Credits: written by Evan Skolnik, pencilled by Patrick Zircher, inked by Andrew Pepoy and edited by Tom Brevoort.
Plot: The first part of this issue is told from the point of view of Namoria ‘Nita’ Prentiss, who also goes by Kymera. Nita was one of the New Warriors. She’s been under the control of Undertow for a while now, being used as a controlled weapon for them, as have many others. The Soldiers of Misfortune are currently taking out a drug running operation as Nita narrates her current situation. Now we move on and head to Brooklyn and the New Warriors Crash Pad. Rich Rider and Hindsight are discussing Rina’s arrival and costumed appearance. This devolves into Rich remanding that Hindsight get on with helping him track down Nita. We then learn that the Pad is under surveillance from as yet unseen people and below the team’s discussion, Helix starts speaking Spanish. Later on Rich is using the computer when the search turns up something in the Bahamas. Rich decides that the team needs called in and then head down there, but how, Then Rina asks why they don’t use their spaceship.
Elsewhere, not too far away, the only Warriors not at the meeting (Justice and Firestar) are having lunch and talking about Firestar’s health concerns, since one of the potential side effects would be infertility, she brings up the idea of them starting a family and soon. Alex Power receives the call and flies off. At the Crash Pad, Speedball has flashes of someone else’s life, a scientist talking to his son and things seemed to go disastrously wrong. He gets the call and jumps out of the window, despite concerns over the reliability of his kinetic powers. Turbo and Scarlet Spider are arriving as everyone else is and the mission is laid out and they know that they are dealing with Undertow. The question of how do they get there comes up, Rina again mentions their spaceship and Alex remembers that he has one. Yeah, that’s right, dude forgets he has a SPACESHIP!!!!
Alex calls Friday who appears from the Hudson River. He points out that it’s been a while and asks where Alex’s brother and sisters (the super-team known as Power Pack) are. After that bit of awkwardness is out of the way, the team fly off to attack the Undertow There are several little flights, but inside Friday with Rina, Rich is only interested in Nita. Because of this thoughtlessness, Friday ends up trapped with explosives ready to level the area the ship is in. When Friday points this out to Rich, Nita hears this fact. Despite being under Undertow’s control, Nita flies the ship clear, grateful to know, that whilst she can’t be with the man she loves, the love she has is still very much there. Undertow teleport away, except for Cut, who has been knocked out by the Scarlet Spider. Once again though, Undertow has teleported everyone out and the Warriors are no closer to freeing one of their own.
Notes: The kidnap and enslavement of Nita/Kymera was an ongoing plot from before the Warriors were brought into the Spider-Man group of titles. It is as basic badguy turns one of the good guys against their will stories, but it’s handled in an interesting way here and the simply 2-per team codenames are actually fun whilst still making sense. We have ‘Cut’ and ‘Dry’, also ‘Hard’ and ‘Fast’ as well as ‘Right’ and ‘Wrong’ and so the villains are interesting enough to elevate what has become a 3rd tier book. But their overall goals and purpose aren’t made clear here and I’ll be honest I don’t remember that clearly. The story makes more of a thing of the ongoing subplots, with Rich’s search for Nita, Rina’s attempt to save Speedball and Firestar’s health issues getting a lot more page time that anything else. To be honest, without Scarlet Spider taking out Cut and realising that he was the only one not to teleport out, this issue wouldn’t be on the list. But I have to mention this again, this guy had a SPACESHIP and never, ever used it? What the actual?
Verdict: Writing – 3 out of 5 – Solid again, the narration by Nita adds much needed pathos to the story and the subplots are good, but there’s little happening beyond the surface.
Art: 3 out of 5: Nothing exciting, but solid storytelling and consistent character design makes this another good issue that makes a change from the rest of the Spider-Books with their wildly varying levels in terms of artistic quality.
Overall: 6 out of 10 – The reason I added this to the list was Ben’s appearance on the team, which was less than a page, but other than that this is a solid comic that reminds me of the quality comics that were being made as the time of enhanced covers and crappy art.
Next Time: Another X-Villain is in the mansion’s spare room.
My Marvel Life 