*** (three of five stars)
Favorite Quote: "So, be honest...does Wolverine carry you to crime scenes?" "Dude, you really need a girlfriend." -- Anti-Venom and Spidey, part of their "team-up" banter
Summary
Anti-Venom webs up Spidey to the wall of the crack den where he's taken up residence, swearing that he's going to earn Spidey's trust. He tell Spidey he's going to get more intel on the huge drug drop that Mr. Negative is planning. Spidey is all in favor of taking down Mr. Negative, but doesn't believe Anti-Venom when he tells him that Mr. Negative is Martin Li. Meanwhile, Carlie spies on the Wraith shaking down a Mr. Negative informant, using a pair of infrared binoculars to prove that she's not dead (since she gives off body heat). JJJ, Jr. inaugurates an exhibit of Chinese terra cotta warriors that Martin Li donated, unaware that the drugs that Mr. Negative is smuggling are in the statues. Eddie overhears this information and retrieves Spidey (who had just managed to escape) to bring him to the museum so he can watch him collar Mr. Negative. Carlie, meanwhile, confirms her suspicions that Captain Watanabe is the Wraith when she discovers that several pieces of evidence -- Mr. Fear's gas, Mysterio's technology, and the Jean DeWolff mask -- were reported "destroyed" by the Captain herself. Anti-Venom, Spidey, and the Wraith battle Mr. Negative, and, when Spidey knocks Mr. Negative into becoming more corporal than usual, the Wraith is able to use her suspect identification system to match him to Martin Li. She uploads the information to all local servers, revealing his identity to the world. Mr. Negative and his cronies escape, Anti-Venom is thrilled that Spidey learned he wasn't crazy for thinking Mr. Negative was Martin Li, and Spidey overhears Carlie confront Captain Watanabe about her extra-curricular activities. Later, Mr. Negative's henchmen keep a bewildered Martin Li under wraps and, under questioning from Carlie, Pete admits that he designs Spider-Man's "tech."
In the back-up feature, Shang-Chi works with Peter to develop a martial-arts fighting style all his own (something Peter realized he should do in issue #660) to compensate for the loss of his Spider-Sense. After Peter leaves, Madame Web appears and Shang asks her if Spidey's new skills will help him when, in Web's words, "the spiders come." She says they'll have to wait and see...
Favorite Quote: "So, be honest...does Wolverine carry you to crime scenes?" "Dude, you really need a girlfriend." -- Anti-Venom and Spidey, part of their "team-up" banter
Summary
Anti-Venom webs up Spidey to the wall of the crack den where he's taken up residence, swearing that he's going to earn Spidey's trust. He tell Spidey he's going to get more intel on the huge drug drop that Mr. Negative is planning. Spidey is all in favor of taking down Mr. Negative, but doesn't believe Anti-Venom when he tells him that Mr. Negative is Martin Li. Meanwhile, Carlie spies on the Wraith shaking down a Mr. Negative informant, using a pair of infrared binoculars to prove that she's not dead (since she gives off body heat). JJJ, Jr. inaugurates an exhibit of Chinese terra cotta warriors that Martin Li donated, unaware that the drugs that Mr. Negative is smuggling are in the statues. Eddie overhears this information and retrieves Spidey (who had just managed to escape) to bring him to the museum so he can watch him collar Mr. Negative. Carlie, meanwhile, confirms her suspicions that Captain Watanabe is the Wraith when she discovers that several pieces of evidence -- Mr. Fear's gas, Mysterio's technology, and the Jean DeWolff mask -- were reported "destroyed" by the Captain herself. Anti-Venom, Spidey, and the Wraith battle Mr. Negative, and, when Spidey knocks Mr. Negative into becoming more corporal than usual, the Wraith is able to use her suspect identification system to match him to Martin Li. She uploads the information to all local servers, revealing his identity to the world. Mr. Negative and his cronies escape, Anti-Venom is thrilled that Spidey learned he wasn't crazy for thinking Mr. Negative was Martin Li, and Spidey overhears Carlie confront Captain Watanabe about her extra-curricular activities. Later, Mr. Negative's henchmen keep a bewildered Martin Li under wraps and, under questioning from Carlie, Pete admits that he designs Spider-Man's "tech."
In the back-up feature, Shang-Chi works with Peter to develop a martial-arts fighting style all his own (something Peter realized he should do in issue #660) to compensate for the loss of his Spider-Sense. After Peter leaves, Madame Web appears and Shang asks her if Spidey's new skills will help him when, in Web's words, "the spiders come." She says they'll have to wait and see...
