***** (five of five stars)
Favorite Quote: "You're not a 'just having fun' guy, Parker. You barely like 'having fun' in general -- much less with a girl." -- Harry Osborn, talking some sense into our man, Pete
Summary
Spidey and the Black Cat stop some armored-car hijackers and engage in witty banter. (The Cat also reminds Spidey they're not exclusive.) Dr. Curt Connors (a.k.a. the Lizard) is working at getting custody of his son, but not impressing his court-designated supervisor. Harry encourages Peter to ask Carlie on a date, noting that he's not a "just having fun" kind of guy and anyone with whom he's "just having fun" is probably just to distract him from Carlie. Dr. Connors is working at Phelcorp Industries for an asshole named King, who's pushing him for results. King asks out Marissa, the lab tech on whom Connors has a crush. Madame Web, at the mercy of the Kravinoffs, predicts that Dr. Connors will not harm his son thanks to the timely intervention of Spider-Man; the Kravinoffs are hell-bent on making sure that doesn't happen. Pete brings lunch to Carlie's office and tells her that he considers it a date. Dr. Connors is shaken by the revelation that Marissa slept with King, and he reverts to the Lizard when King gets aggressive with him and denies him his antidote (thinking it's actually the serum). The Lizard kills six people (except Marissa) and escapes into the night. Meanwhile, Ana Kraven tries to kidnap Kaine, but fails. Peter is stood up by Carlie, who calls telling him it's because she's on a bad crime scene. Spidey arrives on the scene and realizes that the Lizard is going to go after Billy. The Lizard is in fact, severely injuring Billy's foster mother, but cannot locate Billy. Spidey and the Lizard fight, but the Lizard is distracted when he finds Billy's scent. Spidey calls the EMTs to help Billy's foster mother and realizes that Billy is gone. Billy is with Ana Kraven, who kidnapped him and leaves him to the Lizard. The Lizard kills him, striking a blow to "Connors' nest," in his attempt to assert his dominance over Dr. Connors. Spidey finds Billy's corpse and fights a newly-evolved Lizard, who can now activate the reptilian part of a human's brain. Peter accordingly flees, finding Carlie. Shaking off the effects, he takes the cure on which Dr. Connors was working while at Phelcorp and a photo of Billy and goes to find the Lizard. Meanwhile, the Lizard has reduced a large swatch of Manhattan into mindless brutes acting on primal urges. Peter injects the Lizard with the cure and shows him Billy's picture. Though he does not revert to Dr. Connors (saying he's fully gone), the Lizard realizes that, now having full access to the human-brain portion of their shared body, he feels human emotions, which is new to him. (He feels guilty over killing Billy, but doesn't know what that means.) Spidey is being mauled by a mob of brutish New Yorkers, but the Lizard saves him to ask him about being human. He then disappears. A broken Peter appears at Aunt May's doorstep looking for consolation, to know that "we don't all want to hurt each other" and Aunt May shakes off Mr. Negative's corrupting touch long enough to comfort him. In the end, it is revealed that humans are seeking solace with the Lizard and his liberating ways.
The Review
I just don't know where to start here. This arc is just phenomenal. I'm going to use that term a lot, because, really, adjectives and adverbs fail me at this point. Along with "Amazing Spider-Man" #625, they are the best issues of a comic I've ever read. I actually took notes as I went because it was all just too good, too much to process.
The Amazing
1) The Lizard eats Curt Connors' son. Eats. Him. This conclusion of just the second issue of the arc is totally and completely unexpected. It's phenomenally well done. I mean, it's disturbing to talk about a child being eaten in these terms, but it's that sense of disgust that made it so well done. The art is spectacular, filled with so many grace notes and little details. As the Lizard attacks Billy, we see the tattered remains of the text boxes that showed us what Curt Connors was thinking; the shredding of these boxes show that Connors is gone. I actually found myself not wanting to go to the third issue, not wanting to progress to see how awful it becomes. Talk about getting a reader emotionally involved.
2) We get Spidey distilled to his core elements here. His internal monologue about how he works on his "material" when he's with the Black Cat, telling us how he was going to set up his joke (only to have the Cat ruin it), and interacting with the moaning street villain as if his moans mirrored Spidey's feeling about Felicia: all comedic gold. The art is also superb. Felicia has rarely looked so good and, although Bachalo may flirt with his characters being too cartoony, the Spidey we see in these pages is expressive and animated. He leaps off the page. Finally, notice how the armored-car driver didn't run down the blind lady. It's Spider-Man, folks, not Batman. Everyone isn't a homicidal maniac (well, except the Lizard). In retrospect, it actually makes what the Lizard does so shocking and horrible, because it's so unusual and unexpected for this book. Again, in the end, it was the quintessential Spider-Man. Bravo, gentlemen. Bravo.
