Spider-Man 2099 (2014) Issue #18 + Series Review
Okay, the last issue of Spider-Man 2099, issue #18, is out and so here’s my review of it. Read on as the series comes to a close in lieu of Secret Wars!
The comic opens with when we last left off, namely that Miguel’s efforts to cure Tempest led to her becoming a new member of his rogue gallery, like so many others. He narrates that by all accounts this shouldn’t be happening, but then thinks about all the crazy things he’d been up to and figures anyone of them could be responsible. Right now, his more pressing matter was the spider-wasp woman trying to eat him.
The fight spills over to a park, where his A.I informs him that the change should be temporary at best, when we get a hostage situation with a police officer being held captive in order to lure him out. In stark contrast to the majority of the police community, this one is actually on Miguel’s side. Where has she been lately?
Anyway, Miguel lures Tempest underwater and then manages to distract her by revealing his secret identity long enough to knock her out. The police arrive and try to arrest him, failing predictably even as the nice one covers for him winging her with a bullet, and Miguel deposits Tempest back into her room and apologizes for the whole thing.
As the comic ends, we have confirmation that she remembers what happened while under the transformation, including his secret identity.
Okay, review time.
Short, sweet, and to the point. I can’t really complain, but having some sort of confirmation as to what was the reason she suddenly went hungry for spiders would have been nice. Oh, well, there’s not much you can do once you reach the closing chapter of the series. 4 out of 5.
As for the series as a whole, I found it entertaining. Reading it was never a chore, but sometimes Miguel’s thoughts disturbed me—like when he thought of throwing his boss out of a window. Miguel operates differently than Peter in how approaches things, though he doesn’t go as far as Kaine would. It would have been nice if it lasted longer, but all we can do is hope he survives the reboot….
Oh, who are we kidding, all spiders are safe.
The series itself gets a 5 out of 5.
Spider-Man 2099 (2014) #10 Review
Trapped in Maestro’s lair, can Miguel escape back to the past to correct the future? Read my review of Spider-Man 2099 #10 to find out!
Our comic picks up after Maestro has curbstomped our hero and dropped him off in a cell. Maestro’s minister asks him what he was thinking locking the hero up unchained in a cell with a Sorceress Supreme. Clearly he knows that this can only lead to one thing, namely that they team-up and escape, but Maestro tells him that he doesn’t care what he thinks. He doesn’t even care about the future he’s conquered since he’s done all there is to do in this world and now he wants more.
Meanwhile, Miguel can’t even crawl over to the female Doctor Strange because he’s so badly beaten, but he manages to fire a web-line and she pulls him close enough to heal. He breaks her chains and they stomp through some guards in order to get to where Maestro has a time machine, with Miguel desperate to go back and fix this mess. There they find Doom’s Time Platform and he figures they just need enough power and there’s half-a-dozen Iron Man suits still in working order.
Maestro shows up and ganks the Sorceress Supreme using a Soul Dagger and an Invisibility Cloak. Miguel flips and manages to get off a shot of an Iron Man Gauntlet before hopping the platform to get back to his own time. He hopes he put Maestro down, because him coming back to the past would be a worse-case scenario. Sad to say, that’s exactly what happened because Maestro and the female Doctor Strange (or rather, the demon possessing her) tricked him into giving Maestro exactly what he wanted.
He ends up in the past right as the comic ends.
Okay, review time…
Honestly, I liked it. It was short, precise, and accomplished what was set out to be done rather than drag it by three more issues. Art was wonderful, and future materials were laid out for plot.
4 out of 5.
Spider-Man 2099 (2014) #9 Review
Spider-Man 2099 #9 is out now! Read my review of what happens at the end of Spider-verse, when Miguel is sent back to his own time!
The comic opens with the future not looking like Miguel remembers. Rather than a sprawling and packed city, it’s a wasteland of debris and gloomy remnants of a once great city. He starts freaking out, wondering if Morlun was responsible, but some raiders shoot at him before he can get too into it and he fakes dead long enough to get them close enough to take him to the nearest sign of civilization.
The shantytown the two take him to is empty, due to more guys showing up and trying to capture them. Turns out they work for the Maestro, an alternate future version of the Hulk who has a brain. Long story short, he and the Hulk get into it and Miguel gets beaten like a drum until the dude gets bored.
As they carry him back to the Hulk’s place, he mentions that this wasteland is due to Alchemax experimenting leading to nukes flying. Yep, somehow they make things even worse than the original 2099. Anyway, Maestro makes it clear he wants to get back to the past, which will end horribly for everyone, and Miguel gets tossed into a cell where a female Doctor Strange is as the comic ends.
Okay, review time…
Honestly, I found this to be okay. Not too good, but not bad. It’s just average since it’s setting up a cool down arc for either Miguel returning to the past or into Secret Wars, but at least this explains the reason that Miguel mentioned Harrison Snow basically killed those two he sent back to the future in the last issue of All-New X-Factor.
3 out of 5.
The Amazing Spider-Man #14 (Spider-Verse Tie-In) Review
This is the climax of Spider-Verse! Read my review on Amazing Spider-Man #14 as we draw this crossover to a close.
It picks up on the streets of Loomworld, where Spider-Woman and Spider-Gwen have to deal with a plethora of goblins from across dimensions. Peter’s group arrives as they wrap things up, but it turns out that the Inheritors made off with Silk, meaning they have all three and can begin the ritual.
