Does the 2099 story arc end predictably, or does it leave readers with a satisfying shock? Read the review and LEAVE A COMMENT!
THE SUPERIOR SPIDER-MAN #19
WRITER: Dan Slott
PENCILER: Ryan Stegman
INKER: Livesay
COLOR ART: Edgar Delgado
LETTERER: Chris Eliopoulos
PLOT POINTS:
- To solve the Horizon Labs “timeplosion,” Otto furiously digs through Peter’s few remaining memories, and a familiar silhouette unburies himself from the rubble.
- Spider-Man 2099 threatens to let Tiberius Stone die, but Miguel ultimately cannot commit an act that could eradicate his native timeline.
- Otto only manages to mitigate the timeplosion into a controlled implosion that destroys Horizon Labs and obliterates Otto. Max Modell sciences Otto back to life.
- Mayor Jameson will pull strings to drop the federal charges against Modell in exchange for Modell never sciencing in New York again. Modell and some of the Horizon staff depart on Modell’s boat. However, Otto tells Sajani he has a proposition for her.
- Mary Jane calls Peterpus to say she’s “moving on” due to Peter’s personality change.
- Liz Allan forms Alchemax by merging Allan Chemical (her father’s company) with Normie’s share of Oscorp and the acquisitions from Horizon Labs.
- Tyler Stone strands Spider-Man 2099 in 2013. Miguel poses as Tiberius’s personal assistant at present-day Alchemax.
- Carlie Cooper and the Wraith find evidence that Spider-Man is using Otto’s bank account.
OPINIONS!
For anyone who thought Superior Spider-Man’s plot has moved too slowly lately, here you go. Issue #19 packs in enough major developments to fill three or four normal comics, and it ends the current three-parter with a literal bang. All-in-all, #19 is a knock-out comic book, and one of the best issues of Dan Slott’s Spider-Man run. Of course, Dan Slott still wrote the thing, so silly moments abound. Thus, I hereby introduce my new segment: “Awesome Thing/Silly Thing.”
AWESOME THING: Ryan Stegman’s two-page spread implying the return of Peter Parker constitutes a masterpiece of storytelling. The Superior Spider-Man clutches his head, rifling through his memories, with a detailed spider’s web hanging behind him. In the “windows” between the web strands, Stegman inserted images of classic scenes from Spider-Man history–in their original art styles!–with Otto’s head drawn onto Peter’s body. The bottom row of panels show Peter’s silhouette digging himself out of the metaphorical rubble that crushed him after his mental battle with Otto in issue #9. The silhouette’s poses match the various body movements of Spider-Man in the memories depicted above, as if Otto’s invoking Peter’s defining struggles is animating Peter to hoist himself back from the brink. Stegman innovatively employs this striking layout and mix of art styles to relate a crucial story development without explicitly spelling out what’s happening. You know that finger-kissing gesture people do to say food tastes good? I’m doing that with my eyes right now.
SILLY THING: Once Otto awakens from his memory trance, Modell comments that Spider-Man had spaced out for eight full minutes. The concept that Spider-Man stood silently in a room full of people grabbing his head for eight minutes is hilarious. Count to 480 to grasp how long that is.
AWESOME THING: This issue served as more than the conclusion of the three-part 2099 story–it also drew to a close Peter’s job at Horizon Labs, a status quo that has lasted for approximately seventy issues. And what better way to turn a new page than by blowing the whole place up? To compounded the excitement, Otto finally could not come up with a perfect solution and actually questioned whether he was inferior to Peter Parker. After #19 issues, Slott apparently got the hint that Otto needs to face challenges that are just that–challenging–to maintain our interest in his adventures. Otto’s recruiting of Sajani also intrigues. Is he starting his own company?
SILLY THING: The device (the “plot device,” if you will) Modell used to reconstitute Spider-Man came from nowhere. The Horizon Labs staff sailing off into the moonlight played cheesily. Dan Slott forgot that Modell named his boat the Zenith, not the Zephyr.
AWESOME THING: I find Miguel O’Hara remaining in the present a much more interesting development than returning him to 2099 limbo. The writers might actually develop Miguel’s character and show how he reacts to the contemporary Marvel Universe over the long term. Slott adorably weaved this story into the origin of Alchemax, and simultaneously created a role for Liz and Normie in the current status quo.
