Spectacular Spider-Girl #2 Review

Usually with mini series I have an approach. I don’t usually buy the whole thing. I might buy the first issue, then wait for a slow week to pick up the rest. I can’t say I’ve enjoyed most minis, notably the Clone Saga mini, Avengers/Atlas, HumanTorch/Spider-Man have been ones I’ve enjoyed, but others such as Jackpot, I haven’t.

I waited a couple of weeks to pick this mini up because I just needed to get my other stuff out of my box. Now that I’ve done that, I can honestly say, this issue is worth the 299 pennies that you lay down for it. Again, this book has three parts: Mayday’s the main attraction, sprinkle in a little bit of ‘Lil Benjy’ and a 5 page Buzz Backup and you get a lot for 2.99!

SPECTACULAR SPIDER-GIRL #2 (OF 4)

Tom DeFalco

Ron Frenz

Sal Bucemea

“In the Shadow of Death!”

Story: Mayday is fighting some thugs for info. Peter checks in on MJ (Concerned about Mayday). April (The clone) is hanging out at Cade Indigo. Punisher wants answers. Backstory on Don Silvo and Frank Castle. April gets an assignment and fights Mayday, along the way revealing something that we all knew to her, before Mayday gets greeted by Frank.

THOUGHTS: Too Bad ‘Welcome Back Frank’ was already taken. While most people would’ve taken the violence over the top with Frank, he’s a core part of this issue, and it’s always subdued. Frank is a Bad-ass muther ******* in these pages and it shows. Tom and Ron do a really good job building him up in the MC-2 universe as someone who is tired of the fight, but never afraid to stop fighting. Punisher left one guy alive: Don Silvo. By doing that he left one person from the Maggia alive to try and take Black Tarantula’s throne that was assumed not long after Wilson Fisk’s death. The Mob and the struggle to maintain the top of the food chain has been a long and storied part of Spider-Girl, going back to the ‘Marked for Death’ storyline and the Hobgoblin storyline that ended the original volume. The second had elements of the Mob as well. It seems that it’s become a staple of Spider-Girl, and I can say that I do like it. It grounds Mayday much like those stories of yesteryear grounded Peter as a more street level character. (Which is a problem which most have with him being an Avenger)

The artwork thoughout is solid. Frenz and Sal do once again both parts, Spider-Girl and Buzz. Buzz’s mini takes place within the original story and fits in much better with the overall storyline of what this war is doing to the city. Add in American Dream, coming back from last issue’s chapters and it feels more organic. Well done, as this was my major gripe of last issue.

My favorite moment is Tom DeFalco’s swipe across the bow to the comic’s industry as a whole. Mayhem (love that name) and Mayday are two sides of the coin: One side is the dark gritty, ‘kick ass first ask questions later, don’t care who the hell gets hurt.’ While the other is the old skool type that just wants to protect the people and doesn’t believe killing is the answer. It’s a great allegory and this story shows that you can have a dark story without going to that point of having your title chracter have a turn towards the darkness. Guys like the Punisher are ones who have to, they were baptized in darkness.

My only complaint was the lil Benjy was a bit shallow this go around. I love it usually, but it just was jarring.

4.5 out of five webheads