stitcher
@Mark
Unless they changed inner politics, I really think it depends on the creative team on board (editorial department included) whether they publish negative reactions or not.
I recently read Avengers Academy (good series, btw!) and I was positively surprised seeing they not only published negative comments, but the writer took his time to politely reply to them, giving insight in his work and starting an interesting debate on some matter.
As much as I am grateful to Stan Lee for his great creations, he was also a cunning fox when it came to advertising. There are marketing methods I cannot condone.
” It keeps a crazy editor/writer team from completely changing the character into something that will tarnish the hero’s character forever. ”
And yet… Some long-time fan may say they did, time and time again. I imagine for someone that may be the Clone Saga, for others OMD, or Sins Past, and so on. That’s the problem with an infinite narrative: you either recycle ideas or you change the character so much that it becomes unrecognizable. And I don’t think they can afford the former, because it would only work on the long term with a continuous generational change of readers.
@Evan
Thank you!
Yep, not only they are considered a modern mythology, but comics have been called the ninth art by people more cultured than me.
This comic made me feel like I’m too old to be reading comics. This is juvenile tripe, a child would think the jokes are lame. I’ve been collecting spidey for 48 years, seen some ups and downs but this dark web is just the worst.
@Jack Brooks, @Evan, @John Joseph
Jack – That sounds just like C.S. Lewis! His ability to break down apologetics in such a plain matter of fact manner is awesome, in my opinion.
Evan – I completely agree! Literature is literature regardless of the medium. Just like some novels are greats and some are trash, so too with comics, and I do not believe that the only comics or literary merit are the likes of Persepolis or Maus (though I love both of them). Also, there is a company called Classical Comics that are amazing when it comes to putting a classic in comic form. They do not just illustrate the story, like too many classic adaptations are, but they use the art to include a lot of the description paragraphs. Their Frankenstein is a much more enjoyable read than just Shelley’s prose, and I even by passed the letters when I taught it in class by giving them the CC version of the opening letters (those are enough to take anyone out of the story before one can even give it a shot). Their Shakespeare is great because they keep all the original text, but by being able to see what is happening, it is akin to watching a performance.
Joseph – We have reviewed and processed your request to drop Amazing Spider-Man. Unfortunately, we have denied your request. I have the next issue to review, so I need you read up and ready to comment! I do agree that Kindle’s version of Comixology is a far cry from regular Comixology. I do not know why Amazon did that (OK, I do know – $$$). I am not reading any tie-ins to this disappointing arc unless I am reviewing it and, thankfully, I believe I am done reviewing any tie-ins.
At least stick around until the next arc, which is where we should get the mystery box revealed. Maybe it will be the best story ever told in a Spider-Man book, and if you drop now, you may end up regretting it! I know it is doubtful, but did you know Roy Cleveland Sullivan was struck by lightning seven different times in his life? I’m not sure how that is supposed to convince you to stick around, but … (someone help me out here!)
Been a week since I read this issue, and it’s still peeving me off. Furthermore the MJ/BC mini is really grating on me.
Bottom line. This ‘Dark Web’ is the absolute worst. More so than anything even Dan Slot came up with, including ‘Spider-Island”.
Mary Jane with ‘jackpot’ powers. Stupid. Moreover, why are we getting more backstory of the 6 month event in a side book instead of the main ASM?
Gold Goblin- Not buying the ‘sins’ removed Osborn, and the 90’s design of his costume is off putting.
Ben / Chasm- Ridiculous. What are his powers? Purple goo? Villian? Anti hero? Misunderstood? He was the Jackel for christsakes. The whole ‘Beyond’ arc was not the least bit enjoyable, and only stuck with it due to Peter / MJ appearances. Ben died in Revelations. Nuff said.
Venom- Oh, let’s take him back to the 90’s Venom, so we can do a spin off mini series.
Rek-Rap- Straw that broke this long time Comic Reader’s back.
I’m done with this this book. Perhaps I will check back in March, to see what the ‘event’ was, but have no hope it will be anything worthwhile.
This is fine. It’s been harder to navigate the new books on Comixology. since Amazon took them over. Found myself picking up less and less books each month, so dropping Amazing will be easy now.
Sigh.
@Aqu@ — Your observation about James Joyce was a wonderful contribution to the conversation!