The Really Good
1) Never before has an apostrophe been so menacing. "This is the Lizard's territory, King." "What?" "The...lizards. Y-you're agitating them." Awesome. Genius.
2) It wasn't until I got to the splash page at the end of the first issue that I realized I hadn't taken a breath for the last few pages. Wow. The art here is really what gives these pages such impact.
3) Speaking of splash page, the page after Peter confronts the new, talking Lizard is awesome. It's all white except for the Lizard and a blackened-out Spidey, and you're just waiting for the fight to start so Spidey can kick the Lizard's ass. You don't feel bad about it, either, because Wells' has written this arc so perfectly -- has imbued the Lizard with his own personality through the use of his own thought bubbles and idiosyncratic language -- that you know Curt Connors is dead. Now, you want Spidey to wail on the guy who killed him.
The Good
1) Yay, Harry's back! And he's having guy talk with Peter! Yay! More Harry!
2) OK, I actually feel the Carlie thing here. I mean, she's no Norah, but I get it a little more. But, I get that one of the main complaints about MJ was that, on the face of it, she was most notable for her looks, whereas Carlie is a science geek, a CSI (who would give Peter all sorts of insight into ongoing crimes, like she does here) and an over-achiever with an euqally over-developed sense of responsibility. In other words, she's the perfect girl for Peter. I think that argument seriously sells MJ short, but I at least see the allure of Carlie now.
3) The random lizards that appear throughout the book are just such an amazing touch, particularly because they suddenly become part of the plot at the end of the second issue.
4) "The Gauntlet" actually takes a pretty central role in this arc, despite it not bearing its title. We finally see what the Kravinoffs have been doing with Madame Web, using her predictions to alter the future, or, at least, ensure a future they want. They are the ones who makes the Lizard attack Billy Connors. Suddenly, "The Gauntlet" has become real (more on that below) and I really, really, really want Spidey to kick their asses. Also, we see Peter broken on Aunt May's couch. Although a lot of "The Gauntlet" didn't really rise, emotionally, above the level of a normal Spidey encounter, the events with the Rhino and the Lizard -- combined with Peter's firing, subsequent unemployment, and confusing love life -- now create the sense that he is indeed at the lowest of his low. He's alone. He doesn't have anyone to tell about his travails as Spider-Man, since Mary Jane isn't returning his calls. Even his friends can't really help him with his employment crisis, since they've all got a lot of stuff happening in their lives, too. I didn't feel it anywhere else in "The Gauntlet," but the last few arcs have really driven it home that Peter isn't doing well.
5) The Lizard's new ability is a good example of what "The Gauntlet" should've been. It's interesting to see the Lizard "access" his human brain for the first time, just as it's interesting to see his new powers to activate the reptilian brain of people around him. The Lizard was always a one-trick pony, a "villain" whose existence seemed more to remind us of the humanity of Curt Connors than of the villainy of the Lizard. Those days are done now.
The Bad
1) Aly (whoever that is) tells Ana that the hunt can't stop until the Gauntlet is finished. "The Gauntlet" isn't finished? I mean, it makes sense that it's not, because, as we established already, the Scorpion issue (issue #626) and this arc have more to do with the Kravinoffs than almost all the other "Gauntlet" issues. But, we don't see "The Gauntlet" stamp on these issues. This whole premise has been badly handled, but, you know, I'm just going to have to let it go, because it's not the writers' faults and it looks like it's over. Had we seen the level of involvement on the part of the Kravinoffs that we have in the Rhino, Scorpion, and Lizard arcs, then I might have bought more into the whole idea that they were specifically constructing the event that would break Spider-Man. Instead, as I've also said before, I'm just glad it's over.
2) The Cat works for the Mayor's Office? Is that our official confirmation, or did that happen (yet again) off-line?
3) Peter apologizes to Carlie for leaving her hanging for lunch (as he did in the last arc). But, he didn't actually. In the last arc, he forgot about his rain check for lunch with Carlie, but then remembered and wound up having lunch with Carlie. So, is he pretending he forgot about having lunch with her (probably not a good idea) or is it bad editing (probably Wacker focusing more on the letter pages than, you know, his actual job)? I think I know which one it is.
4) Can we cut the Anti-May business soon? Please?
5) The only thing that tempted me with giving this arc a four was that Bachalo couldn't handle the entire arc. Emma Rios does a fine job helping, but occasionally it disrupts the flow of the story -- like the final few pages of the arc, when Peter goes to Aunt May's. It feels like an add-on, when, in fact, it's an important moment, because we get to see Peter's vulnerability, which I'm sure will be part of "Grim Hunt." I love Bachalo; I just wish he could be more reliable some times.
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