With the life-eaters, they are having a moment of bitter sadness as they mourn the death of their father, especially that asshole Daemos. Never thought him to be such a daddy’s boy, but he does take comfort in the fact that Jennix has a crystal that has what amounts to his soul so they can resurrect him once everything is done. Morlun then starts the ritual, ordering the others to stop the spiders from getting in.
His cut into Kaine that stains the Great Web with blood ensures that the Other can no longer find a host, though I can’t tell if Kaine is dead, and Morlun drops hints to Silk being special beyond merely being The Bride. Her blood, however, makes it so that no more Spider Totems are born by accident, like Peter getting bitten by chance. Morlun then moves to kill The Scion, which would stop any more from being born completely, but the Spiders intervene.
Peter takes Morlun, Otto gets Daemos and then Mayday gets her turn looking for vengeance. Uncle Ben appears to run away, and then Karn shows up to fight alongside the Spiders and free every world from their grasp. Morlun realizes it’s a distraction too late, as Uncle Ben had taken The Scion with him and left Spider-Ham in his place.
As beatdown continues, Leopardon arrives with Miguel and Lady Spider, Morlun states they have only delayed the inevitable. Otto agrees and decides to take out the one thing that will ensure their survival. By that, I mean he just murders the goddamn Master Weaver to solve that problem… which means he’s just screwed up the entire fabric of space and time to an extent. That won’t end well, at all.
The battle ends at that point with Peter dumping the Inheritors in the toxic world and telling them to get to the shelter, stating that they should make it. The comic ends there abruptly, with the fallout yet to come.
Okay, review time.
Most of it is done now, and it was decent, but there are questions I still have that will have to be answered in the epilogue in two weeks. But seriously, why the hell did they let the Inheritors live? Daemos would have cleared out the Unlimited Spider-Man’s world if Jennix hadn’t shown up, and even he points out that it doesn’t make sense. Leaving them to die a slow and painful death by starvation may be just desserts, but being quicker about it and simply tearing their heads off make more sense so they don’t return by chance after one of them cannibalizes the other.
Anyway, I still have to say that to this point it was a much better crossover than AXIS or Battle of the Atom. My main regret is that once they pull that Secret Wars bullcrap reboot, most of it will be for nothing. Didn’t Marvel learn from DC and the New 52?
5 out of 5.
Spider-Man 2099 #8 Review
Now it’s time we took a look into Lady Spider world! Here’s my Spider-Man 2099 #8 review!
Miguel and Lady Spider arrive at the former safe zone only to see corpses lying around, much to the detriment of Lady Spider’s stomach. They share a moment of compassion with a hug, before they stumble across the giant robot that we lost to Solus before he got ganked by Kaine. They immediately decide to fix it up and she knows just the place to go.
She visits her time period and asks for permission to use the lab of Harold Osborn’s father, Norman Osborn as you would expect. He agrees, planning to attack it, and Miguel hitches a ride as they transfer it piece-by-piece. Miguel points out the Inheritors are weak to radiation, so if they had some for the robot it would screw the Inheritors over big time.
Anyway, Peter decides to call in and tell them about the new safe zone as Harold arrives to see Lady Spider and they get attacked by the Six Men of Sinestry. They get beaten by Lady Spider, Miguel, and the giant robot, before Miguel recognizes that the Doc Ock was using some radioactive materials to power his arms and has her get some Lead to contain it. Using parts from the six, they manage to fix the robot and get to leave, only for Lady Spider to wonder how Harold is doing. Harold goes to visit his father, only to get shot as the comic ends with the robot back in action.
Okay, review time…
Overall, it was another tie-in, but it was interesting over all. Shame about that Harold dude, but there was nothing to be done with it.
3 out of 5.
Spider-Man 2099 #7 (Spider-Verse) Review
Spider-Verse is still in effect and Miguel O’hara is doing his part to aid his fellow spiders! Read my review of Spider-man 2099 #7!
The comic opens with Daemos trapped in the field, unable to escape. Miguel tells Lady Spider that the more he struggles, the higher the energy level multiplies, so he’s not going anywhere. He then pays a visit to Tyler Stone and basically tells him that he’s still pissed about being dumped in 2014, but Daemos is the bigger threat and he needs a lab to work on the dissection.
When it begins, Daemos continues boasting about how he cannot be stopped. Miguel doesn’t think they can hold him for long so he has Lady Spider analyzing a device that he got from the other him that was killed by Morlun, with Tyler Stone taking a peek as well. I mean, interdimensional tech just screams profit.
Daemos, having grown bored, gives them an ultimatum, let him go and they will be spared to die of old age. They aren’t going to take it, of course, but tell him they’ll think it over. Miguel was hoping to find something else they could survive off so they didn’t eat his kind, but there’s nothing so far, while Lady Spider has a little more luck with the device.
When time is up they reject his offer, so he tells them they’re his new targets and starts meditating. Miguel runs off to a Bio-lab for some kind of cure that was done back in the 2040s. Whatever it is seems important and useful, but Lady Spider calls him back when Daemos begins to fight against the field hard enough to absorb enough energy to power the city. While this does kill him, he has a clone on the ground in mere minutes afterwards.
