**** (four of five stars)
Summary
Miguel regains consciousness only to discover he's mid-air, in the clutches (literally) of the Vulture, with Kasey in hot pursuit on her stolen flybike. Kasey opens fire on the Vulture, who decides to kill her with his talons. Miguel fully regains his senses at this point and stops the Vulture from killing her, but inadvertently causes the Vulture to hack off one of her flybike's stabilizers instead. The Vulture knocks Miguel unconscious, while Kasey crashes (managing to survive, somehow). In Uptown, Dana goes to Miguel's apartment, where Lyla informs her that Miguel has already departed for work. Meanwhile, Gabe is starting to wonder if driving through Downtown was such a good idea and this hunch is proven correct when he's attacked by some hoods calling themselves the Devourers. He manages to outrun one of the hoods and hits the other with his car, resulting in the hood dropping his gun on Gabe's passenger seat. Elsewhere, Miguel awakens to discover that he's mostly healed (presumably because he's been asleep for close to the 24 hours that the doctor last issue advised him to get), though he's disturbed by a smell. He comes to realize he's locked in a cell when someone knocks on his door and offers him food. Miguel, looking to "get out of this city-wide asylum and get back home," uses the opportunity to knock the door onto the person carrying the food, only to find himself in the Vulture's lair (which appears to be the old Grand Central Station). Spider-Man finally discovers, thanks to the Vulture, that he's Downtown and the Vulture tells him he's among friends. He refers to Downtown as being full of Dickens' "surplus population," and informs Miguel that its population has formed "cliques" for mutual protection. He's the leader of the Freakers, the largest clique, noting that each clique has its own "priority, sense of purpose, territory." Miguel offers that things would probably be better if they worked together, an idea that the Vulture dismisses as "corporate." He says that people with opposing views should battle for supremacy and asks him which of the "indys" made him. When Miguel professes ignorance of what an "indy" is, the Vulture is enraged by Miguel's lack of knowledge of the world around him. He suggests that the same people who made him made Miguel and notes that Miguel freed himself from them just as the Vulture did. When Miguel asks what the Vulture wants with him, he responds, "the skies."
Meanwhile, Uptown, former Sergeant Estevez, who Tyler Stone fired with prejudice last issue, arrives home to discover that everything he owns has been re-possessed and that he's being evicted. He notes, "If Spider-Man weren't already dead, I'd kill him." (DUN-DUN-DUN!) Downtown, the Vulture laments that New York eventually grew upwards over the remnants of Downtown and blames Alchemax for now ruining the skies, given the power of its flyboys. He wants Spider-Man to help him defeat Alchemax to regain control, telling him that his alternative is to die. He motions to a pile of skulls and Miguel realizes that the Vulture is a cannibal. Enraged, Miguel attacks him. The Vulture orders his "Sergeant" (the guy who offered Miguel food) to open fire and Miguel escapes. At Alchemax, Stone is conversing with Hikaru-san of Stark-Fujikawa, who accuses him of arranging to hire the Specialist simply to embroil him, and, by extension, Stark-Fujikawa, in a fight with Spider-Man. Stone denies it, something that Hikaru-san isn't buying, and he tells Stone he will not forget his maneuvering. Stone's staff member escorts Dana into his office and she chastises him for what he did to Miguel. Stone agrees and tells her that Miguel has already returned to work. Dana tells him that the receptionists had already told her that Miguel wasn't at work and Stone tells her that Miguel's always been difficult to keep locked in the lab. He then suggests that the two of them help each other. In Downtown, Miguel crashes through a floor, only to find himself in the Vulture's meat locker. (Eww.) The Vulture finds him and Miguel makes a break for it, entering an old-school elevator shaft. Miguel cuts loose an elevator onto the Vulture, who survives, enraged. They fly through a skylight and engage in a mid-air battle. Meanwhile, Gabe is waiting outside Kasey's apartment and, startled by her arrival, accidentally shoots her with the hood's gun.
The Review
This book almost needs to be renamed "Spider-Man 2099 and His Amazing Friends" given the amount of attention David gives to Miguel's supporting cast. We've got Dana, Gabe, Kasey, and Tyler all in action here and the seeming addition of Estevez. It's remarkable to me that David can keep all those balls in the air while still giving us the detailed origin story of a great new villain. But, given his amazing character work on X-Factor's enormous team, I shouldn't be surprised. I'm only seven issues into this series and I'm ready to start my Internet campaign asking Marvel to return it to publication!
