*** (three of five stars)
Favorite Quote #1: "Miguel? Hi. Look, Tyler and I have some business to discuss so I have to cancel tonight." "I don't think you can. The Earth's rotation makes tonight mandatory. If you cancel it, it'll cause sleep deprivation, screw up the tides, and have many far-reaching consequences." -- Dana and Miguel, showing that his father's comment in issue #10 about Miguel preferring girls that he can insult without them knowing now maybe seems not so off-base
Favorite Quote #2: "He better be okay! The last thing the world needs is another poor jerk who gets weird powers from an Alchemax experiment-gone-wrong!" -- Miguel getting all meta, as he's holding onto Jordan, who's stuck in his inter-dimensional portal, via a Web-Line
Summary
Tyler Stone pays a surprise visit to Dana at Synthia and asks if she's interested in "supping" with him to discuss future projects. Dana informs him that she was supposed to go to dinner with Miguel but, given how many times he's canceled on her, it would serve him right for her to cancel to "sup" with Stone. She hypothesizes that he's probably at work and maybe forgotten about her altogether. At that moment, Miguel is walking the halls of Alchemax, contemplating where to take Dana. He decides that it has to be somewhere special given how much he's been ignoring her lately when he wanders past the virtual-unreality lab just as it explodes. He helps guide out people as the extinguishers start putting out the fire. Someone mentions that Jordan is still in there and Miguel enters the lab. He helps Jordan to his feet and asks about the device that he's wearing on his arm, hypothesizing that it's a "sympathetic armature device, for remote manipulating a mechanical arm." Jordan confirms that it is and Miguel notes that it's lucky that it was the mechanical arm and not Jordan's arm in the now-smoking portal in front of them, since the mechanical arm was destroyed below the elbow. Miguel comments that "whatever you virtual unreality boys have been kicking around with in there, it looks like it decided to kick back" and insists that Jordan tell him what they were doing. Jordan declines. When pressed, he thanks Miguel for saving him, but tells him that he's not feeling particularly cordial given that two years of work just exploded in his face. Above the Synthia campus, "Omega" from last issue is using some sort of X-ray vision to observe Stone talking to Dana. Entering his office, Miguel receives a call from Stone. Without looking, he comments that he had nothing to do with the virtual-unreality explosion and starts to blame Jordan. Tyler cuts off his rant and tells Miguel that he's with Dana. Now paying attention, Miguel listens as Dana tells him that she has to cancel their date. Miguel delivers the quote above, but, when Dana notes that he's upset because he's using "bigger words," Miguel insists that he's not because "business is business." Before they can come to a resolution, "Omega" bursts into Dana's office, declaring that he's there for Stone. Stone tries some bravado, but Omega opens fire, destroying the vidphone in the process. Omega then marches them to his ship. The Public Eye tries to save them, but Omega blows the officers from the sky. Before they board, Spider-Man arrives, telling Omega to free Stone and Dana. Omega declines, calling Spidey an ingrate, given that he saved Spidey from S.I.E.G.E. Spidey successfully convinces Omega to allow him to take Dana's place, guessing that Omega needs hostages for whatever it is that he's planning on doing because, if he had intended to kill Stone, he would've already done so. As they leave, Dana stammers that she has to call Miguel. At Miguel's apartment, Lyla is listening to all sorts of depressing news reports and has some sort of breakdown due to "unprogrammed emotionality," dissolving into nothingness.
