The sins of Norman Osborn are now in Peter Parker! What does that mean for our favorite wall-crawler? How will he handle it? Will Kraven stand up or keep running like the sorry little punk that he is? Will Aunt Anna hulk out again? All these questions except one will be answered – just keep reading, my friend!
Credit Where Credit Is Due
Story Title: Spyder’s First Hunt (OK, not really…)
Writer: Zeb Wells
Artist: Patrick Gleason
Colorist: Marco Menyz
Letterer: VC’s Joe Caramanga
Cover Artists: John Romita, Jr, Scott Hanna, and Marco Menyz
Asst. Editor: Kaeden McGahey
Assoc. Editor: Tom Groneman
Editor: Nick Lowe
WARNING
You may have your reality shaken by reading this review. If you want to feel safe with hive-mind thoughts, then skip ahead and just leave a comment. I am breaking from the mold and have the facts to back me up. I will hold nothing back here.
Remedial ASM 101
Kraven87’s out to get Norman so that he can save the woman he loves – Ashley Kafka, AKA Queen Goblin. After some mystic ritual that involves stuff that I do not wish to talk about, Kraven has moved the sins of Norman Osborn into a spear and once he plunges that spear into Norman, Kafka should be redeemed. However, he miscalculates Peter’s desire to throw himself into harms way and accidentally lances Spider-Man instead, infusing Peter with the sins of the Goblin. Oh no!
Before We Begin
I got a lot of flack on the Crawlspace Discord for saying I liked last issue. So I am writing this section before I read this week’s issue. What do I want to see from this? Well, the sins of Norman Osborn took Kafka and perverted her character – but we still could see the character. She liked to use her psychology to help people past their traumas, well now she uses her psychology cause people to revisit their traumas. She strove to give people hope that life can move on, now she removes all hope causing people to consider ending their own lives. So what does that mean for Peter? If we are going to get a drawn out series where Osborn is the hero and Spider-Man is the villain, I’m all for that. It’s new. It’s mostly fresh. But the precedent has already been set that these sins pervert the existing character. Peter’s all about responsibility, so I imagine we will see some twist on that. I imagine we will see him putting himself first. Maybe going after MJ or Felecia (or both) not to hurt them, but in a misguided sense of pursuing what he wants. I expect to see and recognize his character traits, but now as a villain. If we get that, I expect to continue to like this arc. We shall see. Now give me a minute to read the comic so that I can continue.
Ok. I’m done. Let’s go with this thing!
The Story – Pay Attention, This Will Be on the Test
Peter’s in a dark mindset, much like a manlier version of Chi-Town’s emo-teen phase (which lasted well into his twenties). By the time Norman comes to check on him, Peter’s gone and the Spider-Man red and blue suit is hanging out of the laundry basket in an homage to the cover of ASM#50. Kraven is running like the craven little snot that he is. He knows an unleashed Spider-Man is going to be too much for him and for the first time, he feel like the prey rather than the hunted. Evil Spider-Man, no longer inhibited by compassion or fairness, sneaks up on Kraven and injects him with something. Kraven bolts and dives into the sewers to get away from Spider-Man. But Spidey is evil, not stupid, and had intended this move all along. It appears that what he was injected with is something that smells similar to the New York Rangers (or Chicago Blackhawks or even Boston Bruins) because all the rats come out. And by rats, I mean a congress of Vermin. Kraven realizes this is his chance to prove himself better than his father (who is actually him in some ways – a concept he is still struggling with) and due to his new self-doubt and the overwhelming numbers before him, he falls. Spider-Man comes to the rescue, beats the living patootie out of the Vermins and drops Kraven’s sorry butt into a grave, with a parting gift of a shotgun before burying him alive.
What Passed and Failed
PASS – The cover – Heck yeah! I liked it! I’d hang that bad boy up as a poster! It’s even better that the words cover that awkward spot of the butt/groin that never quite looks right when drawn.
