Amazing Spider-Man #656: "No One Dies"

** (two of five stars)

Favorite Quote:  "Sorry.  I can pay for that."  -- Spidey to Captain Watanabe, after crashing on one of her police cruisers (weak, I know, but Slott didn't give me much material here...) 

Summary

The issue resumes right where the last one ended, with Captain Watanabe dealing with Massacre, a guy who is holding a bank full of people hostage.  Watanabe tells Massacre she can't deal with him in good faith, and he tells her he doesn't care, because he's not playing by her rules:  he then blows up the west wing of the bank, killing seven more people.  He tells her to turn off all alarm, camera, and surveillance systems for a five-block radius and to withdraw all emergency and police services so he can escape.  Spidey sees the explosion and webs over there.  Upon arriving, he accidentally webs plaster (rather than concrete) because his Spider-Sense didn't warn him about it and falls several stories when it doesn't hold.  He recovers and approaches the bank, telling Massacre that he's just there to talk.  Massacre opens fire and Spidey barely manages to dodge the bullets.  He tags Massacre with a Spider-Tracer, only to get shot.  Spidey tells Watanabe that she should let Massacre go, since he can track him.  But, after all the hostages are rescued, Spidey realizes that he doesn't have his Spider-Sense anymore, so he can't, in fact, track Massacre.  Spidey then goes to get stitched by the Night Nurse, who he offers to pay since he's now making cash.  He runs into Paladin in the lobby, who teases him about not saving Marla Jameson or Massacre's victims.  Spidey throws him into a wall, and Paladin tells him to relax and "grow a thicker skin," giving Spidey an idea  JJJ, Jr. gives a press conference about the victims of Massacre's attack, telling the son of a victim that Massacre is a dead man.  Peter, at Horizon, is working on a new armored suit when Grady, one of the think tankers, tells him to come get some human contact, since he's been sequestered in the lab for the last few days.  Peter explodes when people are talking about boring topics, given the Massacre tragedy.  Uatu (the kid, not the Watcher) leads Peter to a demonstration of a new suspect-identification software that Horizon created; Max Modell is showing it to Captain Watanabe.  We learn that Massacre was an investment banker who was injured when a car bomb exploded in front of his office; it killed his wife, who also worked at the firm.  The wound -- shrapnel to the head -- left him incapable of valuing human life.  Watanabe gets a call that Massacre is holding some people hostage on Wall Street, and Pete heads to the office in his new armored suit.  We see JJJ, Jr. in a car, having ordered the Police Chief (who's on the scene) to take out Massacre.  It's revealed that Massacre has taken his old office colleagues hostage, since, outside his wife, the firm was all he had and he wanted to see if he could feel something.  He's also laying a trap for Spider-Man for tagging him.  Spidey arrives and webs up the hostages in magnetic webbing that blocks radio frequencies, rendering Massacre's trigger useless.  Massacre fires at them, but Spidey blocks it with his armored suit.  Massacre then blows up part of the building so falling debris would kill someone on the street, but Spidey webs up the debris.  He then attacks Massacre, disarming him.  The Chief -- who ignores Watanabe's warning that Massacre is unarmed -- orders the sniper to take the shot, but Spidey blocks it, because "no one dies."  JJJ, Jr. argues with Spidey on the steps, with Spidey telling him they can't play gods and JJJ, Jr. telling him he's an idiot. 

The Review

This issue isn't great.  First, it continues to suffer from the problem of the last issue, which is that I'm a little over Peter's overdeveloped sense of responsibility.  Peter has to know that he can't, in fact, save everyone, despite swearing that "no one dies."  Slott is treating him like a newly-minted superhero, and, in fact, Spidey's first lesson was that he's going to make mistakes that have consequences.  But, on top of that, Slott's Massacre character is never really given his due.  We're treated to two pages of background narrative but we're left with a series of questions (see "The Bad" section, natch) that really leave Massacre feeling like a hollow vehicle for the larger point that Slott is trying to make.  Slott felt like a breath of fresh air since we had just gone through the Rhino arc, "Shed," and "Grim Hunt."  By returning to the grim note he has in the last two issues, it's starting to feel like the bad old days of the 400s, when Spidey was constantly on the verge of a nervous breakdown.  More Hobgoblin, less drama, Slott. 

The Good

1) The first two pages are a real treat, visually, from the narrative panels of the first page being set in front of the Massacre silhouette to the "BOOM" panel on the second page.  I've always liked his art, but Martin is really on top of his game in this arc.

2) I actually like the outfit of the week.  I know some people probably don't, but I do.  Batman gets all different toys, so why not Spider-Man? 

The Unknown

The loss of Spidey's Spider-Sense is interesting, but I hope Slott doesn't drag it out too long.  During "Brand New Day," we got a few issues of Pete struggling with no Web-Fluid for his Web-Shooters, and it verged on getting too old before actually getting there.  Slott will want to wrap up this storyline as fast as possible, since no one believes Peter's going to be without his Spider-Sense forever.

The Bad

1) Pet Peeve #2:  Did we know it was a bank?  I actually assumed it was a bank at the end of issue #655, but I don't think we knew that until the recap page in issue #656.

2) Slott just leaves an enormous number of questions about Massacre unanswered in this issue:  Why did Massacre need the money?  Did he need it, or could he just not think of anything more original than robbing a bank?  Why was Massacre at the Ravencroft Institute for the Criminally Insane?  Had he already killed someone?  If so, how did he escape?  Did it happen while he was being transferred, as Dr. Kafka requested?  Why was he such an egomaniac that he insisted on everyone playing by his rules?  I have to wonder if Slott had intended for this arc to be three issues, and the upcoming Human Torch memorial issue derailed that.  I also have to wonder how an editor could allow numerous references to Spidey's lost Spider-Sense but not ask Slott to address one of the questions here.

3) I don't really buy that the Police Chief would, under orders of the Mayor, simply decide to take out a guy like Massacre, ignoring police protocols and, you know, common sense and human compassion.  Just like Peter had to pay a price for skirting ethics as a journalist, I hope we see some repercussions to the fact that JJJ, Jr., as mayor, is basically treating his police force as his own personal hit squad.