To buy them a few more minutes, Miguel called in Punisher 2099. Armed with a decent gun, it punches him away until he misses and then he does what might be the coolest thing ever. He beats Daemos over the head with a titanium bat three times before lighting him up with a plasma cannon and melting the floor beneath him. This man is made of win!
That buys the two spiders enough time to jump back to the Safe Zone, only this is after Morlun’s family ran through the place, so they end up amidst corpses as the comic ends.
Okay, review time!
I love it. Not only do we see more of 2099’s world and characters, we get to see someone ordinary putting a halt to the Inheritors momentarily and they even managed to snag what amounts to a win. 5 out of 5!
Spider-Man 2099 #6 (Spider-Verse) Review
Spider-Verse continues within Spider-Man 2099 #6! Read my review on the story as Miguel, Lady Spider, and the Six-Armed Spider-Man try to carve up Daemos’ corpse for science!
The story begins with that asshole Stone after he had finally gotten rid of Spider-Man 2099 by trapping him in the past. He’s then greeted to the sight of footage Public Eye caught of that spider-man and his two friends. His assistant points out that they’re lucky he didn’t come back in time before they sent him off or another paradox would have occurred, but either way Stone wants him killed once and for all.
Meanwhile Miguel’s brother is talking with their mother when he shows up with his friends, who are lacking Daemos’ corpse I noticed. Lady Spider, or May, instantly gets on his radar as Miguel tries to get in touch with the other heroes of 2099. That’s when Daemos pops in and we lose the Six-Armed Spider-Man before Gabriel pops his ass with a giant gun when he got somewhere. The kiss he gets is well-earned.
Daemos then proceeds to tear Public Eye a new one when Miguel tells Tyler Stone that while he would normally kick his ass, instead he’ll owe him a favor if they ready the 82 floor of Alchemax Lab C. He jumps on that like there’s no tomorrow and together they trap Daemos in a stasis cell as the comic ends. Suck it!
Okay review time…
Much like in Spider-Woman, we’ve lost another Spider from Otto’s team to the Inheritors (although Noir was simply wounded) and Daemos continues to be a creepy bastard with all the sexual undertones. Seriously, kill him permanently already. But otherwise it’s good stuff.
I give it a 5 out of 5.
Spider-Man 2099 (2014) #5 Review
Okay, here’s the latest entry in the Edge of Spider-Verse series. Read my review and recap of Spider-Man 2099 # 5.
The comic opens with an alternate version of Miguel O’Hara , who sold out to the Avengers, being attacked by Morlun. It goes about as well as you would expect, namely he gets eaten so hard that all the other version of him felt it, including ours in the 616-universe and he nearly blacks out while chasing a helicopter. He pulls himself together and catches the robbers in the helicopter, but is confused about it.
Back with Morlun, it turns out that another alternate version of Miguel was watching and he may have led Morlun to him. This Miguel, who works with the Exiles, learned about Morlun and tried to reach the other versions of him through a mental link. Now he’s grabbing whatever he thinks will help and then running to the 616-Universe since Morlun might be afraid of it because he died there.
Back with our Miguel, he’s managing to convince Ty Stone and Liz Allen to work on building a super-prison for the villains when he gets another migraine. A younger version of him bit the bullet and once again the Exile Miguel felt it and decided it’s time to go to his 616 counterpart. Just as soon as he gets the portal open, he gets eaten in front of our Miguel and the only reason Morlun doesn’t go after him is because he’s afraid of their universe.
The comic ends as Miguel decides to go find Peter Parker.
Okay, review time…
So, we see another Spider-Man taking preemptive measures to stop the Inheritors, albeit one that failed. With only a final entry left in the Edge series before the main event I am excited.
4 out of 5.
Spider-Man 2099 (2014) #4 Review
The Spider-Man of the future now faces the Scorpion of the present in the fourth issue of the 2099 series! How does it all go down? Read my review and find out!
The comic picks up where it last left off, with Miguel about to go mano-a-mano with Scorpion. He tries to tell them they’re on the same side, but he doesn’t care since Otto punched his jaw off the last time they met and he’s not bright enough to tell the differences in the costumes. Alchemax made his suit stronger and faster since there was apparently no one who knew spiders and robots better… except maybe Smythe, but Otto straight up killed him.
Miguel quickly learns, however, that despite history stating he was barely a nuisance to Peter, history books often pale in comparison to the real thing as he gets a proper tail whip out of the building and into a group of Spider-Slayers. Then again, he doesn’t have Spider-Sense, so sucks for him.
As for Ty, the little bastard’s about to get buried alive when the building starts collapsing, all because of Scorpion. Then the woman who took him hostage saves his ass at the cost of her own life. It looks like he has a moment of guilt, but given who he is it’s hard to say. More on that later.
Back to the fight, Miguel is forced to dodge since lasers hurt until loud-mouth yells they’ll attack anyone looking like a spider. So he hides and holograms his clothes, but he neglected to remember that Scorpion is a villain and is perfectly willing to kill civilians unless he shows himself. This is why you don’t fight in a crowd if you can help it. Then Miguel remembers he has holographic tech and could put it on Scorpion to make him look like Spider-Man….
Yeah, they swarm his ass until Ty arrives and uses a deactivation phrase to shut them down. They messed him up. Anyway, with that problem solved we go back to the business meeting where Ty seemed to have learned from the woman’s sacrifice and basically tells the dictator to leave the country or the slayers will come after him.