PASS – Captions – Yes, the caption boxes really did it for me. For one, we have for all three characters (Norman, Peter, Kraven) in double to represent the dual nature they all are experiencing right now.
Norman wants to be the good guy, but cannot seem to escape his more goblin nature. Peter is processing who he was with who he is becoming. Kraven has his rational mind and his scared out of his wits mind. They are portrayed with the same colors, but reversed to show the other self. This shows the duality of who they are and who they are becoming. Also, I like how Kraven’s font goes back to The Last Hunt. Nice touch.
PASS – The pacing – one of my biggest complaints with modern comic story telling is the bloated pacing. I want to feel as if I read a story and got my money’s worth out of the issue. This gives me that. We have a clear beginning, middle, and end, despite that there is obviously stuff that happened prior to this issue and stuff that will occur after it.
PASS – The Art and Coloring – This has in many panels an EC horror comic vibe going on. I think it blends with the mood of the writing perfectly.
OOTI (Onomatopoeia of the Issue)
On a scale of 1 (POW) to 10 (BLRKBQRKPQRBLNB), CRACK gets a 3.5. Yes, I know it has transparent letters, but CRACK? That’s it? Vermin’s getting punched so hard that multiple teeth are breaking and we know that fist continued into the mouth. We need something that embodies the hardness of the teeth cracking with the juiciness of the mouth getting pulverized.
Analysis
Guys, I liked this. I’m going to steal Chi-Town’s thunder before he can put it in the comments section, but this is not the steak on a garbage can lid scenario here. This not just a well done story (see what I did there?), but in a rare move for this current team, the writing and presentation of the story is cooked to perfection.
To explain why, I’m going all AP Lit teacher mode here and am going to break out the commonly used text How to Read Literature Like a Professor by Thomas C. Foster to do so. This book seeks to show patterns in literature so that the reader can start to recognize them when they appear. This is a crash course, so I will not spend as much time as I would like on it. My subtitles will go along with the chapter headings.
Now Where Have I Seen Her Before?
I try hard to keep from getting spoiled by leaks and previews and work extra hard to write my review as soon as I read it so that I am not influenced by other viewpoints. That has its pros and cons. However, this time I could not help but have a few interactions beforehand and the number one complaint I have heard is that this has been done before with Kraven’s Last Hunt and Soul of the Hunter. I don’t care. We only have a few plots available to writers (don’t believe me – read this). Kurt Vonnegut Jr. talked about this extensively in his speeches on the patterns of stories.
All this is to say that great writers from the Grimm Brothers to Shakespeare to Stephen King reuse and recycle ideas that have been done previously. The trick is to take the old and give it a fresh spin. This is even more so a factor in a serialized story like Spider-Man that has been going on since the 1960s. I started to try and figure out how many issues there are of Spider-Man, but good grief, I don’t have time to go down that rabbit hole. Maybe someone can impress me in the comments with the answer?
In this case, we are holding closer to the source story than usual (which in itself is just “The Most Dangerous Game” repackaged). I don’t mind this because, as we will see later, we need to reference the source story to really show the impact of this story. This is not a case of it’s not the Death Star, it’s bigger. It’s a direct answer to The Last Hunt.
More Than It’s Gonna Hurt You: Concerning Violence
Violence is rarely just about violence in most literature. In comics, we have to allow for some more leeway here since fights are expected as a part of the story, but let’s take a look at this rather innocent scene:
While the squishing of a spider is a relatively low-level act of violence, it is one nonetheless. In this case, it carries great meaning that has nothing to do with the life of any particular arachnid.
Spider-Man gets his powers through the bite of a spider. Killing this spider is symbolic of him rejecting the core element of who he is as Spider-Man.
Peter is characterized by many things. Responsibility is one, for sure, but another is compassion and this trait is what has been in the forefront as of late. Peter is willing to give Norman a second chance after killing Gwen. Peter is willing to give Jameson a chance after all his hounding. He shows compassion to Kareem. Peter is willing to give Ock’s tentacles a chance at redemption, even! These are just a few examples – you know the list goes on. But here? No compassion. Killing this spider is symbolic of him rejecting a core element of who he is as Peter.