I’m happy that you appreciate literary digressions like I do. I feel that, if we can make them relevant to Spider-man, then they belong here as much as anywhere else. Especially, though, I think the reason characters or themes resonate across all manner of storytelling is because they speak to something inherently human in all of us, and in that regard, Spider-man and other comic book characters are just as relevant as as the most “high-brow” literature. Just like how the mythologies across the world that have the same underpinning archetypes, according to mythologist Joseph Campbell, our stories are universal and a part of us. I’d even say that comic book characters in particular constitute a modern mythology.
“So is Norman or Ben worthy of redemption after all they have done? No. Can they still be given the chance to be redeemed? From a Christian literary lens, yes, because no one is worthy, but we are loved regardless.”
C.S. Lewis once moseyed into his university’s faculty lounge, and saw a group of his colleagues talking. “Jack!”, they said, “We’re debating religion,. What is the one thing makes the Christian religion different from other world religions?” “That’s simple, ” Lewis replied. “Grace.”
@Chi-Town Spidey “I hear ya on that MacKay writing Spider-Man. As long as Carlos Gomez or Gleason does the artwork AND EDITORIAL NOT BUTTING IN WITH THEIR MANDATE….I’m down.”
I’d also add Mark Bagley and Ed McGuinness to the art team. And yeah the editorial needs to back off with their stupid mandates.
@Aqu@ – “Joyce sucks and his “flow of consciousness ” was just an excuse for him not knowing punctuation.” HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Amen, brother!
Nice letter, and I’m glad you posted it here so we could read it, but there was never anyway that letter would be published in a Marvel letters pages. They will occasionally print a mildly negative one to give more credence to the positive ones, but they are not going to print one that direct and one that would advocate not buying the books. It is a form of customer feedback and exchange, but it is also a form of advertisement and has been since the days of Stan Lee. Did you know in some of the early days, he would write in letters under different names to help advertise Marvels’ other titles?
Growth of character in an ongoing narrative is an interesting thing. Once the character is super successful, the ability to change/grow becomes stunted because you may lose what made the character successful. I am absolutely loving Moon Knight and they are constantly changing him, having him grow, having him go to new depths and heights – but that is because he is not the face of Marvel. The same goes with May Day and Miles – since they are not well known to the average non-comic book reader, they can do all sorts of things with them. This is not always a bad thing, though. It keeps a crazy editor/writer team from completely changing the character into something that will tarnish the hero’s character forever. So that means we are always going to be stuck with the illusion of change. The major problem for us right now is that the writing teams for the past two decades have not been all that great at the illusion of change. As a whole, I mean. The Superior Spider-Man was excellent and I thought that the Parker Industries had potential, just not executed well.
It does make me sad that you are not enjoying the comic. I’m not either and would be going the Marvel Unlimited route with you if not for the reviews on the Crawlspace. But all things come to an end, and so must Well’s run (hopefully Lowe’s as well) and with that comes possibilities to love the book again.
@Michael
How dumb would Robbie have to be not to realize Peter is Spider-Man after seeing “Rek-Rap”?
As dumb as the plot needs him to be, I guess.
I haven’t read the issue, and I don’t know how Marvel Limbo works, but maybe the recreation of things is out of Peter’s memories, not Ben?
@Mark
Who WOULDN’T want to hear us talk about the great literary classics?
I can’t speak for the others, but I’m enjoying this literary digressions. I wish I could add something to the discussion, but I’m mostly a man of Science. The only thing I can say is that Joyce sucks and his “flow of consciousness ” was just an excuse for him not knowing punctuation. 🙂
Now I know at least three people who don’t like pear: me, Mark and the 12th Doctor.
I like marks in words more, especially if it means I’m learning new words like “balderdash”.
Don’t worry, this review was as good as any other of yours. It’s just where we are with the character that it is a disappointment. The shadow cast by Spencer’s wrecked run (and what it means for the future of Spider-man as a character) is preventing me from enjoying anything that has come out after that.
Which brings me to that letter I sent at the beginning of August and that seemingly hasn’t been published. As I already said, I suspect they ignore any negative comment to only show positive feedbacks as a form of advertising and market conditioning, which makes me sick.
It is in the spirit of a counter-measure of sorts to this, that I report here my letter for anyone who may care to read it:
Dear Spider-Office,
I just finished reading the first issue of the umpteenth relaunch of ASM on Marvel Unlimited.
What did Peter Parker do? It doesn’t matter.
None of this matters (to me), because you made it so. I realized I don’t care for the characters anymore and that’s really sad since I’ve been a fan of Spider-Man for almost my whole life.
The problem is the characters stopped growing, and not only in the sense of aging. You won’t let the characters grow as persons and that can only hurt the quality of a series on the long run.
