*** (three of five stars)
Summary
At the Wellvale Home, a woman named "Conchata" is sitting outside assembling some sort of puzzle on a table when a man in a white coat asks if she'd care to explain it to him. When she's silent, he asks if she would like to start where they left off the previous week, when he was asking about her sons. The woman screams, and the man in the white coat calls for a medic. Meanwhile, Spidey returns to Uptown...and narrowly misses getting hit by a maglev car. Reflecting on how embarrassing it would've been to have survived Downtown only to be hit by a car in Uptown, he's further embarrassed when he's caught flat-footed by a Public Eye officer. The officer, Puglisi, holds Miguel at gun-point while he calls in his find. Before the officer can spit out the fact that he's found Spider-Man, Miguel webs shut his mouth and punches him unconscious. Seizing the opportunity to make it across the city without drawing attention to himself, Miguel takes the unconscious officer's uniform and flybike. Meanwhile, in Downtown, Dana complains that Gabe extracted her from the Throwbacks' fight with the Freakers. She tells him that sometimes he shows potential, but other times he acts just like his brother, who didn't impress her when she met him. (Of course, she was holding him at gunpoint, something she doesn't quite mention here.) Gabe defends him briefly and turns the conversation to Spider-Man, in a way that implies he's defending Miguel because he knows he's Spider-Man. However, Gabe gets a little jealous when Kasey talks about how tight Spider-Man's ass is. (Seriously.) Meanwhile, in Uptown, Miguel awakens from a nap in what appears to be Central Park and begins to make his way home, still smarting from the various wounds and injuries he suffered in Downtown. However, en route home, he's startled when a group of Public Eye officers on flybikes surround him. Fearing he's been discovered, he tries to ditch them, but finds himself further confused when the officers follow him, with one of them complementing "Puglisi" on showing such initiative. Listening to the flybike's radio, Miguel learns that "Puglisi" and the other officers have been dispatched to apprehend Spider-Man, who's apparently appeared at a mall. Elsewhere, Angela Daskalakis is taking Sgt. Estevez to Nightshade, an independent town, telling him that Alchemax has largely left her and her fellow townspeople alone because they didn't have anything it wanted. But, now that they've developed certain "cross-dimensional quantum theories" that might mean cracking the light barrier and "recapturing some of the tech that was lost during the catastrophe at the end of the Heroic Age," she and her colleagues fear that Alchemax might try a hostile takeover of Nightshade. For those reasons, she's offered Estevez a role in defending Nightshade. She gives him one last chance to say no, before driving him into Nightshade; he says he's ready and they enter the fortified city.
In New York, Miguel and the Public Eye chase someone who looks at awful lot like Spider-Man. They open fire on him, blasting him off the promenade where he was running, and one of the other officers points out the fact that several Spider-Men (and -Women) are running around the mall. Miguel goes to rescue the first Spider-Man before he falls to his death, while another officer tackles and unmasks another Spider-Man, who tells him that he's spreading the word of Spider-Man. (The officer pulls off "Spidey's" gloves to reveal micro-suction fingertips.) Meanwhile, Miguel grabs the falling Spidey with a Web-Line, something that the fake Spidey thinks he did by "becoming one with Spider-Man." Miguel brings them to the ground and yells at the fake Spidey, telling him he could've been killed. Fake Spidey tells Miguel that he once worshipped Thor, but he "and his brethren" now understand that they should worship Spider-Man, who's the "true word of Thor on Earth." Miguel unmasks the fake Spidey, who's just a teenager, and tells him to burn the costume. Upset, he accidentally loses control of his talons and one pops through his glove. The kid falls to his knees to worship Miguel, who leaves him be and tells him to "go home and be you." Finally, Miguel makes it home. Lyla draws him a bath, answering his question that she would pretty much recognize Miguel in any form, except if certain biological triggers and parts (like his pulse or his hands) weren't present. Miguel yells at her to stop listing the various body parts that could be hacked off him and she pretends to get her feelings hurt. She then throws a fake tantrum, amusing herself. Miguel puts on a restorative cream to take care of his bruises and then soaks in the bath. At Gabe's apartment, Gabe is furious over Kasey's obsession over Spider-Man (and his tight ass), a fury that's interrupted when he gets a voicemail that upsets him. At Miguel's place, Dana arrives and gets into the bath with him. Knowing he owes her an answer for his recent disappearance, Miguel tells her that he's been in some shady places meeting with people to help him shake off the rapture addiction. He tells Dana that he's successfully gotten rid of it, but that it's had some side effects, like his teeth being sensitive, which can complicate kissing. They do, in fact, kiss, though are interrupted by Gabriel, who tells Miguel that their mother has collapsed at the home and is calling for them. (Dun-dun-dun!)
The Review
This issue wraps up some threads from the first two arcs, putting Miguel home safely for the first time pretty much all series. It's a fun ride, because you really get a chance to see Miguel when he's not desperately fighting for his life. For some reason, I particularly enjoyed his nap under the bushes in Central Park. It just gave you a sense of how exhausted this poor guy is. We've got tons of stuff bubbling under the surface, from the repercussions of Miguel letting the Vulture fall to his death to the mysterious plans of Angela Daskalakis and Nightshade, but it was fun to just spend some time with Miguel without him having to fight off another super-villain. Of course, he doesn't really get a chance to relax, because I can't imagine the conversation with his mother is going to go well next issue...
The Good
1) I thought it was clever of David to have Miguel take the Public Eye officer's clothes. As we saw in issue #4, Miguel sent his clothes home via Metro-Express when he last changed into his Spidey costume. I like how David remembers that detail and has Miguel decide that it would be easier to make his way home as a Public Eye officer than as Spider-Man (who would likely inevitably wind up getting chased by Public Eye officers). It also conveniently puts him on the path that leads to the discovery of the Spiderites. David's great at taking these seemingly small details and making the entire issue's plot wind up revolving around them.
2) I can't help but feel like all this talk of the catastrophic end of the Heroic Age (as we hear again from Angela Daskalakis) shows Marvel's been working off the same script for the last 25 years, given the previews for the next few years we saw on future Tony Stark's chart in the first arc of the new "Avengers" series. Is it the upcoming Phoenix Saga redux? Is it the war with Ultron? It's probably just a coincidence, but it's fun to think we've been part of some grand scheme all along.
3) The advent of Spiderites has seemed to be pretty much inevitable ever since issue #2, when the Thorite anointed Miguel the harbinger of Thor. But, it's just one more example of the extreme lengths people of the 2099 world will go to find something in which they can believe.
4) I love Lyla. The Academy Award speech for her tantrum as awesome.
The Unknown
1) I wonder if word is going to spread on the streets that Spider-Man is a member of the Public Eye, given that the kid doesn't seem like he'd keep that piece of information to himself. If it does, it should have some interesting repercussions.
2) I wonder where David is going with this Nightshade business. He's really had it on a slow boil since Tyler Stone fired Estevez in issue #6 and my guess is that it'll stay in the background until it suddenly explodes. We shall see.
The Bad
1) The art is really disappointing. Jones has a serious problem with faces, drawing almost everyone as more related to trolls than humans. The last page, for example, has a panel of Miguel's face where he's almost unrecognizable and that doesn't match an image of his face just a few panels later. I hope Leonardi is back next issue.
2) I don't think we ever learn what the fake Spider-Men were doing. Were they just running around the mall to announce their presence? That seems kind of...odd. "Hey, look, we're a new cult! Woot!"
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