It’s Gang War (still)! Territory is being marked and fought over. Today’s title match – The Rose vs The Beetle! Who will win and, more importantly, who overshadows the today fight.
Credit Where Credit Is Due
Story Title: Gang War *yawn* (yawning the boring title – not the concept)
Writer: Zeb Wells
Pencils: John Romita, Jr
Inker: Scott Hanna
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
Guys, I am a bit tardy in getting this one out this week. Life doesn’t always factor in my review due dates.
Remedial ASM 101
All of New York is in a tizzy as the crime bosses try to take as much as they can for themselves. Various heroes go off to fight for certain areas, but who cares about them? We are focused on the Spider-Man/She-Hulk/Tombstone team-up and they are about to face off with the Kingpin of Crime himself!
Say Map! Louder!
The Story – Pay Attention, This Will Be on the Test
Kingpin, Typhoid Mary, and goons face off against Tombstone, She-Hulk, and Spider-Man. While the adults (Tombstone and Kingpin) talk, Mary flirts with Spider-Man and She-Hulk. Eventually tempers burst and everyone starts fighting – Tombstone vs Kingpin, She-Hulk vs Typhoid Mary, and Spider-Man vs various run of the mill goons.
Good question, Spidey. Good question.
Meanwhile in another part of New York, The Rose and Digger face off against Beetle and the Sinister Syndicate. Lots of fighting on both sides. Spider-Man spontaneously erupts in fire. She-Hulk gets impaled (she gets better). Digger tears up the costumes of the Sinister Syndicate. The Rose gets his eyeglasses broken. Looks like things are going to be a stale-mate until Kingpin’s army breaks into the Rose and Beetle fight and mows Beetle’s side down. Kingpin is alerted with a phone call. Everyone exit stage left.
What Passed and Failed
Pass – This exchange:
Fail – Beetle’s new suit – This is absolutely awful.
Pass – She-Hulk – She is consistently a good teammate for Spidey, which I didn’t see coming. I like to read MU in order of month, so I am way behind, but where I am, this is spot on in the way she is depicted in her own magazine.
Fail – JRjr’s Tombstone – I have great respect for JRjr, but I hate how Tombstone looks when he draws him
OOTI (Onomatopoeia of the Issue)
On a scale of 1 (POW) to 10 (BLRKBQRKPQRBLNB), CRACK gets a 7. Why so high for a simple, typical 2 scale onomatopoeia? Well, I don’t know what sound would be appropriate for a knee to the groin, but I am certain that if the sound is a resounding CRACK, someone should be out for the count.
Analysis
Typhoid Mary – Ok – stop here. I need to figure out what this Typhoid Mary can actually do. It’s time for ….
I did a deep dive into research on Typhoid Mary (and by that, I mean a five minute skim of Marvel Fandom). Here’s the skinny:
- Typhoid Mary has two identities – one meek and mild with no powers (Mary Walker) and the other one wild and woolly with powers (Typhoid). Despite this, she’s never gone against Moon Knight as far as I can tell. Currently, her identities have been merged.
- Typhoid Mary is primarily a Daredevil villain and henchman of Kingpin.
- Power Set –
- Low-level telekinesis – this is typically used on small bladed instruments
- Pyrokinesis – she can cause flames to erupt on anything and anyone in her near vicinity
- Telepathy – Mary can implant ideas (small, simple ideas) that will cause people to just absent minded do them (reach for a knife, open a door, etc.). She can also cause people to become distracted and confused. Mary also has the ability to make people fall in love with her (not sure if it is gender oriented or not) to the point where they can become obsessive about her.
So this makes sense about how she was able to set Spider-Man on fire without his spider-sense since it can just appear. That means nothing to dodge. Also, with her ability to confuse those around her, we can write off Spider-Man’s uselessness when he confronted Kingpin.
And She-Hulk’s poor performance as well (plus the unexpected adamantium tipped sword blades).
But at least She-Hulk seems to be adjusting to Mary’s powers.
Spider-Man is not really dealing with Typhoid Mary one on one, so I do not know it he is adjusting to what is happening around him. He seems to be tasked with just handling the goon squad. Which brings us to the next point.
