Credits: Plotted by Tom DeFalco, scripted by Todd DeZago, pencilled by Tom Morgan, inked by Randy Eberlin and edited by Eric Fein.
Story: As Seward plays around in Cyberspace, plotting to derail the plans of his daughter Doctor Octopus II, Ben Reilly is struggling to keep his job as bodyguard to Mr Tso, who is at that point conspiring with Alistair Smythe who is prefecting his new Cyber Slayers. Tso wants to retaliate against Doc Ock II, but Smythe asks him to come and see him. Orlando (Tso’s head of security) is suspicious about Ben after seeing him talk with Angela Yin from the Daily Bugle (as she thinks he is Peter Parker) and he decides to investigate Ben..
At Smythe’s lab, Tso sees the Slayers, whose creation was assisted by Tso’s activities. Suitably impressed, Tso arranges a peace-talk with Doc Ock in a public place. Doc Ock II and her partner agree to the meeting and she decides to take her trio of fighters (Aura, Overide and Looter) all under the watchful eye of undercover fed. Joe Wade.
Seward uses his position in Cyberspace to create a false identity profile for Ben, so that Orlando finds nothing. Before he can do anything else, Tso calls for him and all of Tso’s muscle to meet at the Children’s Zoo in Central Park. Somehow off panel Seward learns about it and again, off panel tells Ben, who arrives at the Zoo in his Scarlet Spider outfit, As Ben bumps into Aura, Override and Looter, Tso and Smythe arrive in the form of VR controlled Cyber Slayers and attack all of Doctor Octopus II’s men. Aura thinks that Scarlet Spider is working for Tso, Tso overhears this and avoids attacking Ben, so that everyone will think they’re in cahoots. All the time in the fight, Tso is thinking he can remove Smythe from the equation as the Slayers are now ready to be sold to the highest bidder. The battle gets more and more vicious and then the FBI arrive. The Cyber Slayers leave and Doctor Octopus II’s men ae arrested and Ben decides to head out as well.
With the double-cross over, all sides plan for either revenge, or taking power and we can clearly see that this is not over.
Notes: I’ll be honest, this is just a continuation of the last storyline and I was becoming less enamoured with that as time went on. This doesn’t change that course in any way. The loss of Butler on art moves this title way down the list in terms of quality and the story just seems to not work in any engaging way and it only serves to highlight my problem with legacy villains. Legacy when handled well adds depth and heightened reality to a fictional universe. Numerous Green Lanterns and a line of Flashes make that whole thing work. With the exception of Monica Rambeau (an excellent character in her own right to be sure) those with the name Captain Marvel have been interesting characters with a connection to, but aren’t solely defined by the original. This means that they can exist on their own and have interesting stories to tell. Carol Danvers as the most recent Captain Marvel is a great example of that. Yes she’s connected to Mar-Vell, but he doesn’t need her and more importantly she doesn’t need him to be an interesting or vital character. Recently the successor of Doctor Octopus, the son of Kraven and the son of the creator of the original Spider Slayers have made appearances and they are diluted, weak sauce. Doctor Octopus II is not interesting, her connection to Seward doesn’t make her so and she’s not really enough to replace the presence of Otto Octavius. Alistair Smythe is just as ineffectual, so them waring over remote control robots just left me cold.
Verdict: Writing 2 out of 5 – I like the old crime-boss at war thing, but this isn’t doing anything interesting with it. It’s a story I’m not enjoying, written in a manner that’s doing nothing for me.
Art: 2 out of 5– It’s more a 1.5 out of 5 and I rounded up. It was colourful and the panels showing Ben in action are fun, but again, this title has lost the main reason I was invested.
Overall 4 out of 10: Not a great issue in a line of comics that is deteriorating. I’m glad there’s only a handful of more issues in this era.
Next Time: Paging Doctor Apocalypse.
My Marvel Life 