Does it interfere with political boundaries, yes it does. Do we care? No! He’s learned something! Someone managed to reach into that black heart of his and moved it! As the comic ends Scorpion, Miguel, and Ty head back to the airport and onto the next great adventure, Spider-Verse.
Okay, review time…
Well, this turned out better than I expected. I honestly thought Ty wouldn’t learn a damn thing, so maybe he has hope besides being a little bastard. Let’s just hope no one else has to die for it to happen again.
5 out of 5.
Spider-Man 2099 (2014) #3 Review
A bit late, but my Spider-Man 2099 #3 review is here. Read on!
The comic opens with Miguel being told by Liz to get to work by accompanying Ty to a foreign country to go and sell the Spider-Slayers that got hacked by the Green Goblin a bit ago. He’s not eager, but she’s calling the shots for now so he agrees reluctantly. Miguel believes they’re being merchants of Death, but Ty sees it as by providing superior weapons that the fighting will stop since no one will want to fight against them once they demonstrate their power.
They promptly get attacked when the plane lands and, lacking a Spider-Sense, Miguel almost gets a bullet in the head from a sniper. When they try to kill him up-close things go much better for him, but Ty gets kidnapped and Miguel has to go after him to save his own skin since if he snuffs it then Miguel stops existing. He grabs a jeep and chases after him, since he has a tracker on the man, but has trouble believing how hard the capital has been hit by the poverty due to all the fighting.
Ty finds himself in the rebel group’s base. They basically give him the ultimatum of making a recording of canceling the sale of the weapons or killing him. He pretty much agrees to what keeps him alive, admitting that his priority is his own life. The rebel leader actually looks like she’s making ground on trying to convince him to try turning the robots on the one buying them as Miguel arrives, only for the guard they brought to protect the shipment of robots to get there.
It’s Scorpion. Last time we checked he was severely injured, but now he’s good enough to make threats. While Miguel is all for him freeing Ty, he won’t let him kill the other people and moves to stop him. Scorpion thinks he’s the normal Spider-Man in another new costume, but decides he doesn’t care since the Spider-Slayers are there and he’s a spider to slay as the comic ends.
Okay, review time…
It wasn’t a bad issue. But there wasn’t much humor to be had and it was actually pretty grim looking considering the current circumstances in the world. And most of the suspense was killed since we know both Ty and Miguel are coming out alive one way or another.
I’ll call it a 3 out of 5.
Spider-Man 2099 (2014) #2 Review
Miguel O’ Hara of 2099 is in the Heroic Age and he’s here to stay for some time. Read my review of Spider-Man 2099 #2!
The issue begins with Miguel enjoying the spider-man luck… by that I mean problems show up wherever he goes. He’s making a trip to the bank, it promptly gets robbed. After about five minutes and some acrobatic feats, he gets some flowers and promptly starts flirting with the girl from the last issue. He even gets inside her apartment, but screws it up when he reveals he knows she’s sick. Give the man some credit, he at least knows he was being too intrusive and apologizes before leaving.
On his way back up, Liz Allen shows up and catches a ride with him to his room. He’s only got a chair in it, I swear. Anyway, Liz asks him who he really is because she’s looked up the SSN and did a thorough background check on his ass.
He briefly entertains the thought of killing her, only to decide against it because it was too dramatic. I found it disturbing because there was no sign it was an imagine spot until afterwards, but he does come up with a reasonable lie after she explains she think he’s the Spider-Man from before.
He explains that he’s an Alchemax employee from 2099 and Ty stone is his grandfather and he wanted him to live up to his full potential. If she tells anyone, he either leaves or will throw her out a window. Again disturbing, but most of it was somewhat true.
Anyway, she mostly cares about how he changed his clothing so quickly, so he shows her Lyla and then asks what he wants. She kisses him for some reason and then goes about her way, leaving him as confused as I am. What is with all the spiders getting some action this week? Naturally Tempest shows up afterwards and explains she has Leukemia and she has months to live, before going about her way as the comic ends.
Okay, review time…
This basically a follow-up to the last issue, introducing all the players in the game. There’s the boss who knows his secret and seeks to exploit it, there’s the sick love-interest and he just so happens to be an expert in genetics, and there’s the archrival grandfather who’s kind of a dick.
Still, call it a 4 out of 5.
Superior Spider-Man #32 (Edge of Spider-Verse)
The Edge of Spider-verse is beginning and it’s starting with SpOck in the lead as we review issue #32 of The Superior Spider-Man, set between the period where he got wiped from the time-stream and Horizon was destroyed.
The comic begins after he was “inferior” to Peter Parker because he couldn’t stop the explosion due to wiping his memories. It turns out that it didn’t kill him, but put him in the year 2099. Public Eye, the generic bad guys, tries to arrest him, but he’s not Miguel and won’t take that lying down or running away. He makes them run, but Miguel’s brother, Gabriel, remembers from his voice he’s Peter from the 90s series of Spider 2099 when they crossed over, but Otto doesn’t and it doesn’t matter.
Once in a safe place, Otto wastes no time in procuring parts to travel through time and dimensions with the aid of his holo-agent in his new base of operations. By that, I mean he steals from everyone with the parts, including Alchemax. It’s kinda awesome.
