New Comics: The "Omega Effect" Edition (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

Avenging Spider-Man #6:  And we're off!  I have to say, I've been looking forward to reading this cross-over event for a while now.  I loved the recent Daredevil/Spider-Man arc and, although I'm not really a fan of the Punisher, I do enjoy seeing him bring out a side of Spidey that we don't usually see.  Rucka highlights their tense relationship here, showing Spidey aggressively pushing his "no one dies" mantra on Frank.  I thought that Rucka did an amazing job maintaining the distinct voices of all three characters, putting Daredevil firmly in the middle of Pun and Spidey.  I felt like I could actually hear them arguing!  Spidey's plan seems pretty solid, though, I have to say, I'm not 100 percent sure what the end goal is.  I thought that it was for Reed to download the information in secret and then have Daredevil destroy the Drive, leading Megacrime to think its secrets were safe when, in reality, the superhero community now had them.  But, Punisher, at the end, comments that destroying the Drive would leave him with nothing.  I'm not sure if he means him personally (because Reed, not he, would control the Drive) or if the plan is not to download the information first but actually destroy the Drive with the information intact.  I guess we'll see.  At any rate, it should be a fun ride, with Daredevil, Punisher, Punisherette, and Spidey taking on four cartels in one night!

The Punisher #10:  OK, so, after this issue, it appears that the plan was to destroy the Drive without first downloading the information.  Honestly?  I'm not sure I quite buy that.  Daredevil says that it's because no one person should have that information, because it would put too much power in his hands.  OK, I get that.  But, as Spidey says, the Avengers?  S.H.I.E.L.D.?  I guess after "Civil War," we're not supposed to trust that these organizations would be able to do the right thing with this information, and I can't say that I necessarily disagree.  But, Daredevil's premise that the only option was for one person (as opposed to an organization) to control the Drive or no one seemed faulty to me.  Also, given that I was unclear last issue on what the goal of the plan actually was, it seems odd that it's presented so clearly here.  Of course, everything doesn't go to plan when the Punisher appears to shoot Daredevil just as he's going to destroy the Drive, allowing Punisherette to make a grab for it.  (Spidey was right!)  It sets up the battle royale between the various criminal organizations and the good guys, plus another one between the good guys and the good guys.  It should be pretty epic.  (NB:  I'll also note that I'm a little confused about how the Omega Drive got the information on the criminal organizations in the first place.  Do we know who assembled it?  No one is mentioned here as its creator, so either it's already been covered in detail in "Daredevil" or we don't know, which seems to be an odd loose-end to be left unaddressed.  Shouldn't we be trying to figure out who assembled this complete collection of data on the most powerful criminal organizations in the world, particularly since this person can also turn unstable molecules into a hard drive?  They seem like the type of person the good guys would want to get to know.  If it's already been addressed in "Daredevil," I feel like someone should've probably recapped that, since it's a pretty obvious question.  Who cares if you destroy the Drive if someone out there still knows the information?  If it hasn't been addressed, I feel like someone should've probably noted that the next step, after destroying the Drive, is finding its creator.)

Daredevil #11:  Damn it!  I really wanted to like this event.  Instead?  I have no idea what actually happened.  Well, I mean, I understand that nothing happened:  Daredevil began the series with the Omega Drive, some stuff happened, and Daredevil ended the series with the Omega Drive.  It's a net neutral.  But, I'm still not really sure what Daredevil planned to have happen.  In the first issue, I thought that the plan was to distract Megacrime while Reed Richards downloaded the information from the Omega Drive and then destroy it in front of Megacrime so that they'd stop hounding Matt.  In the second issue, I thought the plan was to destroy it without downloading the information because no one should have that much power.  In this issue?  I'm not sure.  Spidey talks about helping Matt destroy it, but Matt comments that destroying it was all for show.  I can't say that the authors were successful in telling their story if I'm left at the end of the series confused by what the plan was in the first place and annoyed that it didn't matter because the plan didn't change anything in the final accounting.  Looking beyond the plot, I guess that I'm supposed to have made some sort of emotional connection with Cole after Daredevil's inspiring speech, but I really just found the whole thing eyeroll-inducing.  Am I really supposed to believe that a former military official would believe that only someone who lost a loved one would be willing to sacrifice his or her life for a cause?  It seems ridiculous that Daredevil is forced to present her evidence to the contrary.  All in all, it was a disappointing ending to a disappointing "event," something that I certainly did not expect when I began reading it.  The best thing about this event, I will say, was Checchetto's art.  I'd love to see him on a Spidey book sometime soon!

