Thursday, February 14, 2013

Scarlet Spider #12.1 (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

Since I've got a backlog of something like 48 comics, I'm going to have to forgo the longer style review that I usually do for "Amazing Spider-Man" and "Scarlet Spider," at least until I manage to get current.

I enjoyed this issue, though I think Yost has to start moving past the somewhat overwrought narration that we've been getting lately with Kaine.  I don't mind the narration itself, since I think Yost has such a great sense of Kaine's voice.  I just mean that he can't always be thinking about what a monster he used to be.  I know that it's a Point One issue, so Yost is under the gun to use this issue to introduce Kaine to a wider audience.  But, we just had a similar story last issue, where Kaine actually received some form of absolution for his brutal past from Donald.  I'm not saying that Kaine should totally forget about it or that Donald suddenly wiped away all his guilt.  But, I think that it's time for him to stop focusing on it as much, particularly since, as the Arranger said, he has enough on his plate right now.

Moving to the issue itself, though, I totally loved the story here.  Kaine taking on human traffickers is right up the alley of this series, given its embrace of the darker corners of the superhero world.  I loved the sudden shift at the end, with the Arranger killing the human trafficker and declaring that the Kingpin (and, thus, the Hand) would have a more active presence in Houston.  Siqueira and Edwards do a great job showing Kaine battle the Hand here and I think that they're a good choice as a new ongoing adversary for Kaine.  (Maybe Peter could teach him Spider-Fu!)  Moreover, I'm excited that we seem to be getting somewhere next issue on the Aracely mystery.

All in all, I continue to love this title.  It's just a reliable good read every month and, given the state of some other comics that I read, I can't really think of higher praise than that.

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