Credits: Plotted by J.M. DeMatteis, scripted by Todd DeZago, pencilled by ?Mark Bagley, inked by Larry Mahlstedt, Randy Emberlin and Joseph Rubenstein and edited by Danny Fingeroth.
Cast: Peter ‘Spider-Man’ Parker, Ben ‘Scarlet Spider’ Reilly, Kaine, Spidercide, Scrier and Dr Miles ‘The Jackal’ Warren.
Plot: Following the revelation of his status as a clone and The Jackal taking two bullets for him, Peter’s world is falling around him. He’s uncertain of who he is, what he is and whose side he should be on. As he waits outside the medical pod thing, he is joined by Ben, who was checking a lead. (Now it doesn’t mention what lead, or how he got inside what supposed to be a secure lab, but heigh-ho) He tries to console Peter, acutely aware of what he’s going through, something Ben himself has had to cope with. But when Ben left, Peter was a single guy living his life on his own terms, Peter is a devoted husband and expectant father. By not being himself, he’s lost more than Ben ever did, the fact causes him to lash out at someone who could be considered his brother.
As Peter storms off, Spidercide attacks Ben, having more abilities than a standard clone, he’s winning. Kaine sneaks in and see’s Ben near death and is quite happy to leave that to happen. He wants Jackal, who he pulls from his pod and threatens to kill him. Jackal thinks fast and points out that with the successful clone around, he could halt the degeneration that has plagued Kaine. Elsewhere Ben fights on against Spidercide who is winning until Jackal arrives and puts an end to the melee. A confused Peter also jumps down and tries to understand what’s going on. Ben argues (as he pummels Dr Warren for costing him five years of his own life) that whatever he has told his clones, the Jackal has killed everyone in Springville. Peter and Kaine protect their creator as Spidercide wanders off, finding Scrier who unlocks some knowledge in Spidercide’s brain.
Kaine brings up being cured as Jackal demands Ben’s death and Warren admits he has no intention of doing that. Kaine breaks down in despair, before leaving promising Jackal’s death another day. Ben notices he’s been drugged and in his semi-conscious state is carried into a large vault and locked inside. He looks around and as his vision clears, he sees dozens of Spider-clones advancing on him.
Notes: Despite what look like three action scenes, this is talky take a breath part of the story. Peter is crumbling over his lost status as the real Peter, Ben is dealing with the shock that he didn’t need to leave town and change his name 5 years ago, he was robbed of his life. Kaine struggles with the introduction and removal of hope and Spidercide learns about himself and the Jackal goes into full camp villain mode. These are character points, peppered with emotion-laden fight scenes in service of a larger story. In reality that is at their best what serialised corporate owned super-hero comics can do. More than the last two, this issue moves the story along, well placed and interesting with an eye for each character’s motivation. It’s obvious that there wasn’t going to be any sort of ending, but the last page did get a giggle out of me.
Verdict: Writing – 3 out of 5 – DeMatteis plots well, but DeZago doesn’t have his gift with dialogue and to be honest it weakens what is a very promising story. Despite the dialogue at times, this is a well paced story that does the middle chapter job well enough whilst having a little fun at the part three cliff-hanger.
Art: 4 out of 5 – The only downside here is the inks being a little off in different parts of the issue. The pencils are top notch and the point where Kaine breaks down and then has to walk away is visibly hard to watch, even though you can’t actually see his features and that’s a hell of a trick to pull off.
Overall: 7 out of 10 – This issue got me back into Maximum Cloneage and I’m once more invested in where this story goes next.
Next Time: Everyone else in the Age of Apocalypse.
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