In a holocommunication with Alchemax, Omega informs the company that, if Spider-Man and Stone are to remain unhurt, he be given complete access to Alchemax for one hour when they arrive. Miguel asks why Omega just doesn't storm Alchemax and Omega, who now calls himself Thanatos, tells Miguel that he has no interest in "wasteful displays of firepower." The trio arrive at Alchemax and Winston (Stone's assistant) refuses to answer Thanatos' question about cracking "interdimensional barriers," apparently the lost work of Reed Richards. Stone insists that he tell Thanatos and Winston says that the C.E.O. has stated that all such requests are classified. Thanatos puts his gun to Stone's head and Stone tells Winston that Thanatos already knows. Winston confirms that it's the virtual-unreality program. At said program's lab, Jordan is trying his experiment again, despite his colleagues thinking that it's too soon. Jordan feels something, and he uses the mechanical arm to pull through a truly bizarre looking creature. He demands that the lab be quarantined so that it can be scrubbed for alien spores. However, at that moment, Thanatos and company arrive. Thanatos marvels at the success of the project, though notes that Jordan doesn't understand the energies that he's (barely) controlling. When Jordan is snarky to him, Thanatos throws him into the portal; he's saved (again) by Miguel, who grabs him with a Web-Line. Thanatos begins absorbing the power of the portal and strikes down Stone when he tries to flee, telling him that he can send Stone to all sorts of places once he's "acquired the full lost power of the Heroic Age." Miguel tells one of the lab guys to shut down the portal and Thanatos threatens to send Spider-Man through it. Miguel pulls out Jordan, but he's not the only one who emerges from the portal: a being enters, declaring "I...I did it...I'm back. I'm back!!"
The Review
This issue is OK. It's not quite as gripping as some of the previous issues, but I get the fact that David has to spend most of his time here setting up future issues in this arc. I considered giving this issue two stars, if only because it wasn't quite the same level of work that I'm used to David doing on this title. But, given that I've given less great authors three stars for less great work, David earns the three here.
The Good
1) I loved that Stone was clearly trying to put Dana in front of him when Thanatos attacked. Hilarious.
2) I thought the secondary meaning of Dana and Stone's conversation when Spider-Man arrived was brilliant: "T-Tyler! Do you know who that is?" "Yes. I do." David continues to toy with us about whether Stone and Gabe know who Spider-Man is. It seems unlikely that someone as smart as Stone would not have figured out his identity, particularly given his sudden arrival to save Stone and Dana. Miguel himself is worried that Dana recognizes him, noting that he has to keep his voice "low and nasty."
The Unknown
OK, Thanatos is interesting. He seems to be connected to Thor in some way, particularly with his reference to being a pallbearer at God's funeral. I assume that we'll learn more next issue about what exactly he meant by the "full lost power" of the Heroic Age and what he intends to do with it. I've also got some questions that I'd like to see answered. For example, like Miguel, I wondered why someone as theoretically powerful as Thanatos couldn't just storm Alchemax to get what he wanted, having instead to resort to hostage-taking. Also, how did Thanatos know that Alchemax was, essentially at that moment, perfecting the inter-dimensional portal? Does he have a mole in Alchemax (or does he work for Alchemax) or is it, you know, because he's omniscient? David definitely raises all sorts of questions about Thanatos and I'm excited to see where they go.
The Unsure
1) I didn't really get why Miguel was so surprised that Jordan wouldn't share his secrets with him. I mean, sure, he works at Alchemax, but, given what I know of 2099 culture, it doesn't seem like the type of place where you just openly share secrets, particularly not with rivals. Given that Miguel works in an entirely different field, it doesn't seem like he had any sort of professional interest in what Jordan was doing. I think that it's actually David just showing that Miguel is a bit of an asshole at times (see also "Favorite Quote" #1 above), but I wasn't sure if he actually wanted us to believe that Jordan was being an asshole for not telling Miguel about it.
2) I didn't get why Thanatos threatened to send Miguel through the portal. He seemed to like Miguel, even offering to allow him to kill Stone after their hour expired as a "gift." Does he know more about Spider-Man than he originally implied and intended to send him through the portal all along? Or, did he decide Spider-Man was too much of an uncontrollable variable and intended to get rid of him? In that case, wouldn't it be easier to just shoot him, since, you know, people who go through inter-dimensional portals rarely just disappear in the Marvel Universe...
The Bad
Honestly, I do not understand why Dana would spend time with Stone. I get that Stone is running some sort of deep game when it comes to the attention that he's paying to Dana but I don't for the life of me get why Dana is playing. What about getting your boyfriend hooked to rapture makes Stone the type of guy with whom you want to spend a lot of time?
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