He then adjusts the holo-agent to resemble Anna Marie and then begins to time-jump. Instead of landing in his own time, he lands in a parallel timeline where someone (Morlun, I’m sure) has killed the fantastic five, the last of which was another Spider-Man. He tries again and again, finding more and more dead spider-men, and figures out he’s not the only one jumping through dimensions.
We then skip to another Spider-man, one named Peter Phabhakar, who is getting hunted down. He’s about to be another dead spider when Otto jumps in and saves him, explaining that he’s been tracking the hunter through twelve dimensions and taken it upon himself to raise an army of Spider-Men to fight the creature. As they reach the group we see he’s gotten a couple more to join his ranks.
In the second part of the comic we met a spider-man who became more like Otto and started taking this seriously, killing his enemies and training with Logan, who dies when the masked creature runs him through and vaporizes him. When Alex, a woman he loves, tries to cover for him, he knocks her out and then lures the creature into a trap.
It doesn’t work and he’s saved by Otto again, who reveals that he wants him to join so they can help kill the bastard. Most of the other Spider-Men aren’t as pragmatic as they are, so he needs someone like him backing him. He joins on the condition that they kill the creature, which Otto states it’s him or them as the comic ends.
Okay, review time.
This was better than I expected honestly, a great way to get into a crossover of this size. I can’t wait for Jessica Drew, Kaine, Miles, and the others to join in soon. The art was lovely as well.
It gets a perfect score!
Spider-Man 2099 (2014) #1 Review
Miguel O’ Hara is now part of the Marvel 616 universe and I intend to review how he adjusts to our time period with my review of Spider-Man 2099 #1.
The story picks up with some time traveling douche-bag crashing a truck meant for Serval Industries (All-New X-Factor) and then snapping the neck of someone who got out of their car to help him just to steal it. You can already tell this asshole time-cop is the bad guy of the issue. I’ve seen D-List villains with better manners and motives.
Meanwhile, Miguel is renting an apartment that looks like the scene of a murder. There’s even blood on the floor. Tempest, the girl from the short in Amazing Spider-Man that Miguel saved from a mugging, arrives to clean it up. She’s not exactly friendly, but he’s clearly got an interest in her.
Miguel, under the name of Mike, goes to work at Alchemax, where the time-cop douche is and demands help or he would kill one of the guards. Which he then does, before threatening to hurt the other since one of his children would go to do serious cancer research and that means he can’t kill him. The guard sends him up to the executive-level, where Ty Stone and Miguel are.
Ty Stone leaves Miguel to die, I kid you not, and so the fight begins. Miguel points out that he could just take him back to his time period if he can jump through time, but the guard states that is illegal. Not this is the man who killed at least three people because they inconvenienced him. When SWAT gets there he adds to the body count before Miguel drops into Liz Allen’s office with time-cop on his tail.
The cop basically gives him an ultimatum: Since she’s had her son and partly responsible for the bad future, and he can’t actually hit Miguel, he can kill her and leave him be. Miguel agrees, only to make him shoot himself, solving the problem for the time being. Yeah, he’s not Peter Parker.
He leaves and Liz Allen immediately asks her assistant if any windows are broken. Because they aren’t and because Spider-Men always enter from windows, and theirs are all sealed, he must be an employee. If so, she’s taking the Serval route and getting her own superhero for hire.
Okay, review time.
I’m not sure how I liked this issue. Yes, it was action-paced and informative, but Miguel doesn’t kill indirectly or directly if I can remember correctly. You could argue that it was necessary, but I’m not sure how it would fly in the long run…
Oh well, it gets a 4 out of 5.
Amazing Spider-Man (2014) #1 Review
After taking his body back from Doc-Ock Peter Parker now has to pick up the pieces of his life in the aftermath of the Superior Spider-Man. Read on about my review of the first issue in the relaunch of the Amazing Spider-Man!
The comic opens to a flash-back of that faithful day when he was bitten by a radioactive spider. Only this time it reveals that before it died it managed to bite someone else. Meaning that all this time there was someone else with Spider-Man’s powers but not active in the series…so we’re just going to pretend they didn’t copy this idea off Miles Morales for Silk, huh?
In the present we have the animal-themed cosplayers stealing jeweled eggs. One of the bystanders who just moved here wonders if it’s an event when he nearly gets pushed over and his baby almost crushed. Luckily he gets a web-line to pull him upright as Peter is on the case, chasing them down while naked with the exception of his mask and webbing-underwear, much to chagrin of everyone (with the exception of one woman who takes a photo for later). How did he end up in this state?
It started four hours ago when he held a press conference announcing that he’ll no longer work for Spider-Man (technically speaking it isn’t a lie since he’ll be making it for himself) and Peter is over his head with all this. He just learned he’s the owner of a company, his aunt doesn’t need some cane to walk again (which he states he’ll owe Doc Ock for), and he’s just unfortunate enough that Anna Maria found the wedding ring and note asking her to marry him. Yeah, this won’t end well.
Technically speaking he’s probably going to run the company into the ground since Otto was a genius in cybernetics and he gets confused looking at their big rollout project. Considering that he has more people who depend on him now, and these poor bastards are terrified of him at that, this a different set of responsibilities to go with his robot butler and doctor degree. He quickly decides to get back to something familiar, namely patrolling New York where he’s hated and feared by many.