Why is Spider-Man a supporting character? This is actually a difficult point to assess. Let’s us first consider that this is Gang War and as a result, there are many interactions between villains and motivations that have nothing to do with Spider-Man other than he is inserting himself into this mix. So we should expect there to be parts of this story that do not involve Spidey. On the surface, I do not have an automatic problem with this.
My problem is that this is Amazing Spider-Man, not Gang War. The way this seems to be set up is that Luke Cage, Miles Morales, Jessica Drew, and Electra all have their own Gang War tie-in that focuses on their approach to this war. Spider-Man, billed as our key hero in all of this, does not. Instead of having a main Gang War book and allowing Spider-Man to have his own tie-in like the rest of them, Nick Lowe is essentially using Amazing Spider-Man as the Gang War main book. That in itself is not bad. It saves us from having to buy yet another title to get the whole story. As long as Spidey is key in his own book, let’s do it. Also, I understand that by using Spider-Man’s title, more people will buy it and if they are interested, they may be able to squeeze a few more dollars out of a Spider-Man’s pocket to pick up a tie-in or two, which might lead to a long term commitment if that fan likes the hero they are reading. If you force fans to funnel that money to a limited series, then you lose out in the long run. So on the surface, no problem.
The problem emerges when this main story is not Spider-Man-centric. In fact, it’s not really Spider-Man-adjacent. This story could be told without Spider-Man or She-Hulk here. Spider-Man holds back the goons. Tombstone has men who could fill that role easily. She-Hulk holds off Typhoid Mary, but since White Rabbit is often used by Tombstone, she could have been better used doing that instead of where she was with Beetle. In fact, as much as I do enjoy Wells’s portrayal of She-Hulk here, I think White Rabbit facing off against Typhoid Mary would have been the more entertaining story. This story is really about Tombstone vs. Kingpin and Beetle vs. The Rose. That’s a great Gang Way lead story. It is an awful Amazing Spider-Man story. That leaves me frustrated. I don’t need Spider-Man constantly leading the story (this is a villain on villain event, after all) but in my ASM, I would very much like Spider-Man to play a key role in his story. I don’t mind if we say Typhoid Mary’s powers are causing Spidey to lose, but he’s not even really in the game, so I can’t justify it there.
Thank goodness for the blood and onomatopoeias, because without them, it looks like Tombstone and Kingpin are just really bad at kissing.
Extra Credit
I am very curious to hear from any of you who are reading the supplemental issues to go along with this Gang War story. At first I was intrigued and picked up the first Luke Cage and Spider-Woman issues. However, I do not have the financial resources, especially during Christmas, to get all of these and my interest has waned quite a bit lately. I think it has less to do with the story and more to do with this taking place over the Christmas season when I have so many other things vying for my attention. I am guessing for some, that leaves more time to read these extra issues. Just didn’t work for me. Good call to set this event over the holidays? I guess the numbers will tell eventually.
Final Grade
I wanted to like this and I do like the Gang War idea as a whole. My biggest problem is that while this may be a solid B or even B+ Gang War issue, the more I look at it, the more irritated I get by Spider-Man’s role in this. Wells knows it, as evidenced by the “Why am I fighting the grunts?” line. And once I start down that road, it makes all the fight scenes lose their luster. It makes all the coolness of the Spider-Man/She-Hulk dynamic lose its charm. It even dampened my love of research as I searched for what Typhoid Mary can really do. This grade is heavily influenced by successive re-readings, something I don’t normally get to do before writing a review.
D+
I implore anyone reading this to change my mind. I want to like this, but to be honest, as much as I love a good gang war story, I really am glad Craig’s got the next issue here – and as a reviewer who loves Spider-Man, that’s a problem and it’s one I need to consider and decide if I need to keep doing these or pass this gig on to someone who is more excited.
What’s Next?
6,202 days since a Deb Whitman appearance in Spider-Man comics.
‘Nuff Said!
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Hornacek – Ha! Sometimes. I’ve never actually timed myself, but it’s probably closer to 3-4 than 2-3. I know at times it’s taken even longer. It largely depends on how many pictures I need to edit and what sort of rabbit I go down. Sometimes I end up researching way too much on eyes or the amount of strength a tuna can exert. That’s on me. And it always seems to take much longer than I think it should to format it in WordPress. So, 3-4, plus or minus an hour. 🙂
@Dark Mark:
“just wondering if it is worth the 2-3 hours to write the review if I am not enjoying it”
Wait a minute … you finish writing your reviews in *only* 2-3 hours??? Stop bragging!