SILLY THING: How does Normie have “holdings” in Oscorp? He’s, like, ten years old tops. Can children own corporations in the Marvel Universe?
Additionally, this issue included two plot points that I consider positive, but are too little, too late to rightly categorize as “awesome.” First, Mary Jane finally confronts “Peter” regarding his abnormal behavior. This happened twenty issues too late, and we’re only at issue #19. Second, Carlie finally finds the “proof” of the mind swap she’s been after. Yet, it still frustrates me that she has sat on the information she already knew, even though letting Ock run free puts the lives of her supposed friends at risk. Dan Slott’s contrived, drawn-out pacing of Carlie’s storyline only emphasizes the Superior saga’s greatest flaw: that Otto’s continued eluding of detection relies on the irrationality of many other characters.
The hardest part of grading each issue of Superior Spider-Man is deciding what weight to give the logical lapses at the ongoing story’s core, when the individual issues are often quite good. This issue is more than “quite good,” though–it is outstanding. Accordingly, I’m erring on the side of positivity.
A-
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12 – Thanks for the explanation!
@CrazyChris –
As lawyer, I’ll just mention the following :
(1) Children inherit assets all the time, including shares in corproate entities.
(2) Until the children reach the ‘age of majority’ (which can differ according to the terms of the will and the jurisdiction), the assets are managed on trust by the executor of the Will, frequently the child’s guardian. That person is required to manage the assets for the benefit of the beneficiary (the child). Due to the wide discretion, the choice of an executor is extremely important.
I wonder if there are any logical reasons why Carlie and Watanabe had to physically go to the island. You would think they would know some crooked money-launderer (a la Barry Butowksi from Burn Notice) who could trace pay-receipts back to their source. Oh well, maybe the only way to know the owner of these kinds of accounts would be to see the original name on the original paperwork with one’s own eyes.
Slott only has six months to wrap this thing up, before the movie comes out, so a lot of stuff is picking up steam. I’ll be glad when its over, because when I read large sections of these issues, I find Otto’s personality a turn-off. Of course, because he’s a sociopath. To me, he’s only interesting when he gets mentally entangled with Peter Parker’s feelings — as if Otto is fighting -against- getting emotionally healed. But the straight-up Otto (even when written with zest) is heavy and suffocating. Nothing but narcissistic anger and intellectual contempt for others.
6 – The Superior Venom is . . . A PHONE!
7 – I was a little amused that Brad focused on the phone, but now it seems like the green color is some kind of plot detail for real.
8 – Lame? I’d say it’s pretty terrifying. “Your death calls, Spider-Man! Accept the charges or fate will hang up on you!”
9 – I think any property Normie inherited would technically belong to Liz because children can’t own property. So I guess Liz is kind of screwing over her son by using stock that was intended for him to build her own company.
“SILLY THING: How does Normie have “holdings” in Oscorp? He’s, like, ten years old tops. Can children own corporations in the Marvel Universe?”
Is it not the portion of Oscorp that Normie inherited? People in real life inherit stakes in companies and the like.
@#6-That’s like the lamest symbiote ever. Venom, Carnage, Toxin, Scream…Ringtone
Well said, yes I called out the moldy green color in my own review. I also want the original print of Peter emerging from the brink.
@5 – Are you saying she used the same phone in 2 different issues but in one it was a land line and in another it was a cell phone? If so, using Spider-Man history as the basis, there is only one possible solution – the phone is a symbiote! Remember in Web #1 when the symbiote disguised itself as a red/blue costume in Peter’s closet? It’s obvious this symbiote is disguising itself as a phone but is transforming from phone to phone! Next issue it’ll be a rotary phone. It makes perfect sense.
1 – Good to know someone agrees!
2 – Thanks!
3 – What’s more, MJ uses her cell phone in this issue but in the last issue she used a land line. There’s some kind of clue here, I just can’t figure out what!
4 – Good to know you enjoyed that line.
Keep the comments coming, folks!
Damn. I cracked up at “MJ finally confronts Peter. This came 20 issues too late and it’s only issue 19”
If Spock was standing still for 8 minutes you know some of the people in that room were using their smartphones to take pictures of themselves with him.
The sub-plot of the magic phone continues!
Fantastic review.
Nice review, Chris! We actually gave this issue the same grade, so cool. 🙂