Credits; Written by Todd DeZago, breakdowns by Sal Buscema, finishes by Jimmy Palmiotti and edited by Eric Fein.
Plot: Doctor Octopus II has put together a trio of cybernetically enhanced superhumans to get a job done. Aura (has a forcefield thing) and Override (controls machinery remotely) are joined by Norton G Fester (used to be called the Looter and has enhanced strength) and they start the issue training together to get a job done. They don’t get along and there’s a load of intra-team bickering. Outside of their training FBI agent Joe Wade is undercover and wants to report on this.
Cut to Ben (in his Scarlet Spider gear) swinging over to the hospital, using his inner monologue to catch us all up before he gets changed to visit Seward. He talks to the comatose body and is shocked when all the monitors start replying. Seward (still trapped in cyberspace) has learned of Aura, Looter and Override’s planned attack on Mr Tso’s club. Ben realises that he has to take the bodyguard gig now, knowing that to do otherwise would put people at risk.
He then heads to a local gym to meet Carrie (the girl from the last two issues) and informs he that he won’t be able to take her out. She’s understanding, but definitely is hacked off with him. Ben then goes to Mr Tso’s office, passing Orlando who is taking the equipment everyone has been fighting over, to it’s final destination. Tso is there and is welcoming to Ben, who is about to throw a tracer on Orlando when Tso screams at a waitress over a drink and threatens her and the barman with unemployment. As Orlando leaves, the trio arrive and Override controls a lorry and drives it through the front of Club Noir. Realising that he can’t do what he’d normally do, he pulls Tso aside when Override and Aura cause the roof to collapse, this separates Tso, Ben and the club’s patrons. Ben quickly gets into costume and makes another hole in the club’s walls, freeing the patrons so that he can take on Auro and Override.
He’s not doing great there when Override opens up his web shooters and pours out all the fluid, Ben aims them so that the fluid ends up all over Aura. At the club’s vault, Looter has discovered that the chips are not there. When he meets up with the others, he finds Ben, who he incorrectly (or correctly) identifies at Spider-Man. Ben make sure work of him, pushing him to create more property damage so that the trio can escape. When the fight is over, Ben gets into his regular clothes and digs his way out to find Tso singing his praises. Ben is conflicted, hating working for Tso and unaware who has the chips now.
We as the reader know, because these chips (now called Cyber-neural Inductors) have been in the Cyber Slayers of Alistair Smythe who is ready to test his new toys.
Notes: This story has been a bit padded and ends in a bit of damp squib of a tale, but at least we now know one of the other players in the game. The sense of intrigue is ratcheted up as we still don’t know why Tso was involved to start with and what’s happening with the undercover fed. We get more stuff with Carrie who hasn’t really been fleshed out as a character and seems to only exist to showcase how Ben is just as useless in the romance department as Peter used to be. I get it, but I don’t have any reason to be interested. The trio used here could have been more interesting too, I meant visually as we don’t see anything that would warrant them getting a new lease of life elsewhere. The main thing the story highlights Ben’s search for a job, now that he has established himself in the city and honestly that’s one of the least interesting things going on as the waiter turned bodyguard thing is a little on tedious side. All in all, the story seems to be a way to re-introduce the Spider Slayers and their creator as the Cyber Slayers. Well, I’m underwhelmed.
Verdict: Writing – 3 out of 5: Todd DeZago is the go to writer for this era and he’s fine enough, but I’m not feeling the depth that you can into with these characters that earlier writers managed. This era was often more editorial and marketing based, so it’s hard to know how many of the ideas written come from the writer.
Art: 2 out of 5 – We’ve not got Sienkiewicz there and that’s something of an improvement, but I’m not sure Palmiotti’s inks match this new approach of Buscema. There’s little of interest visually and it pales against Buscema’s earlier work and the recent Gil Kane work we’ve been getting. It is just a lacklustre effort altogether.
Overall: 5 out of 10. This has been a bit of a waste of an issue 1 and I am hoping with this out of the way, we can get some better stories.
Next Time: X-Men (and company) take on X-Force
My Marvel Life 