@Hornacek and @Evan
Hornacek – That’s what I figured, but then I thought that maybe there was some sort of taking over area a la Batman’s No Man’s Land type scenario.
Evan – They were in an embrace and were head-butting each other, but the art didn’t quite portray that as clearly as maybe it could have. As for the difference in the sound, I just assumed Tombstone’s onomatopoeia have a Bronx accent or something….
Expected more from the arc – me too. I think there are many reasons for this. It’s rather disappointing because I believe that Wells *could* knock this out of the park, but it’s not moving me. I feel like that little girl in _Miracle on 34th Street_ when she is riding in the car saying, “I believe… I believe… I believe…).
D+ is probably too harsh, but I’ll be stubborn and dig my heels in on it. I’m sure I’ll like the next one better. Mainly because Craig’s got the review. I do appreciate the kind words. Chi-Town gave me kind words only because he is worried that Brad will make him take back up the reviews if I step away (which I am not currently planning on doing, but just wondering if it is worth the 2-3 hours to write the review if I am not enjoying it – but commenting on it with you guys always makes it worth it).
Oh! A Deb Whitman graphic! I think I might be able make that work!
@Mark – Gee, what actually is going on in that Tombstone/Kingpin kissing pair of panels? It looks like Tombstone is taking a bite out of Kingpin’s forehead and then his ear. What am I missing? Also, interesting that in the second panel the onomatopoeia is spelled differently — I guess it’s to indicate a different tonal quality to the sound, but…I’m not sure how that works with the letters chosen.
I wouldn’t have believed it given my excitement for this particular arc, but once again the reviews and comments are proving more interesting and fun to me than the books themselves — which really goes to show how much appreciated your reviews and hornacek’s reviews are appreciated. And even Chi-Town is showing his support and recognizes your efforts. I know that you two are secretly roommates. At least with Amazing Grace, as much as I sympathize with your having to review that, it was so bad that it was incredibly amusing for all its faults, but for this book, even though the map is changing and there have been beheadings and impalements, it still feels like nothing is happening. I do like John Romita, Jr.’s art (most of the time — see my opening statement), and I like onomatopoeia, so I don’t really dislike the comic, per se. I guess maybe I got sucked into the hype and expected more. I suppose the upcoming issues can still deliver. I also like that there are no Skrulls or other aliens and supernatural monsters. Wait, doesn’t Miles have an enchanted sword from his fight with vampires? Nevermind.
Mark, why not make an “Issues Since a Deb Whitman Appearance” counter graphic? That’s excellent way to close your reviews.
@Mark Alford:
The map at the start of the GW issues is updated in each issue. The ones with the spider-logo are (I assume) territories that Spidey and his team have freed from the corresponding gangs. I don’t think they themselves have taken it over – just removed the controlling gang.
It is interesting that we do not see the outcome of the army firing on Beetle and her men, but we are led to assume Kingpin was told the job was done. I would wonder if the two youngster struck a deal, but their fight right before seems to conclude that they did not. I will assume that Janice and her coterie survived because they are superpowered, but maybe enough of her men were cut down. I’m sure she has more elsewhere.
The other thing I noticed, but forgot to mention in the review was the map. It now has spider-marked territory. Is this territory that was freed by the heroes and left unclaimed for now, or are the heroes taking the territory for themselves?
*is knee deep in prep work for The Chi-Town Breakdown review of Ultimate Spider-Man next week*.
I relate. I don’t get excited about ASM anymore, found a better book. I want to like this too! However, Wells run just isn’t doing anything to get me excited, I had to stop. Sad that a flagship book can’t hold water to fans expectations. Still Mark, you are doing a great job!
@Micheal:
Issue #40 takes place over multiple hours, maybe even a day. There’s a lot that happens, and then we get Spidey, She-Hulk and Tombstone waiting in his apartment, and it’s implied that they are waiting for hours for “Fisk” to show up.