Remember my hope for the story at the beginning? Well, since the story is told in a limited 3rd person omniscience (we get Peter’s thoughts earlier, but once we zero in on Kraven, it’s all Kraven), we don’t get a lot of what is going on through Peter’s head. This is done intentionally as well since this now takes care of another core component of the Spider-Man character – us the reader. We’ve been with him since Amazing Fantasy #15, but now we are shut out as well. This emphasizes the disconnect here. It also allows us to view our hero as an antagonist, which is an odd place to be since we certainly can’t root for Kraven. However, From what we get to see of Spidey, we can still see that his core is there, just perverted. Take the angry young man from Ditko’s time and the angry not as young man from the ’80s and take away that restraint – that compassion that always held him back. That fear that he would push too hard and cause damage to someone, like he did to Stan Carter. Now all that frustration that has been building up in him is unfettered and free. In case you were reading to fast to catch it, Wells throws in that he’s tired of the being the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. He’s also still smart. Whereas a typical Peter Parker would rush into a situation, get into a mess, and then think his way out of it, this sinful Peter is using his brains from the get go. He creates Vermin pheromones to inject into Kraven. He swings overhead to make Kraven go to ground. He has a grave already dug and shotgun waiting.
Sometimes the lack of violence is important as well. In this case, Kraven, who embraces violence and used violence to start all of this, now finds himself incapable of using violence to help his situation. The weapons are heavy, showing his inability to wield them (his very core symbolically destroyed). Sure he is overwhelmed with the numbers, but still, he fails to defeat Vermin. Kraven was scared by the sight of an unleashed Spider-Man and it has shaken his very being. We know that Kraven87 is all about “his father” and living up to and exceeding his legacy, but we get this absolutely awesome panels here that bring about the transition of both Kraven and Peter’s transformations:
That’s just chilling!
Is He Serious? And Other Ironies
Literature professors live by this rule: Irony trumps everything. Typically when people mention irony, they are specifically talking about situational irony. This is an unexpected twist. So let’s look at our ironies here:
- Kraven the hunter is now the hunted. I think Wells did more than enough to emphasize this to us without me rehashing it here, but I wanted to start off with a softball one for you.
- Spider-Man No More – The spider suit in the trash/laundry assumes that Peter has quit being Spider-Man (again), but in reality, he hasn’t.
- Norman is coming to Peter’s aid. OK, not really new to this story, but shown again and leading up to what will assuredly be some sort of twist in which in order to save Peter, Norman will have to take on the Goblin sins again.
- SM v KtH – Spider-Man leads Kraven into a trap – oh no! But then he saves Kraven – whew! Only to bury Kraven alive! Oh no!
- Spider-Man crosses the line – we expect even a sin-enraged Peter to not cross the line of murder. Terrorize? Sure. Beat up? Sure. Murder? Never. However, not only does Spider-Man bury Kraven alive (which we could assume he would dig up much like rescuing Kraven from Vermin ), but this:
Holy moly! I did not see this coming! This is as far away from compassion as I think we can get! How can anyone read this and NOT get the chill bumps! Expectations here have been completely subverted – and not in a The Last Jedi sort of way that had no value or reason for the subversions).As far as the argument that Peter already forgave Kraven in Soul of the Hunter – it is one thing to forgive. It is another thing to forget. The hurt can still be there. The pain can still be there. The fear can still be there. Forgiveness doesn’t equate to forgetfulness.
Final Thoughts
I am so in on this story right now – an evil Spider-Man and done correctly (at least so far)! Can this arc crash and burn? Certainly. In fact, I quite expect it to. That said, I plan on enjoy this trip until it does! We know Wells can write awful stories and the editor isn’t the keenest of them all, but we also know that Wells can do very well. Here he is. This is a well thought out and planned story. Whether you like it or do not like it is one thing. To deny that Wells is bringing his A game to this story is something else. But feel free to disagree with me in the comments section.