It’s here he runs into the rabbit woman and her new flunky, Skein, who can control fabrics and threads. Before she could turn them into some kind of deadly weapon or whatever she was going to say he knocks her out since he’s got a secret identity to protect. Unfortunately he ends up nude and has to cover his privates in webbing in public, meaning this gets put on twitter and everyone sees it.
The Avengers figure he’s back to normal since only this could happen to him, Johnny Storm laughs his ass off, and Mary Jane is probably glad she broke up with him now. The humiliation continues after he rounds up his last bad guy and gets told off by an old lady about public indecency.
He makes his way back home to find Anna Maria there. And guess what, she knows he’s Spider-Man because Otto was getting busy with her while in his body. And the main comic ends there on a damn cliff-hanger.
Following it are a series of short stories involving the Black Cat, Electro. Kaine, and Miguel O’Hara. It shows how they’re going to be involved in the story and what they’ve been up to since Otto’s gone.
Electro was tired of being a joke and decided to try and free the inmates from prison to gain some respect. He lost control and killed a good portion of them before blacking out, due to what he believes is the modifications Otto made to control him in the Superior Spider-Man Team-Up series. Cue revenge planning.
Likewise Felicia Hardy, the Black Cat, was arrested and beaten by Otto. She lost everything because of him and is constantly verbal harassed by an inmate who clearly intends to do her harm. Apparently the lady didn’t also know that her powers involved luck and pissing her off makes you unlucky. She learned this as Electro’s attack fried the power dampeners and then her, while Felicia escapes unharmed and is going to fuck Peter over pretty bad next issue.
Meanwhile Miguel O’Hara, Spider-Man 2099 is making himself home and doing the hero-thing when he comes across a young woman about to get capped. He makes short work of the assailants, but learns that the population of the Marvel universe in this decade is ungrateful as she berates him. Gee, you think she wanted to die (foreshadowing, anyone?) but that’ll have to be picked up in his on ongoing series in two months.
We then go down to Huston Texas, where Peter is searching for his clone brother Kaine. The woman he interviewed describes that he transformed into a spider-monster, which Peter notes is because of The Other. If you read then you know he got killed off by some Werewolves and came back because he made a deal with it….seriously, go read the Scarlet Spider series.
Doctor Meland approaches Peter and pegs him immediately as Kaine’s brother and tells Peter how Kaine was in pain and anger about never stacking up to him and tells him to ask around about him. Peter learned Kaine came down there to get away from the life of a spider, only to fight crime. He wanted the power but none of the responsibility, but he took it on anyway. He had friends, a city that counted on him, and was as much a hero as Peter was. It ends with a shot of Kaine fighting alongside all the other New Warriors against the evolutionaries which hasn’t happened yet in their series.
Then there’s some alternate reality thing that I lost interest in, and thus will gloss over, and the comic ends.
Okay, review time.
Since I really only started reviewing and reading spider-man when Otto took over I find that this relaunch is right up my alley for the most part. It’s picking up right where superior left off, but that also means if someone skipped the series they are going to be confused about what transpired. Peter is realistically screwed over and has so many responsibilities now because he doesn’t have Otto’s level of genius in that particular field and the enemies Otto made.
People seem to notice he’s not the same as he was for the last few months, but it should still be addressed by him telling the Avengers Otto was wearing him as a meat suit for a few months and then asks why it took them that long to put two and two together. I mean, really? Months? As much as I loved the series it shouldn’t have gotten that far if the Idiot Ball wasn’t being passed around.
For the most part my main concern is Anna. The man she loved is gone, and I am fond of her. How is he going to explain all of this without coming off as an asshole (technically he was the victim, but he has a shoddy record when it comes to explanations)? And since she knows his secret identity, will the writers go the route of Carlie and MJ and have her leave the stage or will they pull a Gwen Stacy to make Black Cat unredeemable?
On another note, I can’t wait until Spider-Verse comes into play. Miles Morales in 616, all is right with the world unless Marvel somehow screws it up.
Issue gets a 5 out of 5 and is a must buy.
Superior Spider-Man Series Finale Review
A bit late, but here it is: My review for the last issue of Superior Spider-Man.
The story starts with Osborn holding Anna Marconi hostage above Alchemax and declaring his kingdom the Goblin Nation, while the sky is filled with gliders and corrupted Spider-Slayers. Peter Parker emerges with his mind intact at his lab and learns some of what Otto has been up to, including that Carlie had been infected and somewhat cured by Otto’s genius. Given he’s dealing with foes hopped up on Goblin Formula it’s a good thing to have, and he gets to inform Carlie he’s back to normal and get the story of how Osborn came back strong.
As soon as he gets enough of the cure to use he heads out into the field and starts with calling to make sure his aunt is safe after all this. Given how he was before, it makes MJ’s new boyfriend wonder if he’s bipolar. At the same time Mayor Jameson is ruined while Ty Stone is auctioning off the goddamn robots that are fighting off the Avengers like a merchant of death.
Peter swings by the Empire University just as Miguel O’Hara gets done trashing all but one. You can understand he’s a little mad about what just happened when Otto ditched him, but Peter explains and he believes him. Because that’s exactly the sort crap you would expect to happen to him.
So they spiders go out and save the Avengers from the Hobgoblin. They are just as confused by the costume switch and behavior change as the rest of us, but put it on the back burner so they can kick more Goblin ass. And Peter starts by depowering Carlie’s sister in Alchemax, where we hear the most disturbing laughter coming from Normie…who seems like he’s about to go the way of the Osborn name and snap.