Sure, they change, but change (for the sake of it) is not growth. There is no real growth, no sense of progression, they’re just going in circles. And so, nothing of what happens really matters anymore.
I’m no expert, but even I know that we care for characters when we see them grow (and sometimes, that means we grow too!). Every character’s story should have a beginning, a progression and, ultimately, an end. That’s what makes them significant.
I know comics are a business at the end of the day, but if the success of characters like Miles Morales or Mayday (MC2 Spider-Girl) is of any indication, I think legacy characters would prove a valid substitute when the time comes to retire the original.
However the shipwreck that was the end of Spencer’s run has proven once and for all that Marvel won’t let Peter Parker grow. And please don’t insult the intelligence of your readers saying that’s how it was meant to end. It’s blatantly clear something went wrong in the creative process.
The handling of Ben Reilly’s character in Beyond was also pretty disappointing, especially considering the highly unprofessional comment of editor Nick Lowe at the end: to find a meaning to these characters is your work, if you don’t know how to use a character, leave it alone for future writers.
As a result I stopped buying the ASM TPBs after Spencer’s run and I only follow what was once my favourite character with my Marvel Unlimited subscription. And even that is at stake.
Sincerely,
MBAqu@
@Hallows Evan – To answer your question about is there a point where one person can no longer be worthy of redemption, I’ll loop back into our Dr. Faustus comments earlier. Dr. Faustus is not worthy of redemption. He curses God, sells his soul to the devil, does absolutely nothing to be worthy of God’s love, yet all the way until the end, the good angel tells him all he needs to do is to accept God’s gift and he will be forgiven. So is Norman or Ben worthy of redemption after all they have done? No. Can they still be given the chance to be redeemed? From a Christian literary lens, yes, because no one is worthy, but we are loved regardless.
That said, I think the burden to show Norman as truly repentant would be hard for any writer. I see glimpses of it here and there with Wells. We can see that, while his sins have been cleansed, he is still the manipulative guy he always was. He’s trying to curb that side of him and taking steps to try and be the better person, but people will not be so forgiving. I know a lot of people are upset about Peter working for Norman, but I have no problem with that. Peter has a track record of being forgiving to those who have wronged him – starting with Harry, going to Flash, going to Venom. Sure, Norman is quite a few steps above that, but it has already been established that Peter could do it. With Norman’s sins being wiped cleaned but the Sin Eater, that makes it a little easier to bridge that gap and makes it enough to at least explore – especially since Peter has not truly forgiven Norman and is always looking for him to be the old Norman he always was. But Wells goes a step further with the mystery six months. We may not have seen it, but it doesn’t matter for two reasons: 1. we know that Norman was there when no one else was, and 2. the set up for Peter to give Norman another chance has already been put in play – this is just extra.
That’s just may take on it. I know not everyone will agree with it. If done correctly, they could make Norman’s fall truly tragic, but I’m not sure the current Spider-Office is up to the task.
As for Heathcliff, I always liked the fact that he’s pretty much kidnapped. We are told that Catherine’s father finds him in the streets, poor and hungry, and we are to assume that he is doing Heathcliff a solid by bringing him into his home, but if I remember correctly, Heathcliff can’t really communicate well with him and it is entirely possible that he has a loving (albeit poor) family that he’ll never see again. I do remember my English teacher frowning at this take to make Heathcliff a victim as well! You know what, we need to create our own Crawlspace Patreon podcast where just talk about works of literature that the comics makes us think about. I bet that would boost Brad’s ratings and Patreon numbers way up! Who WOULDN’T want to hear us talk about the great literary classics?
@Mark — I’m pretty sure I can make Spider-man relate to anything, since he’s not far from my thoughts at any given moment, I’d say.
I think if I had understood Wuthering Heights in high school, I would have loved it — It’s intense, suspenseful, violent — but as an adult I thought it was a bit scary, but I still really got into it, since it’s more of a revenge story than even The Count of Monte Cristo, if you think about it. Heathcliff is the most despicable character in literature that I’m aware of (second to Henry Wotton in The Picture of Dorian Gray), so I have no idea why there are movies in which he’s portrayed as a romantic lead. (Also, The House of Seven Gables was pretty good, by the way.)
This lends itself to a discussion on sin, transgression, and redemption, which brings me to Norman Osborn. If Peter is willing to give him a chance after everything, I want to root for him, but I know he’ll inevitably become the Green Goblin again (perhaps after Red Goblin is over). I’m sure it will be played as tragedy, and it is indeed tragic, but at one point is one no longer worthy of redemption even if they were to get it?