Issue #39 shows multiple battles taking place. This issue definitely takes place over multiple hours, maybe even a day.
First Strike definitely takes place over 2-3 days.
As far as Hammerhead still lying on the floor, Masque completely incapacitated him with her beating. He could have been lying there for days (although it’s probably not been that long).
The Silvermane bit at least was legit funny. And She-Hulk & Spider-Man have always tended to work well together IMO.
@Hornacek- I don’t think the previous Gang War issues took place over days, since Hammerhead was still lying on the floor after being hit in Gang War: First Strike in the previous issue. I think it’s been less than 24 hours since Masque hitting Hammerhead- a lot just happened in that time.
@Michael:
“I don’t think Kingpin’s army mowed Beetle’s side down- they’re on the covers of issues 42 and 43, so obviously they’re not dead.” Yes, obviously they’re not dead, but that’s what they were sent there to do. Kingpin sent them there to kill Janice and her team. That’s why he gets the phone call at the end saying that it’s done, and Tombstone has that reaction in the final panel – he thinks Kingpin just had Janice killed.
“So why did Randy step in front of bullets meant for Janice in Gang War- First Strike?” Randy was just being heroic – he saw the woman he loved (aw!) being targeted so without thinking he tried to protect her.
I remember being told somewhere that only 2% of the Kingpin’s mass is body fat, and that he has 350 lbs of muscle. 🙂
When you look at this issue, only about 10-15 minutes take place. Kingpin and his team show up at Tombstone’s they fight, Kingpin gets a phone call, and it’s over. The previous GW issues seem to take place over multiple days, but this one isn’t even an hour.
I don’t think Kingpin’s army mowed Beetle’s side down- they’re on the covers of issues 42 and 43, so obviously they’re not dead. Maybe Richard and Janice worked out some kind of deal?
Typhoid Mary is currently the Kingpin’s wife.
So we get a reminder that Janice’s Beetle suit is bulletproof, just like Abner Jenkins’s was. So why did Randy step in front of bullets meant for Janice in Gang War- First Strike?
I’m not sure that I buy the Kingpin being able to go one on one with Tombstone. Tombstone’s a bit stronger than Spider-Man and virtually invulnerable. The Kingpin seemed to be about as strong as Peter in his early appearances but ever since Chichester’s Daredevil, he’s been written as just a VERY strong non powered human. Tombstone should definitely have the upper hand.
One of the problems with I had with the issue was that it was basically a big fight scene where nothing was accomplished.
Re: the supplementals- they’re of varying quality but they don’t seem to be adding much to the story. Although Miles’s series did establish that Kingsley is still looking for Kafka so he can get revenge on her.
Agreed that the problem is that Peter doesn’t do much. But that’s a problem with a lot of Wells’s stories- Maddie and Illyana stopped Chasm in Dark Web, Norman and Kraven stopped evil Peter instead of Peter breaking free on his own, Kamala stopped Rabin.
I agree with the “Spider-Man is a supporting character in this issue” critique. In a room full of super-powered (or above-average strength) people, he’s fighting the nameless Hellfire goons, who are are just normal people.
Have Tombstone and Kingpin ever fought before? This felt like a battle of the “bosses of New York crime” considering that the Spec SM cartoon was supposed to have Kingpin as their crime boss but couldn’t (because of the Daredevil movie? I can’t remember why) so they replaced with him Tombstone, which was probably the best thing to ever happen with the character.
Does She-Hulk have a healing factor? She gets stabbed and says that she’ll heal in a minute. Let me check the Marvel Wiki … well, according to them, “Regenerative Healing Factor: She-Hulk’s body possesses high resistance to injury and pain, and her highly efficient physiology renders her immune to most Earthly diseases.” Well, a resistance to injury and pain and immunity to most diseases doesn’t automatically mean that she can regenerate from wounds. Also, according to her Wiki page, “Body Switch: Thanks to training by the Ovoid alien race, She-Hulk can exchange her physical characteristics and powers with the physical characteristics and powers of another being.” Wait, what?
I think more than just The Rose’s glasses got broke. It looked (and sounded) like Janice seriously grabbed onto his face when she contracted her hand. Was there some permanent eye damage happening there?