Extra Credit
Give me a better onomatopoeia than CRACK for the OOTI scene or tell me how many actual issues of comics Spider-Man has been in.
Final Grade
This is rare for me (and I am not going to go back through all my reviews to see how many times I have done this before) –
A+
Your Turn
What grade do YOU give it?
What’s Next?
SPIDER-MAN’S FIRST HUNT! The hunter is now the prey. Can Kraven survive?
Well, Marvel’s solicits guy is phoning it in. We need more interest text like this one. Whatever the case, Craig will be here to lead you through it and I’ll be back for #35! See you then! Well, actually, will see you in the comments!
Deb Whitman not in this issue.
‘Nuff Said!
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@Evan Berry
“I think I’m a clone now
There’s always two of me just a-hangin’ around
I think I’m a clone now
‘Cause every chromosome is a hand-me-down”
I Think I’m A Clone Now, “Weird Al” Yankovic
@hornacek — Jeez. I remember Hunted, but I certainly don’t remember anything like that happening. And yet, I remember the Lizard’s family in the sewers. Go figure. Incidentally, if I were terribly lonely, having a bunch of clones of myself to keep me company probably would just make thing worse. I guess Arcade was being mean.
This is why I will always be impressed by people who are experts in continuity.
@Old Guy, @Michael, @ Jon, @Hornacek, @Evan, and @Chi-Town
Old Guy – I’ve been thinking more about your comment. I think it has less to do with Sony and more to do with writers not liking to use things by other current writers. Look at supporting characters. We don’t get many that have staying power there, either. When a writer creates one, they seem to disappear with the new writer. Maybe it is a form of respect or maybe it is a way of separating their run from the previous writer. Or maybe it is just too difficult to come up with new characters so it is safer to use the older ones.
Michael – I’ll give you that, but she is still a legacy villain. I’m thinking brand new villains. We’ve had so many symbiote and goblins (and a symbioted goblin). There does seem to be a dearth of new villains that have any staying power. She is a good one and puts a new spin on the old villain. She feels more like her own character rather than just a new version that is female like Electro.
Jon – Thanks, man! I appreciate it! It is by far my favorite of his run so far. I do hope he keeps it up.
Hornacek – I would like to see Sinful Peter go on that date too. I fear what sinful Peter may do in other personal interactions with supporting characters we care more about.
Evan – That would have been funny! If nothing else, you could have seen them in the background as an Easter egg for the observant. 🙂
Chi-Town – Please refer to Jon’s comment as the proper etiquette for how to comment on my posts.
@Evan Berry
This happened back in Hunted. According to the Marvel Wiki, “After Vermin accidentally revealed that the Lizard and Taskmaster were working together to get into Central Park, Kraven’s accomplice Arcade injected Vermin with a special drug that made him grow clones out of his body, giving him the company he long longed for.”
@Evan: “Were you contractually obligated to remove the Chi-Town Spidey?” I gotta say, if Mark is contractually obligated to do things on his reviews, it would explain A LOT of the unexplained.
@Hornacek — Oh, come on, you gotta include Freak and Paper Doll in there, too.
I’m joking.
I do have a simple question about this issue, though — Where did the congress of Vermin come from? I thought Vermin was one of a kind. I was hoping that Kraven would run past Dr. Connors and his lizard family at a dinner table casually enjoying a meal. Isn’t that where we last saw them?
@Old Guy
To be fair, it’s really hard to come up with a new villain that sticks around. There are a lot of villains that are introduced and you never see again because the readers don’t respond to them.
For a long time it was just Hobgoblin, Venom and Carnage that were the only new ones that lasted. I guess now the most recent examples would be Mr. Negative (mostly because of the PS4 game) and Morlun?