At any rate, I’m just glad that you weren’t so frustrated upon reading this issue that you neglected to mention the onomatopoeia at all, like in one of your earlier reviews — but maybe Covid had something to do with that.
I’m now going to refer to Rek-Rap has Rek-RAPH.
I agree with Michael — There’s no way Ben could know how to simulate Peter’s old clothing and the Daily Bugle without having memories of them. I was thinking that once Ben gets his memories back he’ll be flooded with guilt (if he’s anything like Peter) and need his own redemption. Maybe he’ll even sacrifice himself (again). Is it wrong for me to just want that to hurry up and happen already?
@Hallows Evan
Great Scott! ‘Polyphyodont’! Nice word! And you are right, I should have included the font as part of my analysis of that particular OOTI!
Faustian deal – we’re reading Dr. Faustus right now in my AP Lit class! Fun fact to no one except perhaps you and me – the good angel/bad angel on people’s shoulders originated in that play. I have a beta fish in the classroom names Mephistopheles. Well, his name is Mephistopheles Jr since the first one didn’t last very long… 🙁 Disney stories get recycled a lot everywhere because the are also recycled from other places. It’s all a wibbly-wobbley, literary-witerary, ball of … Well, that one got away from me there.
That sandwich joke is (sadly) funnier than anything I’ve read in Dark Web to date.
I do stand corrected. Hawthorne is a great writer . . . of short stories and I really feel that Scarlet Letter would have been a great short story, but instead it feels drawn out like the Hobbit movies. Maybe if I had a better teacher for it. Mrs. McGlohon still haunts my nightmares. I might give it another try. I do remember somewhere that he wrote in a preface of some book (maybe it was SL) all about how women should not be allowed to write and I believe it was because he was currently being outsold by some female writer. I don’t know it if that is true and I like the sound of it, so I am not going to venture out research in case it is false. However, I LOVED Wuthering Heights in high school, mainly because my teacher Ms. Brock loved it so and her enthusiasm was contagious.
“Not that Dark Web will get better if you read it again.” Well, we will never know because I can’t stand to read this once and I will NOT waste any more of my life reading them again.
By the way, my second year of teaching was at my high school and Mrs. McGlohon was my department chair. She HATED me as a student, but when I came back as a teacher, she mistook me for my friend, a guy that she really liked as a student, so I never corrected her of that mistake.
Meanwhile, other people are coming on here and reading our comments wondering what the heck any of this has to do with Spider-Man.
@Mark — At first glance, I thought that onomatopoeia panel had Peter punching DC’s Shark King. I know that sharks’ teeth are gradually replaced (They’re “polyphyodont,” since you appreciate words like I do), but any time I see teeth flying in a panel I feel it viscerally. Also, the way the letters are drawn makes the sound even CHRNCHer. Thank you for leading with that, by the way.
The scary apple gives me a Snow White feeling with this arc. Given that that’s a Disney property, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. And yet, when I watched the trailer for Quantumania yesterday, that gave me a Little Mermaid feeling — that is, a Faustian deal gone awry. I guess the latter makes a good framework for a story and it always seems relevant, but it seems like Disney storylines are getting recycled a lot here.
By the way, here is a sentient sandwich joke for you [Ahem]:
What did the sentient sandwich say to Madelyne Pryor?
“Darn! I should have said, ‘Make a sandwich FOR me.'”
For what it’s worth, I like Nathaniel Hawthorne — but I’m not going to reread The Scarlet Letter anytime soon because I studied that one to death. I’ve reread several books from high school because a) I’m (hopefully) smarter since then, and b) not having to write papers makes it a far less stressful affair, so I can really appreciate and learn what I was meant to understand when I was too young and overwhelmed to get it (e.g., I finished Wuthering Heights yesterday and enjoyed it the second time around.)
Not that Dark Web will get better if you read it again.
@Jack Brooks and @Michael
Jack – Man, let’s hope so. I hate to put him on the MCU with this kind of crap, but with KF leading the way, maybe he could aim Wells in the right direction.
Michael – Well, crud man! I was getting by with this be thinking that at least it would make sense if I was bothering to read the rest of the issues, but with what you are saying, it just makes it worse! IF the demon invasion is to put New Yorkers in danger and make Peter want to sacrifice himself, then why bring him to Limbo where he will not be constantly reminded that normal people are being affected. None of this makes any sense. You see, this is where an editor should be stepping in and guiding the writer through his/her ideas. Not tell them what to write, but I’m sure writers get caught up in the story they want to tell and it is up to the editor to make sure that it actually works.
