Amazing Spider-Man #791: OK, I admit, when Rubylyn tells Peter in so many words he only got the job because Robbie treats him like I son, I really wish he would’ve shot back that he’d been working at the “Bugle” since she was in short pants. But, I guess that’s not Peter. Slott wraps up this opening arc nicely. Robbie makes Peter the new science editor at the “Bugle,” responsible for publishing a Sunday supplement every week. Peter and Robbie seem to dispense with the idea Robbie doesn’t know Peter is Spider-Man, as Robbie stresses the flexible work hours in his initial conversation about the job with Peter. Slott will hopefully do more with Peter's science-team members as a supporting cast than he did with the Shanghai PI staff, who Slott seemed to think we would magically remember after they appeared in a few panels and weren’t seen again for several issues. I'm hoping something more along the lines of the Horizon staff. Turning to the action, Slott honors the spirit of Legacy by delivering a one-and-done story that feels like today would've been a complicated, six-part cross-over event. A wealthy industrialist named Tony Star...er...Xander Zynn (you know he’s a bad guy because his initials are X.Z.) is creating robots to be put in homes next year. Bobbi is working security for him, and she gets Peter and his team a tour of his facilities. When one of the bots tries to kill Colin (the guy Peter corrected last issue) after he fiddles with it, Peter literally jumps to his rescue. However, he and Bobbi raise a collective eyebrow when the robot asks him to kill it. Mockingbird and Spider-Man return that night and, long story short, it turns out Zynn captured Quicksand and turned her into the personality matrices. (That’s some pretty evil-genius stuff right there.) Peter assumes it’s Sandman, but he's surprised to learn it's one of the Thor’s villains; Bobbi assures him it can’t be all about him. Slott purposefully leaves some loose ends here: Bobbi expresses concern to herself Peter is still spending as much time as Spider-Man as possible, Zynn will clearly return, oh, and Harry and Liz’s nanny is stealing blood from the boys. Overall, this series is starting to feel like it did during the "Big Time! hey-day of Slott's run, though I'm sure we'll go the rails again and have Aunt May become Venom.
Ben Reilly: Scarlet Spider #10: Given the scream that ends this issue when Ben looks in the mirror, I assume we’re going to see the degenerative disease has once again scarred his face after he almost beat Silas Thorne to death. So freaking clever, that Peter David. Instead of a soul meter, we get Ben’s face as our measure of how well he’s doing in winning back Soul Points (TM). Meanwhile, the new Hornet is also named Silas, and Dusk arrives on the scene. However, we’re first introduced to her when she’s spying on the woman who killed the taxi driver last issue; we learn the man she's visiting is her father, Mysterio. Also, the little girl who made friends with the old woman we’ve seen a few times has glowing red eyes, which can’t be good. In other words, man, we have a lot going on here.
Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man #297: I don't understand why they keep calling Teresa Peter's "half-sister." She's either his full sister or not his sister all; they can't just split the difference. At any rate, this issue is a thrill-a-minute as Peter has to escape the S.W.A.T. team without his Spider-Sense (thanks to Natasha helping the Gray Blade test its parameters in issue #1) and without revealing he's Spider-Man. Zdarsky really goes to town, showing us why Peter's smarts are his greatest asset. The S.W.A.T. commander has apparently "sworn an oath" to the Gray Blade, and I'm not entirely sure how it suddenly became some sort of cult. Like, aren't they just a S.H.I.E.L.D. splinter group? Do people really need to swear oaths? Also, I get the commander is on board with the goal, but isn't someone going to raise an eyebrow when the S.W.A.T. team basically destroys an entire apartment complex searching for Peter? I mean, it's New York after all. The best part, though, is obviously Jonah saving Peter and then immediately telling him he owes him thousands of dollars for all the Spidey photos he bought over the years. Good luck with that, Jonah.
Spider-Men II #4: After four issues, Bendis finally let's us know what the point of this series is. It turns out this Universe's Miles' wife Barbara died. The Kingpin attended the funeral, coming after the death of his own wife, Vanessa. He told Miles he was so grief-stricken after Vanessa died he hired all sorts of people who could return Vanessa to him, and he discovered the existence of other dimensions where she lived. This knowledge was comforting to him. However, Miles wants more: he hired Taskmaster to find a dimension where Barbara -- his Barbara -- was alive. I still don't see how this Miles and "our" Miles have anything in common other than a name, but hopefully Bendis will get there. Meanwhile, our Miles confirms that he knows his dimension no longer exists and that only a few people (including his resurrected Uncle Aaron, according to the most recent issue of his series) know that. Given we've had two full company-wide events since "Secret Wars," it's probably time to wrap up this nagging question.
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