*** (three of five stars)
Favorite Quote: "What did you dream of, Tiberius? When you were little? What did you want?" "To be in charge." "How's that working out for you?" "I've had better days." -- Mussaret and Tiberius (it's nice to know Middle Eastern rebels haven't lost their sense of humor)
Summary
Liz enters Miguel's office and orders him to accompany Tiberius to Trans-Sabal to complete the Spider-Slayer delivery (despite having just told him that she doesn't control his life and he's free to choose what he wants to do). Miguel objects and asks Liz if she intends to blackmail him with her knowledge that he's from the future. She says that she doesn't want to screw with him helping Alchemax become the future's dominant company, but asserts that he's there to follow orders from her and Tiberius. Later, on the Alchemax jet, Tiberius tells Miguel that Alchemax is actually saving lives, since the rebels will clearly stop revolting against the current ruler, Jalfaha Dahn, once they see the Spider-Slayers. Upon arrival, Dahn welcomes Tiberius and Miguel, confirming that the shipment and the "most interesting individual" that Alchemax sent to oversee its unloading had arrived. Miguel senses a cluster of assassins on a nearby building and saves Tiberius from a bullet. Dahn's men open fire, and Miguel is hustling Tiberius to a nearby hanger when a bullet grazes his head. The assassins arrive with reinforcements in a group of jeeps and open fire on Dahn's men; they also grab Tiberius as a hostage, knowing that he's one of the Americans. One of the rebels plans on assassinating Miguel (since they don't need two hostages), but Miguel webs up his gun and knocks him unconscious. He gives chase to the jeep carrying away Tiberius, but they open fire on him and flee. Dahn arrives and pledges to get the location of where they're taking Tiberius from the rebel that Miguel knocked unconscious, but Miguel finds a jeep to give chase, realizing that he'll die if they kill Tiberius.
En route, Miguel exposits that he injected a "subcutaneous transmitter" into Tiberius to be able to keep track of him. Lyla gives him Tiberius' location, and Miguel makes his way there, dismayed by the conditions of that the Sabalians are enduring. He cringes at the thought of Spider-Slayers run amok, but observes that he hasn't been able to change Tiberius' mind and hopes that someone else will. In the rebels' hide-out, Tiberius regains consciousness. The rebels' leader, Mussaret, asks Tiberius if he's from the company selling robots to Dahn. Tiberius confirms that he is and notes that it's unusual for the rebels to have a woman leader. Mussaret responds angrily that she's leading them because her husband and eldest son, previously the leaders, are now dead. Composing herself, she tells Stone that they're going to record a video of him canceling the sale of the Spider-Slayers and orders him to take the robots and leave. He agrees, since she told him that she'd send him home in pieces if he didn't. Outside, Miguel has changed into his costume and scales the wall, worried that Tiberius will see him. Inside, Mussaret asks Tiberius if he's seen Dahn's 100-room mansion; he responds that he hasn't and that 100 rooms "seems excessive." Striking a more serious note, Mussaret asks Tiberius to use the robots against Dahn to give her remaining children a chance for the future. Tiberius is taken aback a bit, but, before he can answer, the Scorpion (the aforementioned "most interesting individual") arrives to save Stone. A falling rock (conveniently) knocks Tiberius unconscious just as Miguel prevents the Scorpion from killing Mussaret. The Scorpion mistakes Miguel for Spider-Man (asking him about the new costume) and notes that he's got an army of Spider-Slayers on hand to help him.
One of the challenges of inserting a superhero into a "real-world" story is that it tests the limits of the superhero genre. Authors generally do it exactly for that reason, but the challenge that they face in doing so is that it's difficult to make it feel organic and not preachy. The good news is that, if anyone could do it, it's Peter David.
Comics in the last decade or so have done a great job of finessing the motivations of "bad guys" so that they're more complex than just "do evil." For example, Magneto is no longer the head of a Brotherhood of "Evil" Mutants seeking to subjugate humanity for fun; he's now the leader of a Brotherhood of Mutants seeking to secure its place in a world that hates and fears mutants. (Some bad guys are still simply selfish assholes.) Moreover, the good guys are no longer paragons of virtue; the last 20 years of X-Men comics make it difficult to see Charles Xavier as anything other than an amoral manipulator.
However, in the vast majority of comic-book stories, the central tension driving the story is a conflict between a group easily identified as "good" and one easily identified as "evil," even if we're thankfully not using those exact terms anymore. Yes, it's a lot easier to send the Avengers to fight Death-worshipping Thanos (see the aforementioned "selfish asshole"). But, even when pitting the flawed X-Men against a more sympathetic Magneto, authors generally assign some sort of moral high-ground to the superheroes, usually because the super-villains are trying to impose their will on people with less power than they have (even if their motivations are now more understandable).