Liz Allen arrives and tells them they need to get out of the building before it blows when Ty Stone activates a Spider-Sense Jammer that cripples Peter until Miguel knocks him the Hell out, which he’s been dying to do and I don’t blame him. Ty still doesn’t seem to get that Miguel doesn’t have Peter’s power set since his powers come from a different source. Liz says that she’ll see him answer for that, but the Green Goblin was on the roof and forcing her to work for him.
On the roof Osborn tries to tease Otto about not being a hero, but as soon as he hears one quip he knows Peter is back and tries to flee and leaves him to save the girl. Peter doesn’t, instead he makes it so she can save herself while he beats down on him and unmasks the goblin. It reveals that he doesn’t look like Norman anymore since he did one of the smarter things a famous villain who wants to go in hiding can do, he got plastic surgery.
He reveals that he built up Alchemax as a legacy for the Osborn name, one for his grandson, and he left the bombs so that the collateral damage will leave it looking like it wasn’t spared by the goblins and thus suspicious. Peter reveals that he needed to keep him talking so he could use the mini-spider bots he smuggled on him to inject him with the cure. Then he saves Anna and Osborn from falling to death, because he’s Spider-Man and no one dies when he’s around.
Sadly his luck ends there as Liz “accidentally” trips the jammer that makes it possible for Osborn to get away. Osborn, now clean of the insanity of the formula, decides just like Otto that his vanity as a villain was getting in the way. Only he decides to be a better and smarter villain since he got what he wanted in Alchemax.
So, the comic’s first part (Goblin Nation: Conclusion) ends with Miguel swinging off and Anna Maria ignorant of the fact that the man she loved is gone. This….won’t end well at all, considering she thought he was Peter Parker. She’s lost the man she said she can’t imagine life without and doesn’t even realize it yet…ouch.
For the aftermath of this, Peter makes up with his Aunt May and tells her and her beau he’s “officially” quit working with Spider-Man and plans to make a press conference about it so they hopefully don’t get targeted again while MJ believes he’s telling the truth about Otto being in his body, because that’s what happens because he’s a hero, and decides she wants it to end. She knows that he’s made his decision to be a hero and respects it, but politely tells him to stay the fuck away so she doesn’t get wrapped up in it.
Peter accepts it for the most part, with lots of regrets, but swings off to go talk to Jameson because unlike most things so far he understands what the man is being harassed for because of Otto. Carlie, his other ex, says she’s doing the right thing considering she’s suffering from some after effects of the formula and she considers them lucky to be alive when Gwen didn’t get out of an encounter with the Green Goblin alive. She decides she’s getting the fuck out of New York for someplace safe and wishes MJ well.
Peter’s conversation with Jameson doesn’t go so well either. Otto has made him look worse and Jameson is owning up to his mistakes, but Peter feels that he shouldn’t take the fall for something that the Green Goblin did with the robots. But it’s too late and he leaves, vowing to start kicking some ass of his own as the comic ends.
Okay, review time.
Overall…it was okay. Don’t get me wrong, it settled things somewhat, but the art didn’t have the same impact as the other issues for some reason I can’t lay my finger on. And then there’s the resolution. I figured what was going to happen to Carlie and MJ leaving his ass since the purpose of the series to burn some bridges and bring back some other loose cases, but they really left a lot of things hanging that I believe they’re going to address in the upcoming re-launch of the Amazing Spider-Man series.
I give it a cool 3 out of 5.
As for the series as a whole, it gets a solid 4 out of 5 because the artwork was lovely and the plot was excellent. There were times when I thought it was somewhat sporadic and the sheer stupidity at which the Avengers exhibited at times also annoyed me, but I could be biased in my opinions there. Still, I liked Otto’s approach and will honestly miss him until his inevitable return.
It was a fun read and one of the things that got me into comics, so I will miss this series.
Superior Spider-Man #29 Review
The Goblin Nation arc continues in Superior Spider-Man #29 and I’m here to give you my thoughts on it as I review what went down.
The story picks up where it left off, with Anna being brought to the Goblin King by Menace. He tells her to hush up since he’s watching a News Report saying that Peter and Carlie were buried alive, leaving Menace and Anna distraught as their sister/lover were thought to be killed. The Goblin King brushes the death of Carlie off, saying he’ll make her a new sister, thinking that the death of Spider-Man’s best friend was the real tragedy since it was so boring.
The goblin raid continues and it’s revealed that just about every hero in New York is out there and trying to stem the flow, with the head of Alchemax trying to have the mayor unleash the Goblin Slayers to help save people for the PR boosts. JJ, however, doesn’t’ want them out until they can take down Spider-Man with it being made apparent his grudge was getting in the way. It’s enough that one of his staff members leave him behind, saying enough is enough.
MJ is with May and the others she saved, as far away from New York as she could manage, telling them to keep calm and explaining that it was their only choice. She receives a call from Otto, who she tries to get to calm May down, only for him to brush her aside as he tries to cure Carlie with Sanjay. That ends when the Goblin King hacks his number and tells him to put on the mask and meet him.
