After the disappointing "Spider-Woman" issue, I'm glad to report that this "Spider-Verse" tie-in issue is significantly stronger.
First, Costa does a good job giving everyone a distinct voice that matches their usual characterization. Ben is annoyingly optimistic, Jessica is coldly calculating, and Kaine is predictably taciturn. (Parallelism run amok! Adverbs and nouns, living together!) I'll admit that I wanted to Costa to do more to play up the hilarity that the natural tension coming from Ben and Kaine's conflicting personalities would create. But, he still does a solid job of introducing us to these characters, an important step for this issue since even Kaine, arguably the most recognizable one of the three, is probably a mystery to a lot of readers.
In terms of the plot, Costa moves us from Point A to Point B with remarkable speed, particularly since he manages not to cut any noticeable corners. The clones arrive in the world from where the Daemos clone arrived in "Amazing Spider-Man" #10, they get a little lucky finding someone (Iron Man) with the information that they need, and then they put into action a plan to solve their problem. It makes sense that Iron Man, as Jennix's guardian, would come to the sight of the disturbance that they cause, since it's pretty clear that these sorts of disturbances don't occur on a daily basis in the controlled world that the clones inhabit. Plus, given Jennix's role as this world's Big Brother, it's not that hard for the clones to realize that he's the guy that they want to stop. In other words, Costa deftly provides information to the characters in a way that flows logically from the events that we see, whereas it could've felt clunky or deus ex machina-y in the hands of another writer.
Most intriguingly, we learn that the Fantastic Four of this world work for Jennix. Johnny Storm recognizes Peter Parker, a.k.a. Kaine, raising all sorts of questions about this world's Peter Parker. Does he work for Jennix? Storm's reaction seems to imply that, since, if he were this world's Public Enemy #1, Storm wouldn't have been that surprised to see Iron Man arresting him.
In other words, Costa does a solid job of keeping a tight focus on the plot without passing up the chance to deliver some decent characterization. We could've used a little more in that department (since it mostly involves fleshing out Ben Reilly's personality), but Costa still has time to build off the work that he's done here. I'm also hoping that the extensive use of narration boxes might actually be the words of an unknown narrator (otherwise the Chaucer bit will wind up being a little over the top). Finally, I'll admit that I'm not a huge fan of Diaz's art, with everyone looking like anorexics on steroids. But, I'm still a happy camper, overall. I try not to have unreasonable expectations about these sort of tie-in mini-series, and I thought that Costa did a solid job here.
*** (three of five stars)
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