@Dark Mark – As I said in my review, I want to see Sinful Peter go on another “date” with Michele.
Always love reading your reviews, for me this might be my favorite issue of Zeb’s run so far. Really loving this arc!
@ Mark- Arguably, Janice Lincoln is a good recent villain.
@Hornacek, @Evan, and @Old Guy
Hornacek – Kraven certainly took the limelight and was the protagonist of this issue. I suspect that this was just to introduce Spidey as the villain figure here and isolate us from his thoughts (though we did get some at the beginning). I imagine we will see more of Peter’s perspective next issue, but who knows? They may keep Peter isolated from us until the sins are removed. I don’t think I would like that, but if they don’t drag it out too long, it could work I guess.
Evan – Look at you waxing poetic! I have not read any of his novels, so I need to get a jump on that (so many great classics to read and I find myself as a teacher re-reading the same ones over and over). I love his video, though. As far as the header goes, Chi-Town made that for me a long time ago and I saved it and promptly forgot where I saved it. I might flip flop between the old and this one. I haven’t decided yet. I do like the Post-It Note effect.
Old Guy – I am of two minds about this. I certainly wouldn’t mind seeing some new villains coming along the way, but they tend not to be successful, which is why they keep going back to the old. I think the last successful new villain would be Carnage. Maybe we can count Morlun in the mix there. Mr. Negative had some steam, but he doesn’t seem to really do it for many. I’m a bit stuck in trying to think of another good recent villain. Is that because Marvel cannot write new villains or because the fan base tends to reject them, or, as you posited, that this saves Marvel money from Sony? I don’t know. I guess we would need to look at other titles and see if those titles are just recycling villains or if they are creating new ones. However, I think I can safely say that we can all be in agreement that there is just not enough Eight Ball in Marvel Comics.
There never seem to be any new villains in The Amazing Spider-Man, just ALOT of rehashing. Has Marvel Comics throttled down the introduction of new characters in the comic books so that Sony does not get the rights to these new characters in the movies?
Spyder, Spyder burning drear,
with the sins from Kraven’s spear;
What film tie-in or thwip of web
could change the pen of writer Zeb?
@Mark — I just watched the Vonnegut video. Thank you for sharing that! I’ve only read two of his books (Timequake and Breakfast of Champions, if I remember correctly), but it made me want to read more. (I know I should probably read Cat’s Cradle, but everyone tells me that, so I’d rather read a different one.) He reminds me of Mark Twain, and I appreciate that he said you can’t get any lower than the loss of your mother.
Also, I forgot to mention in my initial comment: I wanted to commend you on your new article header — It’s really well done. I have to ask, though — Were you contractually obligated to remove the Chi-Town Spidey? Were you required to pay some sort of prorated penalty fee?
@Mark
“according to the poll on my review, 12 out of 20 readers gave it a B or higher with 9 of that 12 being an A and 4 of that 9 being an A+”
There are dozens of us! DOZENS!
I also got the feel that “Kraven” was the protagonist of this issue, and Peter was the antagonist. But there was enough of Peter that this didn’t bother me. And Sinful Spidey was very competent and ruthless, which was kind of entertaining.
@Hornacek, @Hermit90, and @Evan
Hornacek and Hermit90 – Well, we are not alone – according to the poll on my review, 12 out of 20 readers gave it a B or higher with 9 of that 12 being an A and 4 of that 9 being an A+. I think the number one problem people have with the story is that Wells wrote it. I’m not criticizing anyone who has been irritated by Wells so much that they cannot like anything he writes, but I do believe that many of the people who did not like this story came into it not only expecting to disklike it, but looking for things to back up why Wells is an awful story teller. They guy is similar to Slott in some aspects – Slott can knock it out of the park. Then again, he can go on a strike out series for ages also. Another factor could be that the focus of this story was Kraven – not Peter, so that may allow for us to read the story a bit differently. Some people could name that as a detriment to the story, but I feel that every so often we need a story that focuses on a different character (that famous one where JJJ is writing a news story like the good old days only to find out in the end that Spider-Man was behind the scenes saving his butt the whole time. If we go several issues without Peter being the focus, then I’ll have a problem, but to introduce us to sinful Peter, I thought this was great.