The Goblin King apparently took killing Spider-Man personally, because he wanted to be the one to do it as his number one enemy while Otto was number two, so he destroys everything related to his legacy, including his childhood home, the place where he had his accident, the clinic where he saved a little girl, and the place where the police have stashed all his goodies. He then tells him that he’s got a classmate of his as a hostage and tells him to meet him at the university.
Trying to get there he ignores a mugging and tries to have the police chief come help in his place, but they think he’s in on it and JJ unleashes the Spider-Slayers to search for him. When he finally arrives, the Goblin King has Lamaze as the hostage. He states he saw the footage of Otto trying to save him during Stunner’s rampage (he must’ve glossed over Anna being there) and assumed he was the closest thing Otto had as a friend.
Disappointed, he threatens to leave and find someone else he cared about. Otto tries to gut him like a fish, but the goblin turns out to have hacked his mechanical arms and turn them against him. One is about to kill him when Lamaze intercepts it, leaving Otto confused about why he would do such a thing.
Lamaze states that it was because when Spider-Man saved him and Anna from Stunner, he regretted running away when she needed help and since then all he wanted was a chance to do what was right. To that end he thanked Otto for showing him what it meant to be a hero and then dies in his arms. Okay, credit where it was due, that was bittersweet.
However, the moment is ruined when the Spider-Slayers show up. Jameson is willing to lose everything to kill him and manages to get Otto in a pinch until Spider-Man 2099 shows up and shuts them down. But, unlike everyone else who grabbed the idiot ball, he knows something isn’t right with Peter and wants answers. Sadly the comic ends before he can get them as the Spider-Slayers are hacked by the Goblin King and grabs both of the Spider-Men.
Okay, review time.
The fallout continues as we see more character assassination on Peter by Otto, who’s getting a taste of what it’s like to be on the opposite end of the whole situation for once. Not only that, but he’s dragging Jameson and several others down with him in the process. That being said, I’m calling bull that the Avengers and every hero in New York are being pressured. New York is where like 90% of them are concentrated at. It’s the one place where the only way for things to get this bad was if they had super-powers again like Spider-Island.
However, I did like the issue and I’ll give it a 4 out of 5.
Superior Spider-Man #18 Review
Despite the cover, there’s not a lot of fighting!
Now, remember how Otto erased Peter’s memories? This would be one instant where it bites him in the ass, because Miguel O’Hara has met Peter Parker before. If he kept those memories he would probably have been more inclined to listen to the time-traveler and not cause a scuffle that he loses and wounds his ego.
The battle begins with claws drawn after Otto tries to knock out O’Hara, but Otto’s can’t scratch his outfit because it’s future tech. Low-future tech at that, which insults Otto into trying to crush him with a car. At this point Tiberius uses a device he literally kept up his sleeve to make Otto’s spider-sense go bonkers and endanger a child, which O’Hara saves since he doesn’t have spider-sense. O’Hara notices with his enhanced senses that Tiberius was responsible and disappears with him as Otto claims he would never endanger a child to the child’s mother, which he normally wouldn’t, and then shifts the blame on her for trying to take over Horizon.
Smooth, Otto. Really smooth.
At this point they notice the pair are gone and Otto tells his men to start searching for O’Hara since future Spider-Man is far more dangerous with the knowledge of Parker’s identity. It’s then that his girlfriend calls, Anna Marie, and reminds him of his thesis. Since it’s using Horizon’s resources that means they’ll own it and he would be damned before they get his projects, so he decides to smuggle it out immediately.
O’Hara, in the meantime, is facing the hero’s dilemma. His father, the future Stone, is stabilizing, meaning he’s doing what he’s suppose to. But that means that the future evils Alchemax will commit will come to pass. He’s weighing his own existence against just ridding them from the time stream for the good of all, like a hero normally would, since he has the power to change things now.
Unfortunately Tiberius heard the words “Ancestor” slip from O’Hara’s mouth when talking to his father over his line. He puts together that whoever his descendant was he was someone important enough to send a future Spider-Man to save. He tests this theory by throwing himself over a building. He risks the timeline for this and naturally that pisses O’Hara off and leaves him webbing the guy to a wall and calling for some help from the future to give him an info dump on current events and the connect between everything.
In the meantime, one of Horizon’s employee’s goes to the past while cloaked and catches Tiberius stealing data, while the Otto’s boss catches him smuggling out his goods and states he’s not the man he brought into Horizon. Otto receives a call about the Hobgoblin (Green Goblin in disguise) and decides to leave to handle him, costing Peter his job. At the same time O’Hara learns that Tiberius sabotaged Horizon to literally explode, on that very day, and rushes back to stop it, with Otto spotting him as he hangs up on MJ calling him.
At the end O’Hara arrives to tell them he needs to change the future and that they’re about to blow up, when Otto cold-cocks him and possibly damages his time traveling device to prevent a paradox. In short, Otto has screwed Peter’s life over royally and endangered the people at Horizon at this very moment because of his ego.
The issue was beautiful as always but, to my sorrow, Otto is turning into an unlikeable character. If he put aside his ego for one second so many problems could have been solved. Then again he is a former super-villain. On the other hand, breaking the Status Quo does make things more interesting, but Karma tends to be a bitch about it and I have the feeling that Anna Marie is going to pay the price.
After all, she’s a love interest and the Green Goblin is running around. The fact that he went after a future hero rather than villain only worsens things. Her days and relationship are numbered.
The issue gets a 4 out of 5.
Twilit Dreams Circle 