It’s Gobby vs. Gobby as Peter’s life hangs in the balance! Can the Webspinner save the day from the Hobgoblins’ wrath without compromising his identity?
“Danger Zone Part Two: Key to the Kingdom”
Written by Dan Slott and Christos Gage
Illustrated by Giuseppe Camuncoli
Inked by Dan Green
Colored by Antonio Fabela
Lettered by VC’s Chris Eliopoulos
THE PLOT: The new Hobgoblin kidnaps Peter and takes him to the Kingpin’s Shadowland stronghold. Incapacitated by the spider-sense jamming machine, he can do little while the bad guys contact Max Modell and demand that Spider-Man hand over the briefcase that the two have been battling over from the previous issue. Meanwhile, Roderick Kingsley, a.k.a. the original Hobgoblin is planning his attack on Phil Urich, the newest person to assume the orange mantle.
LONG STORY SHORT: Modell arrives equipped with web-shooters he found in Peter’s office. Kingsley attacks and in the ensuing destruction, the spider-sense jammer is destroyed. Peter and Modell flee with the Goblin Key, the instrument of Norman Osborn’s which can be used to amass the secrets of his Goblin technology and H.A.M.M.E.R., while the two Hobgoblins chase them.
MY THOUGHTS: I’m not sure what to say about this issue. Nothing much happened to make me have any strong feelings for or against it. It was a very adequate issue of Amazing Spider-Man, moved the story along at an even pace and pushes the series further down the road to #700. It’s just…I didn’t care while reading it.
Last issue I talked about Slott’s style of writing which recalls back to an older style during the Roger Stern run. I still feel that way, and it could be said for a number of his issues, but one thing I think comes across here is that Peter isn’t given much to do. He was present in the issue, but basically was mulling over how much he couldn’t do anything due to his Spider-Sense being out of wack. I’m not going to dwell on this because it really wasn’t that big of a deal. I’m trying to work out the reason for my lack of interest in this story. Perhaps because it feels so familiar in tone, it’s almost rudimentary in its style.
Part of it may be owed to the fact that the cover promises an epic showdown between Kingsley and Urich, and their fight is left in the background. ASM lately has a tendency to promise so much with the covers and just not deliver. True, the two Goblins did fight but the issue moves focus away from that and to Peter and Max Modell chatting while they escape. Both Goblins appear slightly damaged at the end, so we’re left to assume by the art that they’re on equal footing in a fight. Couldn’t we have seen that? It would have been interesting to read, more so than Peter being tied to a chair and worry his little head off.
I’m coming across much harder on this issue than I actually am. I don’t feel anything for this issue, I really don’t.
I do think that because the psychic blindspot is now gone, Max Modell and Phil Urich have zero excuses for not guessing that Peter is Spider-Man. This issue had those moments where in any other case, the excuse would be that the blindspot would keep them from guessing in the face of obvious evidence. Here, they just come off as dumb.
Madame Web in this issue was again, useless, even in a coma. She sawed off her fingerprints, but apparently forgot as well as Slott did to pluck out her teeth for dental record identification. Again, her mumblings tell us jack all about what’s coming. I suppose we’re not supposed to know until it’s too late, but is there anything we can gather about a “flash of gold”?
This issue came and went. Nothing much was memorable besides all of the above. It wasn’t bad but not great either. Here’s hoping next issue gives us something to sink our teeth into.
2.5/5 webs
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Haters gon’ hate. I liked the issue.
Peter and Modell run their asses away with Osborn’s tech key, so you best believe shit’s goin’ down next iss’.
well… the cover is awesome.
I agree with Don’s take on the book. While it had humor and a little action and the plot moved forward, in the end, I couldn’t muster up any feeling for the characters. And this is the crux of the biscuit in terms of what is lacking in Mr. Slott’s writing. In the end, who gives a damn? I ask you, beyond the moments with MJ in Spider-Island (and the catalyst that gave us the best new book of the year IMHO, Scarlet Spider), so what? Ends of the Earth? Who cares? That is the issue. If we can’t feel emotionally invested in the characters, nothing that happens will matter. Slott is in his element when he is writing Spidey/Torch team ups. But grown-up relationships and character development are not his bailiwick.
Also, when Max brought the case…why didn’t they just kill him then and take it. I mean, a thousand Hand Ninjas and no one kills the superfluous witness?
@ #3 – thing is, Don said he didn’t care much for the issue but then went on to describe a lot of things he didn’t like. I was expecting a 1/5 grade. But at 2.5/5, surely there were things he did like no? Why not mention those? Instead we get the same old “Slott writes in the eighties style” schtick that Don has said repeatedly over the last few months. Pretty weak review if you ask me, not in the grade, but in the quality of the review.
i like the part when spider-man takes down the kingpin
“MY THOUGHTS: I’m not sure what to say about this issue. Nothing much happened to make me have any strong feelings for or against it.”
Nope. Not good enough. As has already been established, unless you give it a glowing review, people are going to hate your opinion, whether you like the book or not.
Yeah I got that, but how are the characters in the comic supposed to know? And why couldn’t she have said “gold octobot”?
The “flash of gold” is clearly meant to be the gold octobot that we see for a few panels. Clearly, that octobot has a special function that will play into whatever happens to Spider-Man to change him from Amazing to Superior. You know what I think.
There were a lot of cliches in this issue.