I’m guessing Peter is just speculating. Ben tried something similar with the helmet int he Beyond arc, so it would stand to reason that his MO hasn’t changed. Plus, it’s a creepy-looking fruit in Limbo, it can’t be that good and it would be a stupid way to only kill Peter, so soul sucking seems about right. Plus, with Ben just casually stopping by and talking to Peter on his way to demon school or wherever, it seems that maybe this is happening more often than we get to see, so it could be they just talked about it.
So all along, Jean could have shared memories with Maddie and made her a good guy, but instead they decided it would be better to let her remain bitter and be in control of several thousand demons? I’m sure I must have missed something there. Geez, this onion gets more rotten the more layers you remove.
Well, Robbie… I don’t know. I can’t defend any of this. Maybe he’s too busy trying think of which Ninja Turtle Rek-Rap reminds him of.
Can somebody explain to me how Peter found out that the fruit would suck out his soul? We saw in issue 14 that Ben and Maddie didn’t have to tell the debt collector what the fruit did before getting him to eat it. So why didn’t Ben use some ruse to get Peter to eat the fruit? In this week’s Black Cat and Mary Jane, Felicia and MJ eat food in Limbo. If nothing else, Ben could just say something like, “Eat the fruit and you will be free”.
No, the demon invasio has nothing to do with the X-Men part of the story. The X-Men part of the story involves Maddie capturing Jean Grey and a device that can record memories. And you’d think that Ben would consider using one of those things to restore his memories once Peter kept refusing to eat the fruit.
Ben said in issue 15 that the purpose of the demon invasion was to pressure Peter to return his memories. Of course, if that was the cause you’d think that Ben would remind Peter that the longer this goes on. the more people are hurt by demons.
It might have been better if Peter was tempted to let Ben kill him to spare his friends and New York City. After all, Peter let Kindred kill him to spare his friends and his city.
According to the leaked images, next week Jean Grey shares some of her memories with Maddie and she has a change of heart and starts helping the X-Men. That raises a couple of questions as to how things will proceed from there. Firstly, why will Ben and Janine keep fighting after they realize what Jean did? Won’t they just ask Jean to download Peter’s memories into Ben? Second, how are Ben and Janine supposed to be a credible threat to the heroes without Maddie? Psychoactive goo and magic masks aren’t a match for the combined power of Cyclops, Jean, Maddie, Peter, Forge, Firestar, Illyana, Synch, Havok and Iceman.
How dumb would Robbie have to be not to realize Peter is Spider-Man after seeing “Rek-Rap”?
If Ben doesn’t have his memories, how was he able to make the Daily Bugle and Peter’s clothes look like they used to?
@Mark: I hear ya on that MacKay writing Spider-Man. As long as Carlos Gomez or Gleason does the artwork AND EDITORIAL NOT BUTTING IN WITH THEIR MANDATE….I’m down.
@Mark — I’ve noticed how intoxicated people laugh at their own stuff a lot.
It could also just be that his mind is already on to his MCU work, so he’s just crankin’ this stuff out to get it done. Plus, it has elicited a lot of strong thumbs-down reactions, so writing it is probably no fun.
@Chi-Town & @Jack Brooks
Chi-Town – Holy moly! I knew I liked the look of Rek-Rap, but it didn’t synch with TMNT! If it did, that might would have raised the grade up a bit! 🙂 I do like seeing the teeth in the Spider-Man mask. It reminds me of Venom’s first appearance. That whole stupid Venom tongue ruined a cool look. I also flat out forgot that the animated series had the Insidious Six rather than Sinister Six. See, I told you I was off my game this whole review, but thank you for your kind words, buddy! I know you’re always there for me! I think Neil should go by the moniker Parker-Man on the Crawlspace from now on!
Jack Brooks – That would make a whole lot more sense than any other explanation for this!
I think Wells was high when he wrote this.
I love the fact that the worst ASM can bring out the best of reviews in ya! Don’t be so hard on yourself, it’s not your fault (although, a lot of things are) that this issue sucked so bad. I surprised you joke on how John Semper didn’t chime in stating that HE created The Insidious Six first.
Don’t tell me you didn’t shout “Cowabunga, Dude” when did you saw Rek-Rap. He reminds me of Raph from TMNT. I gave this one a solid “F”. Wells was trying WAY too hard to “Bring the Funny”. You however did, I’m not going to look at Parker-Man without thinking of Neil now!