Evan – Oh no! The video I linked to was pulled down for some reason. I put a new link up. Same video, just a awful 3-4 seconds lead in that didn’t exist in the original. Watch it! I put it in the review just for you.
Aw, I tried to watch the Kurt Vonnegut video, but it gave me “An error occurred. Please try again later. (Playback ID: PcS_uCqv2w8jQqf8).”
Just FYI.
First time commenter. I have to say, I agree with you on this issue being the best of the run. I wasn’t a big fan of Wells’ writing when he moved on from the initial Tombstone stories or even during it. But this one shows where his strong point really lies in. Not sure how to describe it, but more gritty stuff with Peter facing against the darkness of it or having to survive it is what it feels like to me. In a lot of ways, Wells works best when his story is more focused and doesn’t involve too many plot points. Unfortunately, that also means he gets held back by the use of certain characters since, as far as I’ve saw, he doesn’t have a good voice with some and even outright makes them unlikeable. Like MJ, Peter , and Paul were kinda awful people in their own ways. Even worse, I don’t like it when stories ask me to suspend my belief too much. Maybe this could’ve been avoided if his editor was someone competent.
In any case, here his voice with Peter this issue and the last 2 were a marked improvement by far and has me interested in him keeping this up despite my gripes. Definitely give it an A- to an A. Wished he did a better job portraying Peter as a good fighter or did a better job conveying when Peter is off his game at times.
Maybe I’m getting a contact high off of whatever Dark Mark is smoking, but I think I really liked this issue.
(INSERT GIF OF ZOOLANDER’S MUGATU YELLING “I FEEL LIKE I’M TAKING CRAZY PILLS!”)
@Chi-Town, @Evan, @Steve
Chi-Town – Ha! I think that flasher story was where Kelly decided she didn’t like me,* but I think it was less for me encouraging people to call the hotline on you and more because I introduced it by saying everyone’s favorite cosplayer and followed up with you and not her.
Evan – Foster’s book sounds better than Fish’s! It’s a fine read and if you get a chance to peruse it, you’ll probably enjoy it. It’s stuff you already know, but it draws your focus to what it is you are doing and makes you more aware of it. Quite a few people have told me that I give too much credit to Wells and that I am constructing more of the meaning than he is giving, but when I see these things, I just can’t turn it off in my head.
As far as Kraven87 not being the real Kraven, I don’t have an issue here. For one, it shows how Spider-Man’s thinking is skewed, much like other villains who believe they are justified for their actions. Add that to Kraven87 trying to come to terms with the fact that while he is his father, he is also not his father and it is possible for him to be his own man. This is a heck of a lot more of character development for this guy than I thought we would ever get. I think it is possible that when we leave this story, Kraven87 will be distinguishable from Kraven, though in what respects I do not know and if future writers will follow up, I also don’t know.
Oh, and nice onomatopoeia, of course!
Steve – I obviously agree that this is the strongest issue for Wells yet. I am surprised to see how many others agree. I figured I’d be seeing the pitchforks by now (but then again, I guess the front page commenters as a different group than the Discord commenters). At this moment, we have 18 grades and 11 of them are B or higher on this issue. Four of those are A+.
You said that the distractor for you was the probably ending here being Norman taking the sins back. That doesn’t bother me. It’s like watching Revenge of the Sith – I know Anacin is going to turn evil. But I enjoy the unfolding of the story anyway. (And if Chi-Town is still reading (unlikely since there are no pictures here), I am not comparing the quality of Wells’s writing with Star Wars – just the basic concept of my consumption of the story). I think Norman’s return to Green Goblin status is unavoidable and am very impressed that they held out for this long. And who knows? Wells might be leading us in that direction only to have the sins go to someone else. You know, now that I said that, I’m going all in on Aunt May getting the sins and teaming up with the mutated Aunt Anna to raze the city and take over the organized crime operations in New York in a story titled, “My Aunts…My Enemies!”. You heard it here first, folks!
