*** (three of five stars)
Summary
At a biker bar near the East River, Hobgoblin leads a group of Hand ninjas to recover a "Pulp Fiction briefcase" from members of a Goblin gang. He's just observing that the briefcase will put the Kingpin in a very good mood when Spidey arrives and uses a Web-Line to steal said briefcase. Hobgoblin responds with his sonic scream, but it has no effect on Spidey, since he's developed earplugs that block out harmful frequencies. Hobgoblin congratulates him on his new trick, but announces that he, too, has one, ordering Tiberius Stone, who's hiding on a rooftop, to activate one of the Spider-Sense Jammers. Instead of "jamming" Spidey's Spider-Sense, however, it amplifies it, allowing Peter to make short work of the Hand ninjas. Hobgoblin escapes, grabbing Stone and berating him for helping Spidey instead of hindering him. Stone promises to make adjustments and Hobgoblin tells him that he's the one who's going to have to explain to Kingpin why they don't have the case. As Spidey finishes off the Hand, he notices Hobgoblin carrying away Tiberius. Roderick Kingsley is also observing the scene, expositing that Phil is unaware that his Bat-Drone has a GPS tacker, which led Roderick straight to him. Elsewhere, Madame Web is in a trance, noting that the future is slipping through her fingers and that the end is approaching. She's interrupted by her daughter, who she's sending to her parents' house in Colorado. Her daughter thinks that it's to spend time with her grandparents, but Madame Web exposits that it's for her safety since the ending that she has foreseen is her own.
At Horizon, Pete stores the recovered briefcase, since he figures that it has all sorts of booby-traps. He wonders how he should approach the Tiberius Stone issue and resolves to handle it like a scientist, supporting his hypothesis that Stone is working with Hobgoblin with facts. He goes to discuss the matter with Max, who he finds concluding an interview with Sally Floyd from the "Daily Bugle." Floyd is running a piece on Horizon and Max tells Pete that it will help combat some of the pressure that JJJ, Jr. has put on them lately. Floyd mentions Pete working on Spidey's tech and Pete asks if she's putting it in the piece. Max expresses concern that some of the staff "spoke out of turn" and asks Floyd to remove any mention of it from the piece. Floyd refuses, saying that it's too good and, if Pete wants it removed, he'll have to go to the top.
Pete does just that, going to the "Daily Bugle" and trying to convince Robbie Robertson not to run it. Robbie refuses, stressing that the article casts Horizon in a very positive light. Pete tells him that he's worried about being connected to Spider-Man and Robbie dismisses this concern as old news, since everyone knows about Pete's connection to Spider-Man since he once released a book of photos of him. Pete is concerned that this revelation could get people to examine his link to Spider-Man more closely, breaking the already weakened spell that Dr. Strange cast on him to undo the revelation of his identity. Pete asks Robbie for a delay, but Robbie shows him that the piece is already on the "Bugle's" website. In the background, Phil provides footage of Hobgoblin fighting Spider-Man to Norah, who tells him that she's looking into heavier stuff, namely the legacy of Norman Osborn. She has apparently learned through her sources that Osborn has files on "all the power players" and she's doing everything to find them. She dismisses Hobgoblin as small time, something that infuriates Phil. His anger sets off Pete's Spider-Sense just as Norah approaches him and Pete wonders if Norah's in danger.
