Web of Spider-Man 121: Wow this is busy for a rooftop

Credits: Written by Todd DeZago, art by Phil Gosier, DelaRosa and Emberlin and edited by Eric Fein.

Cast: Ben ‘Scarlet Spider’ Reilly, Vladimir ‘Grim Hunter’ Kravinoff, Kaine, Gregor, Detectives Conner Trevane and Jacob Raven.

Plot: Kaine is walking through Central Park and comes across a gang attacking a homeless woman and stealing her only prized possession, a photo of her daughter. He attacks them and brutally kills each of them, not to protect the woman, or her photo, which he walks on as he leaves.

Elsewhere in the city, the Scarlet Spider races towards Peter Parker’s home to prevent the Grim Hunter from getting there first and killing him. He is diverted when he saves a woman pushing a pram being hit by a taxi. Thing is, the Grim Hunter has gone back home to reader himself, overseen by Gregor who has been his attendent since the death of Vlad’s father, Kraven the Hunter. Gregor fears that the Grim Hunter will suffer the same fate as Kraven, killed by an obsession with Spider-Man.

Subplot time and we see two detectives comparing notes over killings in both New York and Salt Lake City, despite never leaving evidence, this killer has left a finger-print and the detectives want to check it out.

Back in the main plot, Scarlet Spider has arrived on the roof of the building Peter lives in, he is expecting to see the Grim Hunter there, he is not expecting Kaine who shows up and attacks him.

It’s clear that both man have a long and antagonistic history and the clearly more powerful Kaine wipes the floor with Scarlet Spider after revealing that he is the reason Kaine is even in New York. A beaten Scarlet Spider is struck again, just as the Grim Hunter arrives and seeks to kill Kaine for his interference in the Hunter’s revenge.

Notes: Part 3 of 4 is often the middle child of the story and we really are dealing with that here. The whole issue acts as a way to get the three main characters to the same place at the same time an das a result this whole thing feels sort of perfunctary rather than engaging.

To start with the positives, the subplot with the cops is interesting and is definitely leading somewhere and the scenes with Gregor watching his best friend’s son falling to the same demons is touching and adds a dimension to the Grim Hunter that is desperately needed. Having Grim Hunter, Kaine and the Scarlet Spider converging at the rooftop of Peter Parker’s home sets up a lovely final act for this story.

But (and it’s a butt the size on an elephant’s) this isn’t really a good part 3, the main body of the story could be shrunk down and added to the end of the last part and the beginning of this part and you wouldn’t have really lost anything, it’s like it had to be a four parter and this is where you can see the stretched out points. It’s the weakest of the Web of issues so far.

Writing: 3 out of 5 – Mostly expositional dialogue with occasional moments of pathos that are okay rather than good. The panic from Scarlet Spider does come across very well.

Art: 2 out of 5 – Another guest penciler and many handed inking has left this a very poor issue in regards to the art. The opening scene has good action, but the character design is too cartoony compared to what the scene is showing you. The fact that two of the three main cast are masked does save you from the art team’s short-comings.

Overall 5 out of 10 – A part 3 of 4 that wasn’t entirely needed, so very happy to move on to the next part.

Next time: Spiders, viruses and an Octopus, oh my?