*But of course, everyone likes me, so that was just a flavor text and not reality.
This is clearly the best book of the run. Once you get past the fact that Peter is venting his Last Hunt anger on someone who had nothing to do with it, it’s a great take. I thought Slott missed an opportunity when he had Doc Ock try to be heroic. Spider-man as a villain would be a very interesting arc. Unfortunately, this will be rapped up quickly and predictable, with Norman taking back his sins to save Peter. A Norman, returned to his evil ways, going up against a conflicted Peter, who has to come to terms with how to deal with this threat, while knowing the sacrifice Norman made for him, is likely a story in all our futures.
@Mark — I very much enjoyed this review, especially your in-depth literary breakdown. I’ve considered reading How to Read Literature like a Professor, but I always had second thoughts. If you recommend it, I will give it a try. The second thoughts came from having read How to Write a Sentence: And How to Read One by Stanley Fish. The stupid and needless colon in the title should be a fair indication of what to expect from that book. It was utterly pretentious and ridiculous, in that the first half made a fair case for having certain rules for crafting a good sentence, and the second half explained that *certain* authors are “good” precisely because they break those rules. Yuck. I was concerned that Foster’s book was similar.
Remember how in Avengers: Endgame (which appropriately uses a colon) the Thanos that was defeated at the end was a different Thanos than the one that snapped, and therefore it sort of (only sort of!) made the victory slightly hollow for some people? Do you feel that the fact that the Kraven in this story isn’t the Kraven from Kraven’s Last Hunt renders this a little hollow, as well? Wells reminds us time and again that this isn’t the same Kraven. In this case, I guess it’s used as a means of showing just how far Peter has gone, in that he doesn’t care that this is not the same Kraven. As far as Marvel comics goes, I can’t remember if clones (even if created by Mephisto and not the Jackal) are supposed to be viewed as the same character, with the same memories (even though Ben Reilly had Peter’s memories), and therefore functionally identical or not. But here, this Kraven doesn’t have the same hunting experience as his “father,” either, does he? Incidentally, I would think that Kraven and Ashley Kafka would have found common ground and bonded a bit over the fact that they were both clones, but I don’t recall that happening.
Other than that, I thought this was excellent. I have a deep aversion to seeing teeth break in any way, but in spite of that, I was planning on coming up with my own onomatopoeia even before you made it an assignment. The me, the sound of teeth breaking, complete with the visceral sharpness and shock I feel when I see it, is “KkerrKsplickkFFfffffssssss”. (It starts with a bang and ends with a whimper. A very sad whimper. And tears.)
I told you that you would not be able to get it out of your head, but NOOOOOOO, you had to search. Enjoy the nightmares.
Let’s look into that more closely. Zdarsky run on Peter Parker: Spect Spidey was bad, but his very last issue was good, even the Jonah one was good! STILL, doesn’t make up for the many issues of bad taste, but he went out good note (or good steak). Much like Wells, he’s forced into an editorial direction and had to find some way to make the best of it. Zdarsky actually did a better job than Wells is doing now. By introducing Terresa (a new character) he doesn’t risk damaging long supportive casts which Wells has been known to do. Do I have to remind you what Lizard did to his son?
I get you liked this issue, but you can easily compare it to the original. Kraven taking Spidey’s role, Spidey taking Kraven’s role, Norman taking MJ’s role (shivers…). It’s a twist that really could have gone better and unfortunately it can’t due to the direction Editorial has given. Wells can write, but Spider-Man isn’t and shouldn’t be his deep dish pizza. He wants to write Darth Vader stories, but George Lucas might beat him up again.