The Good
1) First things first: I loved the puzzle-piece opening page. Leonardi is just doing great stuff on this title.
2) David really excels in showing how demented the Vulture is. From his ranting and raving about the "indys" and the "mutroids" to the revelation that he's a cannibal, David shows us a guy who is seriously unhinged. We saw hints of him being quirky but also lethal last issue, but here he's a serious bad-ass nutjob, a terrible combination if I ever heard of one. Venture and the Specialist were both cool enough villains, but Miguel seems to get his first real nemesis here, a guy who has a grudge against him (and his "corporate" attitude) and the power to keep him on the ropes. Awesome stuff.
3) Aha! I knew that David wouldn't drop the Alchemax/Stark-Fujikawa storyline. Faith rewarded! David has Stone exposit here that Alchemax hired the Specialist from Stark-Fujikawa because Venture had been taken off-line by Spider-Man and it needed someone to arrest Kasey Nash. But, despite how smooth Stone is in explaining that Spider-Man's sudden appearance couldn't have been predicted, Hikaru-san doesn't let Stone off the hook, making it clear that he sees through the ruse. As Hikaru-san says, why would someone of the Specialist's caliber be needed to arrest Kasey Nash, when it's pretty clear that the Public Eye could've done it? I think this conversation is such a great example of why David is such an amazing writer. He always respects the reader by having his characters be smart enough to see through the ruses of other characters. He builds real tension, because, despite the character seeing through the ruse, David has written him into a corner where he's helpless to avoid falling for it. This exchange is a perfect example; despite knowing that Stone manipulated him to go after Spider-Man, Hikaru-san is still honor-bound to do it. It's the converse of what someone like Bendis does, as seen in the recent "H.A.M.M.E.R. War," where everyone, no matter how smart he or she was, just kept walking into Osborn's traps. If Bendis had spent more time building better traps, so that we could believe why someone like Tony Stark would still be forced to step into them, maybe I wouldn't have hated that arc so much. Instead, it serves as a compelling counterpoint to David, showing why he's the best there is at what he does.
4) Miguel continues having just a really craptacular week. From awakening mid-air in the clutches of a winged lunatic to finding himself imprisoned in a cannibal's den, you just really have to feel for the guy.
The Unknown
1) OK, so Stone knows Miguel is Spider-Man, right? First, you have Hikaru-san's unanswered question from this issue: why send the Specialist, and not the Public Eye, after someone like Kasey Nash? The only answer seems to be that Stone knew her connection to Gabe and his connection to Miguel and used it as a way to draw out Miguel as Spider-Man. Moreover, Dana essentially confirms Miguel's absence to Stone. He's way too smart of a guy not to have put two and two together. I love how David is toying so well with this plot point, revealing enough of his hand to make us think we know what's happening, but not enough to make us sure. Awesome.
2) Wasn't Kasey going to go get "the reserves" last issue? Did she mean the Vulture? She doesn't seem to mean him, given that she's swearing at him to return Spider-Man to her, but, since we only see her confront the Vulture here, it's unclear where she intended to go. Also, I wonder how she knows the Vulture. I mean, she apparently lives Downtown, but I wonder if it goes beyond that. Moreover, I'm intrigued by some of the stuff the Vulture mentioned about the 2099 world. "Indys" and "mutroids" I think are terms we've seen before but haven't quite had explained. Again, David uses these hints to keep us coming back every issue wanting more.
3) I wonder where David is going with this Sgt. Estevez story. Is he going to go find a way to obtain his own powers to get revenge on Miguel and Tyler? He's clearly not just disappearing. (Along those lines, despite the resolution of the "Why was the Specialist working for Alchemax?" question, I'm still not sure why Stone wanted to have the Public Eye detain, but not arrest, Spider-Man at the end of issue #5. The Public Eye firing on Spider-Man at Estevez's command is, after all, the reason Stone fired him, because he only wanted Miguel to be unable to leave the scene. It seemed to be part of his larger plan involving Stark-Fujikawa, but I'm not sure how it would've helped move it along. But, my guess is that we're never going to get an answer to that question, since Stone isn't the type to cry over spilled milk, so I should just move forward.)
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