The Review
Slott manages to wrap up several different ongoing storylines in this issue. We get the private revelation of the Wraith's real identity, the public revelation that Martin Li is Mr. Negative, and Spidey working on adapting to the loss of his Spider-Sense. Not bad for one issue! I only gave the issue a three mainly because, though Slott does an admirable job keeping the issue moving, it's pretty apparent that the point of this issue (and the previous one) was to clear the decks of some ongoing sub-plots before this summer's "Spider-Island" crossover. As such, even though everything makes sense within the universe Spidey inhabits, the issue has a certain "check the boxes" feel to it.
The Good
1) It's nice to see Eddie Brock get a win and get to be a hero. That really doesn't happen often (if ever) and I'm glad Slott (and Spidey) gave it to him. Slott actually gives us some great Spidey/Anti-Venom interactions and, I have to say, I actually hope Eddie shows up more often. Venom got old pretty quickly back in the day, but the Spidey/Anti-Venom banter is actually pretty awesome and I'd love to see it as often as possible.
2) The revelation that Captain Watanabe is the Wraith was really cleverly done. As I mentioned last issue, I was hoping that Slott was going somewhere with having "DeWolff" unmask for the villains, since it didn't make sense that she would do so if it were really her. Slott gives a compelling reason for why Watanabe did what she did, adopting Jean DeWolff's identity, and how she did it, stealing evidence (like Mr. Fear's gas and Mysterio's technology and mask) and using the suspect identification system to get information on her victims. Moreover, we get to see Carlie put in some really excellent detective work. None of the revelations felt overly pat or like Slott suddenly just decided to add in the twist at the last minute. Throughout his run, I've been impressed with the way he's dropped hints about future storylines (even ones involving Psycho-Man...) and actually returned to them, instead of just letting them hang in the wind like so many writers often do.
3) Thank God we've FINALLY revealed that Martin Li is Mr. Negative. It's been long overdue and hopefully it can just go away for awhile!
4) Spidey spending half the issue webbed to a crack-den wall, freeing himself, and then immediately being re-captured by Anti-Venom? Hilarious. From a story-telling perspective, I realize Slott did it because he needed to focus on characters other than Spidey, so he had to park him somewhere. But, the event itself felt organic to the story and not just a plot device. Well done, Dan!
5) I really liked the back-up story, because it gets to this issue of Peter needing to adapt to the loss of his Spider-Sense. Although we all know his Spider-Sense will return one day, Slott has managed to handle it in a way that hasn't felt gimmicky. In fact, between Spidey using his science know-how to his benefit (the reflective suit, the bulletproof suit, the voice-activated Web-Shooters) and improving his combat skills, Slott has really brought Peter to the next level. He's not just a kid trying his best to stay alive, he's actually starting to take the need to improve and expand his skills seriously. It's a pleasant surprise for a storyline that could've gotten old quickly.
4) Spidey spending half the issue webbed to a crack-den wall, freeing himself, and then immediately being re-captured by Anti-Venom? Hilarious. From a story-telling perspective, I realize Slott did it because he needed to focus on characters other than Spidey, so he had to park him somewhere. But, the event itself felt organic to the story and not just a plot device. Well done, Dan!
5) I really liked the back-up story, because it gets to this issue of Peter needing to adapt to the loss of his Spider-Sense. Although we all know his Spider-Sense will return one day, Slott has managed to handle it in a way that hasn't felt gimmicky. In fact, between Spidey using his science know-how to his benefit (the reflective suit, the bulletproof suit, the voice-activated Web-Shooters) and improving his combat skills, Slott has really brought Peter to the next level. He's not just a kid trying his best to stay alive, he's actually starting to take the need to improve and expand his skills seriously. It's a pleasant surprise for a storyline that could've gotten old quickly.
The Bad
In my last post, I outlined most of my complaints about the lack of clarity over the Martin Li/Mr. Negative character, particularly given the confusing (and often contradictory) portrayals of their "relationship" that we've seen since he was first introduced during "Brand New Day." This issue doesn't really give us that much more clarity, showing Martin Li at the end being unaware of his Mr. Negative personality (as he appeared to be in "New Ways to Die!" and "Dark Reign: Mr. Negative"). As mentioned last issue, Slott seems to have decided to resolve this duality by asserting that Mr. Negative can control the Martin Li persona for short periods of time, and I think it's probably the best answer we're going to get. But, it's still annoying and I'm still considering it a negative (heh). Hopefully, given his identity finally being revealed, it'll be less of a focus in the future.
No comments:
Post a Comment