In the "real-world" stories, however, the superheroes are often in trouble because this moral high-ground is a lot less clear. As I read this issue, I was reminded of the New Warriors' previous intervention into the civil war in Trans-Sabal ("New Warriors" #29-30) and Captain America's fight with Nuke in Nrosvekistan ("Captain America #11-14). Both stories explored the limits of superheroes' ability to do good by placing the heroes in situations that didn't have a clear "good" and "evil." Nicieza's Warriors found themselves involved in a three-party conflict, with Namorita allowing the rebel leader, Mezdbadah, to kill the military commander, Halladah, that led the coup against the newly installed "king," the aforementioned Jalfaha Dahn. When the Warriors and Mezdbadah eventually confront Dahn, he reveals that Mezdbadah is in the employ of Trans-Sabal's radical neighbors and promised them the country's oil fields in exchange for their support. It's a text-book case of a conflict with too many sides to allow for the Warriors to simply punch their way to a resolution (alluding to the Hood's comments about the Young Avengers in their recent "Original Sins" story). In the "Captain America" story, the Falcon is forced to let a report keep her camera after she accuses him of not supporting her freedom of speech, but she uses her photos to create a false narrative that implicates Cap in Nuke's murder of dozens of Nrosvekistanis. Again, the "good guy," in the form of the journalist, isn't all that good, and the "bad guy," Nuke, isn't all that bad; instead, he's a sympathetic character, given the mental tampering that he'd suffered, and she's a cold manipulator, only seeking to promote herself. In both stories, the heroes inadvertently make matters worse rather than better, depending on your angle.
David is likely taking a similar path here by sending Miguel into Trans-Sabal with Tiberius to sell the Spider-Slayers to Dahn. (By the way, if you've got those "New Warriors" issues on hand, re-reading them definitely gives this story an extra oomph.) For now, Mussaret (possibly Mezdbadah's widow) is a more or less heroic figure, leading the resistance against Dahn. But, you could see a future where Mussaret is revealed to have her own plans for Trans-Sabal, and any alliance that Miguel makes with her could come to haunt him, as it did the Warriors. Miguel seems to be aware of the precarious nature of the situation, but simply acknowledging that it could all go bad doesn't mean that he'll actually be able to prevent it from doing so.
In other words, I'm really intrigued where David is going with this story.
The Good
1) David does a great job of commenting on war profiteering without being too preachy. He clearly expresses Miguel's understandable horror at the conditions of the Sabalian people's lives, and the possibility of the Spider-Slayers running wild through the already grim streets makes his horror all the more profound.
2) When I first started reading this series, I hadn't anticipated that people would confuse Spider-Man 2099 for our Spider-Man. But, Liz does so in the first issue and Scorpion does so in this one, asking Miguel why he's wearing a new costume (assuming that he's Peter). These cases of mistaken identity could really open the doors to some interesting stories. After all, Scorpion's going to come after Miguel a lot harder when he thinks that he's really the guy that knocked off his jaw (even though that was Otto not Peter, but let's not go there). It'll hopefully keep the two Spideys in contact, because I'd love to see more Peter in this book, particularly if it involves Miguel haranguing him for having such an angry rogues' gallery.
The Unknown
During Mussaret's angry retort to Tiberius, she implies someone other than Dahn is responsible for the deaths of her husband and son. It gets across the point that her motivations aren't entirely clear yet, and Miguel could find himself double-crossed if he eventually allies with her. David's subtly in working it into the story, but it's there.
The Bad
1) I'm not really sure that I love the depiction of Liz here. People who run successful companies generally don't just tell highly prized employees that expect them to obey instructions. Dissent plays an important role in making sure that you're employing a proper strategy, particularly when it involves selling Spider-Slayers to a Middle Eastern dictator. Liz dismisses Miguel's concerns way too quickly here. I would've rathered seen her give him some sort of defense for the sale, acknowledging his dissent but noting that it was still her call. When you add in her sexual harassment of him, you've got to wonder where David is going with her.
2) I'm glad that Miguel acknowledges that it would be bad if Tiberius saw him as Spider-Man, since he would likely put two and two together pretty quickly. But, I found myself wondering why Miguel wasn't basically changing costumes with every appearance, since we've learned that he's using a holographic projector to create his costume. Why not appear as, I don't know, Ricochet, in an ode to a previous Spider-Man storyline? Also, I have to wonder what clothes Miguel is actually wearing at this point. Is it just some sort of generic union-suit that he wears all the time?
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