Amazing Spider-Man #618-#620: "The Gauntlet: Mysterioso"

*** (three of five stars)

Favorite Quote:  "Y'know, it's a shame that super villains don't give out awards for this stuff." -- Mysterio, contemplating the awesomeness of his "death" as Silvermane

Summary

The (dimwitted) heir to the Karnelli crime family ignores the advice of his consigliere, Carmine, and attempts to launder money through the family's casino, raising the attention of Mr. Negative and his Inner Demons.  The two sides brawl, with Spidey intervening in an attempt to limit the bloodshed.  After both sides escape, Peter arrives to photograph the crime scene.  In reality, he's hoping to get some more information about the Inner Demons, so he invites Carlie Cooper, who's the CSI on duty, to lunch.  However, he has to ditch the appointment because he remembers he has to pick up Aunt May and JJJ, Sr. from their honeymoon.  Aunt May, fleeing Peter's terrible driving, goes to the F.E.A.S.T. center, where she sees Martin Li standing over the bleeding body of an Inner Demon.  Li uses his corrupting powers on her, and she proceeds to chew out Peter and later Harry and the Reilly girls.  Meanwhile, Carmine, seeking to prevent the Karnelli heir from running the operation into the ground, brings back several leading Maggia members from the dead; in reality, they had faked their deaths with the help of Mysterio, who also introduces a puppet Silvermane to take charge of the family.  Silvermane leads the Maggia in a fight against the Inner Demons.  During the fight, Carlie Cooper discovers her dad has returned from the dead as well; in fact, he's been helping Mysterio "disappear" the Maggia members.  Mysterio tries to convince Spidey, who interrupts the fight, that he killed one of the Maggia.  However, Mysterio goes one step too far in trying to convince Spidey that long-dead Captain Stacy was in fact the Big Man, and Spidey guesses Mysterio's involvement.  Mysterio, meanwhile, uses Silvermane to manipulate the Maggia into bringing all the cash it's been unable to launder to one location.  Carlie puts a tracker on her dad, who leads Spidey to the location, just in time to see Mr. Negative also trying to get his hands on the cash.  Mysterio blows up the building, killing most of the Maggia members, but Spidey foils his plan to escape with the cash.  In the end, the Chameleon approaches Mysterio on behalf of the Kravinoffs.

The Review

To be honest, I don't have a lot to say about this arc.  It's a totally serviceable Spidey/Mysterio story.  The premise -- that Mysterio helped Maggia bosses fake their own deaths -- makes sense, as does Mysterio betraying the Maggia consiglieri who paid him to "resurrect" Silvermane in order to steal the cash himself.  The ongoing sub-plot of the gang war occuring between the Maggia and Mr. Negative's forces recalls the Rose's attempts to take over the mob a few (gulp) decades ago, and I'm looking forward to it drawing to a close with some really good issues.

The Good

1) I could deal without a corrupted Aunt May that I know will eventually return to her sweet self, but, if it gets us one step closer to the big reveal vis-à-vis Mr. Negative, so be it.  I mean, it's been over 70 issues at this point.  It's time.

2) OK, so, here, it appears that Martin Li knows he's Mr. Negative, despite him seemingly not knowing in "Dark Reign:  Mr. Negative."  Seriously, I'm so over his storyline.  Can't we just out him as Mr. Negative and put it to rest?

3) Mysterio's kind of...funny here.  Like ROFL funny, not odd funny.  I actually can't remember the last time I read a Mysterio issue, but, seriously, it was fun.  He was almost Peter-esque in his need to banter.

The Unknown

We once again see the Kravinoff hand being played after the events of the issue occur.  Based on the summary page, we're led to believe that the Kravinoffs have been behind everything in "The Gauntlet:"  Electro, Sandman, the new Rhino, and Mysterio.  But, the writers still haven't really shown that; instead, we generally only see a Kravinoff after the event, not before.  I'm sure we're going to get some grand reveal at the end of "The Gaunlet," but I still feel like, at this point, we're just dealing with a regular succession of super-villains attacking Spidey.  I mean, for this sort of event, you'd expect that we'd see an exhausted Spidey barely able to fight off each new villain.  Instead, Pete is pretty normal...except for the nightmares...

The Bad

Just like she did during "Mind on Fire," Carlie goes on a tirade about Peter treating her poorly.  I kind of get it, because it strikes a familiar theme of unreliable Peter Parker, but it still seems misplaced.  Ever since their circle of friends dissolved, what, with the whole Lily-is-a-super-villain revelation, Carlie only really sees Peter when he's involved in one of the cases she's working.  It's not like they have this great "will-they-or-won't-they" sort of relationship.  I understand why she's frustrated, but I feel like the anger is a OTT.