At Shadowland, Kingpin threatens Stone, who pledges to get back the suitcase from Spider-Man and cripple him in the process. Stone shows Kingpin how he plans on substantially boosting the signal and altering the frequencies of the Jammers, which he's placed all around town. At the Port Authority, Julia puts her daughter on the bus and then calls 9-1-1, telling the operator that a woman, her, is in dire need of medical attention. Stone turns on the Jammer and Pete begins to become overwhelmed. Her knocks Norah and Phil to the floor to "save" them from the mail guy almost bumping into them. Pete covers by saying he hadn't had his coffee that morning, but, when Norah offers him some, he knocks it from her hand, since it was hot. Suddenly, he realizes that he's seeing everything around him as a threat and decides to leave to find somewhere safe. At the Port Authority, Madame Web is also overwhelmed, seeing every possibly future. She sends a psychic warning to Peter, calling him Spider-Man and telling him that something right behind him is coming for him. Panicked that she called him Spider-Man in front of the staff, Pete heads to the stairs. Phil wonders if everyone in the city saw that message and turns to ask Pete if it was for him, but then realizes that Pete's gone. He gets a call from Kingpin, telling him that he has an assignment for him, "about locating Spider-Man." Phil tells Kingpin that he has it covered and, downstairs, Pete stumbles into the street. He tries shutting out the pain, but realizes that he has limited options, since he can't risk Web-Swinging. He plans on heading to the Fantastic Four or Horizon, somewhere where someone can identify why he's having this problem. But, Hobgoblin appears behind him, using gas to knock out Pete and declaring, "I finally got one over on you, Spider-Man," as he grabs Pete and flies into the distance with him.
The Review
Although I only list one "Good," I gave this issue three stars since I'm at least intrigued where Slott is going with the "Unknowns." However, I still have my doubts. Slott is building off some premises that I find shaky, such as Max having made the Spider-Sense Jammers' design specification so easy to steal and Madame Web being so risky as to call Peter "Spider-Man" in public. Both these plot points felt forced, like Slott was rushing to roll out the story and didn't have time to develop more plausible explanations. If this arc continues to rely on these questionable developments at its core, it's going to be hard to stay as engaged as I'm clearly supposed to be.
The Good
I thought Slott did a good job reminding us that Pete's connection to Spider-Man isn't something that he wants re-publicized because of Dr. Strange's spell. After all, Robbie's right that it doesn't really seem like the sort of thing that would surprise anyone, since Pete's connection to Spider-Man is pretty well established. But, it also makes sense that this sort of publicity could destroy the spell that we know is already weakened after Pete's impromptu speech during Spider-Island. It a nice attention to detail, the type that we expect from Slott but haven't seen a lot over the last few issues.
The Unknown
1) I didn't know that other Horizon members knew that Pete worked on Spidey's tech. I thought that Max was the only one who actually knew that. Did it get revealed during Spider-Island or "Ends of the Earth? I'm not going to give Slott a demerit for it, since I don't really want to re-read the last 45+ issues or so to prove my point, but I was still surprised by the reveal. Plus, even if they did know, it still seems surprising that they'd reveal it to a reporter, unless it was Sajani getting some revenge since she's not all that fond of Pete.
2) The secret-identity issue distracts Pete from the conversation that he was going to have with Max, namely, what Max knew about Tiberius Stone. I wonder when we're going to return to that sub-plot, since Slott has drawn attention to it several times over the last few issues.
3) I also wonder where Slott is going with the Norah storyline. It seems pretty clear that her research into the Osborn files is somehow connected to the upcoming battle between the two Hobgoblins, particularly since she keeps appearing in Madame Web's visions. I wonder if Norah is going to survive this arc.
The Bad
1) I didn't think anyone else saw Madame Web's psychic messages. Even if they now could because of her amplified power, I'm pretty sure that Julia would know enough to appear only to Peter. After all, if she knows that the threat to Peter is right behind him, why in the world would she reveal his identity to that threat? Plus, Pete running from the message seems to have been the worst possible option, since it only serves to attract attention to him, rather than divert it from him. As I said above, this plot twist falls into the category of Max keeping the Spider-Sense Jammer designs in his desk drawer. I don't buy that Julia would be so careless and, since the whole plot of the arc revolves around this carelessness, I'm having trouble engaging with it.
2) Since I think it bears repeating (though should be obvious by now), I still don't believe that Max Modell would be so dumb as to keep the plans for the Spider-Sense Jammers in his desk drawer, which means that I don't believe that Tiberius Stone could've stolen them, which means that I don't believe that he could amp up their power, which means that I don't think Phil would've had the opportunity to deduce Pete's secret identity. At the end of the day, the throne of lies on which this storyline is sitting is keeping me from really engaging with it.
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