I’m all for comparing good stories to bad stories with you. I did it all the time when I wrote my reviews in contrast to your reviews. Ah yes, good times. To inform EVERYONE on here, NO ONE thought I was Virginia flasher, ONLY YOU. The news segment that you did completely back fired and it was the only time Brad regretting giving you this assignment. Memory serves me correctly, it was George that stated “Listeners, it’s not Chi-Town. Dark Mark is making *censored* up, he’s a monster.”
@Chi-Town – Hmmm… Seems like too much protesting about the whole busting a move bit, so I did a quick YouTube search. You must have missed one. Geez! Can’t get that image out of my head now.
Your steak on a garbage can lid metaphor is as about as flawed as your definition of pizza. Just because the “What Did Peter Do?” was less than stellar doesn’t mean that all of Wells’s stuff is less than stellar. The guy is all over the place. Look at Zdarsky – his focus on Teresa Parker stunk his book up, but does that mean the guy can’t write? Not at all. He has had good visions for a lot of his other works.
Awww – you think I’m smart! Thanks best buddy! So I’ll go one for you – you may be right in that I am giving Wells more credit for how it laid out than what Wells was putting into it. That is perfectly possible. I love literature and I enjoyed this issue, so I may be applying too much of what I would expect from Joyce Carol Oats or Charles Dickens onto what Wells has done. I certainly don’t think he belongs in the former category of writers, but I did like this issue.
So what if there is a Kraven movie coming out soon and he was told to put Kraven into the book? That doesn’t make it a bad story. That can be an element of a bad story if a writer is obviously feeling pressured to include story points (like Spider-Man 3), but it feels in this case that Kraven fits in nicely with the direction that Wells was wanting to go with this anyway.
All in all, I get it. You do not like Wells and as such, will have that in your head when you pick up any Wells book and possibly any Lowe-edited book. It will be a barrier that will prevent you from enjoying any of these books for a while, which is a shame because I really enjoy talking about the plots of these books with you when we reviewed together. Maybe we need to start up a segment where we discuss some of the older stuff from Spec or Web or Team Up or something.
I was listening to the call-in podcast and when Brad was talking about best memories of the podcast over the years, one came to my mind above all others – that time everyone thought you were that Virginia flasher who wore a partial Spider-Man suit and I was able to exonerate you for the whole Crawlspace panel and listening audience. That’s us – BFFs 4-ev!
By the way, ‘exonerate’ means to clear of all charges.
ONE, I never had a emo-teen phase nor did I “bust a move” to James Brown’s “People Get Up and Drive Your Funky Soul”. If I did, I would have easily destroyed all tapes and documents of it. That being said, I’m about to rub some dirt in your eyes.
Mark, you son of a…you stole my steak metaphor and twisted it!! Now I have to correct it FOR YOU like I have to correct your REVIEW CATEGORY FOR YOU. The steak is Spider-Man and Gleason’s art. The way it was served to us was on a garbage can lid that was already sitting on a garbage can that was labeled “What did Peter do?!”
“I don’t care” THAT’S THE PROBLEM! You are a smart guy, I’ll give you that. You have your moments, however…if you think he put half the amount of thought you put into your review, you are giving Zeb Wells way too much credit. Wells thought “I’ll do MY version of The Last Hunt, but ignore Soul of the Hunter, the actual sequel to The Last Hunt and twist it around. Yeah, that’s the ticket!” Dude..he can’t spell “Beautiful” correctly on comic signature inscription and you think he carefully crafted this?! Kraven is only in here because there’s a KRAVEN MOVIE coming out.
Kraven’s Last Hunt: Original. Written by J. M. DeMatteis
Soul of the Hunter: Sequal. Written by J. M. DeMatteis
Hunted: Inspired by KLH and SoTH, original piece written by Nick Spencer.
THIS? A twist that Wells thinks it’s a follow-up to the original. You are wrong on this one and we are never going to see eye to eye (hardly irregular) on this.