Slott crams a lot in here. Some of it's good, some of it's bad.
I have to start with the Black Cat, since she's at the heart of this story. I've complained about the Black Cat's vendetta against Spider-Man since Slott debuted this plot line in "Amazing Spider-Man" #1, since Slott fundamentally changed certain aspects of Felicia's history and personality to make it work. First, he bases it on the premise that Felicia's identity wasn't publicly known. Since her identity has always been publicly known, it never made a lot of sense to me that the police suddenly decided to investigate her loft after discovering that Spider-Man had webbed her to a wall (in "Superior Spider-Man" #20). They've always known her identity, so they could've really done that at any given point in time. Moreover, this plot line got even more ridiculous after Peter revealed that Otto had taken over his body at the time that he attacked her. Even if Felicia's identity had been a secret, Peter confirming that he wasn't "Spider-Man" when "he" exposed it pretty much erases the cause for the vendetta against him.
However, Slott kept the vendetta going by moving the goal posts: Felicia is now really trying to kill Spider-Man just to re-establish her reputation in the criminal underworld. As I note in my review of "Amazing Spider-Man" #3, I'm not really sure why she's trying to impress criminals, since it's been a while since she's been one. But, Slott doubles down on this approach in this issue. Felicia doesn't kill Spidey, but she does de-power Electro, winning the respect of the hoods at the Bar with No Name who were angry at him for accidentally killing the inmates that he tried to free in "Amazing Spider-Man" #1. Felicia assumes control of her own gang, and we learn that her goal is to be queen of crime in New York. I still don't buy it, but hopefully it takes us off the vendetta path. In the future, I'd rather that we just see Felicia and Peter confronting each other over her criminal activity, like they did in the past. That way, we can put this whole plot line to bed. However, I'm not optimistic, since Felicia specifically states that she has to kill Spider-Man to put the unlucky part of her life behind her. I guess we'll see.
Speaking of Electro, I'm not entirely sure how he winds up de-powered. Felicia's plan was to pump him full of power so that he exploded; it wasn't to strip him of his power. I don't understand how doing so to the nth degree actually winds up de-powering him. It's possible that Felicia threw it in reverse, as she mentioned she could do earlier in the issue. However, in the panel where she could've done that, she actually tells Spider-Man that she'd rather see him burn. It's one of the consequences of Slott cramming too many developments into this issue, because we could've used a few panels to explain the de-powering, rather than the reporter just announcing it. (Also, in retrospect, I'm not really sure what this plan had to do with Spider-Man. It went after Peter, but they don't know that he's Spider-Man. I'm sure that Slott explained it in a previous issue, but the fact that I can't remember it just shows how we moved too quickly through this issue to make all the connections that we needed to see to appreciate it.)
In terms of the good, I like the conversation between Peter and Anna Maria. I've always liked her, and I'm glad that Slott has found a pretty solid reason for keeping her now that Otto is gone. He seems to be setting up treachery on the part of Sajani, so I could see a future where Anna Maria takes Sajani's place at Parker Industries, running the show while Peter acts as Spider-Man. However, I'm nervous where said treachery is going. We need to stay with Parker Industries for a while, not move Peter immediately into another career or field. Unfortunately, Slott's plans for Sajani seems to spell trouble for Parker Industries, and I'm worried that we're going to have yet another set of stories focused on the Parker luck. Also, I don't like the implication that Peter's own plans for the company make no sense. Sure, he might not have been the one to set up the company, but I'm pretty confident in Peter's abilities to make marketable products, given his run at Horizon. It's not like Sajani was the wunderkind there. (Remember when her reverbium almost killed everyone?)
In the end, it's a mixed bag. I'm hoping that we can put this distracting Black Cat and Electro plot line behind us and move onto Spider-Verse. It's time.
*** (three of five stars)
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