Dardevil #8: "Devil and the Details" Part 2

**** (four of five stars)

Favorite Quote:  "I think this is my super villain origin."  -- Spidey, observing DD and the Cat kissing, with possibly the funniest single line I've ever seen him utter

Summary
Foggy Nelson is at a cemetery demanding answers about shifting earth and unsafe conditions, an inquiry made all the more important given that Dardevil's father's grave is being affected.  Meanwhile, underground, DD destroys the fuse box powering the electrical cables currently electrocuting Spidey and tackles the Black Cat.  She demands to know if DD is in cahoots with Spidey for framing her for the theft of the holographic device, something she thinks Spidey did by putting the Spider-Tracer on her costume because she wouldn't sleep with him.  Pete denies it, saying he didn't put the Tracer on her, and notes that they've both been framed.  The trio head to the apartment of the scientist who created the device and find him in a panic room.  He confesses to "stealing" his own device, and Spidey fills in the blanks, suggesting that he planned to sell it "to a third party for crazy money."  The scientist confirms that he was intending to sell it to a company called Terra-One and that it was the buyers' idea to frame the Cat and turn her against Spidey (so she wouldn't go to him for help).  Just as Spidey is wondering why the buyers let him live to frame him, Daredevil smells poison in his sweat, announcing that he has ten minutes to live.  Spidey takes the scientist to the hospital while the Cat and DD head to Terra-One to recover the device.  DD hypothesizes that Terra-One is a front for a criminal organization, expositing that his possession of something called the Omegadrive detailing the operations of the world's largest crime organizations has made him paranoid.  The Cat and DD split to investigate Terra-One's HQ and DD recovers the device (after easily making his way through a group of holographic villains).  Felicia seduces him on the rooftop while DD ponders two loose ends, namely who implicated the Cat and why?  In a flashback, it's revealed that Felicia, while exploring the HQ, runs into the mastermind, who reveals he's with the Black Spectre criminal organization and arranged the entire frame, hoping to offer her unconditional freedom in order to convince her to steal the Omegadrive from DD.  (Now, he offers her money.)  DD and the Cat continue kissing on the rooftop, which Spidey observes, and move to DD's apartment, where they're interrupted by a call from Foggy, who informs Matt that his father's casket is gone.

The Review

I normally read these cross-over issues and think, "Does [fill-in-the-blank comic-book company] really think I'm going to buy a new comic because of this cross-over event?  Idiots."  Um, maybe they're not that big of idiots.  Waid leaves us all sorts of hints at things to come in "Daredevil," like whether or not Black Cat will steal the Omegadrive, whether he and the Cat will develop a "relationship," and where exactly DD's father's body went.  It's early enough in the series that I can reasonably procure the other seven issues, something I had already been thinking of doing given the praise I've heard for it.  Damn it.  I have a job, Marvel!  I can't read ALL your comics.  [Sigh.]  Anyway, this issue rocked, if you couldn't tell.

The Good

1) Waid shows a real skill here for keeping Spidey and DD distinct.  Whereas (as we saw in the first issue of this cross-over), Peter sucks at the flirting, we see here that Matt rocks at the flirting.  The Cat had always had an advantage over Peter in the flirting department, often leaving him confused and flustered, but she may have met her equal in Matt, who has no problem parrying her thrusts.  (I swear I walked into that one.)  It had never dawned on me how good the two of them could be together, but Waid has totally opened that door.  I demand Cat/DD as the next super-couple!  Moreover, beyond the flirting, they have power sets that compliment one another, so I feel like a certain number of stories probably write themselves.

2) I liked the bait-and-switch here on the villains and their motives.  At first, when we discovered half-way through the issue that the creator of the device simply wanted to sell it to an upstart telecommunications company, I was like, "That's it?"  But, Waid has some tricks up his sleeve, revealing that the company is probably a front for any number of criminal organizations who'd want to get their hands on the device, and that one of said criminal organizations arranged framing the Cat in order to get her to steal the Omegadrive from DD.  All these revelations are really well done.  They never feel forced, like Waid just created them to advance the plot, feeling instead like they were lurking in the background the entire time.

3) I thought it was clever the way Waid sent Spidey to get the scientist to the hospital, opening the way for the rest of the issue to be DD-centric.  It is his book, after all.

The Bad
Did Felicia really think Spidey had turned her into the cops because she wouldn't sleep with him?  Really?  Does that really seem like the sort of thing Spidey would do?  Moreover, I'm still not entirely clear how she lured DD and Spidey underground.  I get that I'm supposed to believe that her bad-luck powers caused the tunnel to collapse, but am I also supposed to believe that they can conjure holographic kidnappings?  I mean, they're bad-luck powers, not wish-fulfillment powers.  I actually almost gave this issue a three because these two points bothered me so much.