I was all set to shatter the glass and pull out an
emergency post this week as I’m really swamped with earning my PDHs for license
renewal and our house is in a shambles trying to find places for numerous
bookshelves and other things (like a new record player!) that we bought this
week. But then I read Superior Spider-Man #003 last night and I just had to
write about it again! SPOILERS Follow.
Superior
Spider-Man #003
Writer: Dan
Slott
Artist: Ryan Stegman
Color
Art: Edgar Delgado
Letterer:
VC’s Chris Eliopoulos
Publisher:
Marvel
Price:
$3.99 (including “FREE” digital copy)
Look! Up in the
sky! Is it a bird -- a plane? No … (dramatic
pause) … it’s the SPIDER-SIGNAL! Seriously. That cover image wasn’t just thematic. We get to see an actual spider-signal light
up the sky and it was AWESOME GREAT!
The signal sits atop the police station and waiting next
to it are Commissioner Gordon Police Chief Pratchett, Renee Montoya
Carlie Cooper, and the irascible Harvey Bullock J. Jonah Jameson. Mayor Jameson smugly proclaims, “You’re witnessing the dawn of a Golden Age.
Me. Running this City. And the
Wall-Crawler finally falling in line. An
agent of law and order. Mine to command…at
the literal flick of a switch.” At
that precise moment Spider-Man dutifully shows up…and promptly shuts down the
beacon in a “FASH” with a special spider-tracer thingy. Jameson is furious and demands an
explanation. Potto’s ® response is
perfect: “A giant beacon in the sky,
announcing to ALL my enemies where they can find me. Only an idiot would put that into
effect. And Major J. Jonah Jameson is NO
IDIOT. Jameson is virtually
speechless (or close enough anyway, which is still a tremendous accomplishment
for the wall-crawler). Potto® takes
command of the situation and gives Jameson a shielded private number to use to
reach him instead.
They’ve called him in to investigate the mini-vulture
attacks on MJ’s nightclub and they want Carlie to work closely with him. While Potto® adjusts his lenses to identify
the Vulture’s flight signature; Ms. Cooper is pretty open about starting to
question his actions, but stops just short of a direct confrontation. Slott obviously loves this character, since
she’s like the most intelligent person in Spider-Man’s world right now. And I have to admit, I do like Carlie – I just
didn’t like her intimate relationship with Peter. Spider-Man goes off in search of the Vulture
and we get a flashback of him and Adrian Toomes during the early days of the
Sinister Six. It’s an actual memory that
ghost-Peter can witness firsthand. It’s
a bit of revisionist history to portray these villains as more than associates,
but it was necessary for the story’s climax.
Spidey locates the Vultures lair and offers Toomes a
generous amount of money to “walk away
from [his] life” of crime (Peter never had the finances to accomplish such
an out-of-the-box solution). The Vulture
thinks he’s joking and commands his mini-minions to “destroy him”. During the
Todd McFarlane-esque costume shredding melee, Potto® “thwaks” one of them
against the wall. He’s shocked to learn
that the henchman was actually a hench-BOY.
Another memory surfaces of Captain America (2012) #1, where Steve Roger’s
drunken father starts slapping him around (Are there any decent fathers in the
Marvel Universe?) Otto being slapped around by his drunken father (Why do I
get the feeling of déjà vu?). More
revisionist history, I know, but it really enrages Potto® that he inadvertently
struck a child. He must have forgotten
about the child he endangered in ASM #90 – the one Captain Stacy sacrificed his
life to save. Now, he’s mad. Looks like he didn’t really know good-ol’
Adrian as much as he thought (must have been just a Facebook Friend). Toomes coldly responds, “Oh, please. I’ve always preyed on and lived off the young”. (I chuckled at this line, because he’s like
really, really old, so everyone is “young” to him.)
Spidey attacks so viciously that the Vulture quickly flees
in the air.
“You
were a fool to follow me, Spider. Out
here, up in the sky, we’re in MY element.
Thought you’d have learned that by now.”
“You
still don’t get it, do you, Adrian? This
is NOT some old conflict you’ve fought a million times…This is something
NEW! EVERYTHING you know about me is
WRONG! He – I always went easy on you.
Fighting an OLD pathetic senior citizen – with arms that have traded blows with
THE HULK!”
[Spidey pounces on him and puts him in a choke hold]
(That’s
just a taste of their great “battle-talk”.)
However, the Vulture is no pushover. His ability to manipulate gravity to fly also
augments his strength (historical continuity fact) and he “thoks” Potto® off
his back toward the ground below. “Dee-Dee-Dee.” Uh-oh, that’s the sound of Spider-Man’s
web-shooters running low on web-fluid and the Vulture knows this because he has
“excellent” hearing. (He must because I
think that was a recent enhancement to Spider-Man’s equipment and the Vulture
has never encountered it before – must be that he can hear miles and miles
away.)
In a great splash page, Adrian turns the tables and puts
Spidey in a choke hold. Potto® touches
his insignia with a “tekk” and a “klik”, which jump starts the Spider-Signal to
super-power levels. His lenses also
start to polarize. Spider-Man conveniently
happens to be over the police station just in time to catch the old bird is the
Manfred Mann Earth Band spotlight beam. He then forcefully shoves him into the
device, which Carlie also conveniently happens to be standing beside, causing
Adrian to suffer severe burns and cuts.
Oops. Potto® realizes he overdid
it in front of Carlie and didn’t follow the WWPD (What Would Peter Do)
mantra. He gives her an excuse that he
thinks suffices, but ghost-Peter (not so ever present this issue) understands
she is now 100 percent sure that Doc Ock is in control, which could be very
dangerous to her.
This is one of those rare occasions where analyzing the
book too much actually caused a slight downgrade in the review. I mean I was super pumped up about the story
when I read it Thursday night. It was
exciting, contained more of the unexpected Potto® actions, plus there was some
really great character interactions and dialogue. Don’t get me wrong, I still really like the
issue, but I can’t ignore the revisionist history and some of the Church-lady conveniences.
GRADE A-: A thrilling ride,
but not without a few bumps. I’m still
loving the storyline, but I fear Ms. Cooper’s days are numbered!
Love the enthusiasm.
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