Credits: Written by Evan Skolnick, pencilled by Patrick Zircher, inked by Andrew Pepoy and edited by Tom Brevoort.
Plot: Following directly from Web of Spider-Man 3 Scarlet Spider II is about to attack Firestar when Justice flies in and hits with a telekinetic blast. It barely slows him down. Justice checks on Firestar and complains that she is the one who convinced him to recruit Scarlet Spider. They both watch as this silver version starts mutating further and using a sonic blast thing knocks both Warriors down as they are calling for help. This has the effect of destroying much of the bridge and when Powerhouse and Turbo arrive, they spend more time trying to help there, rather than chasing after the departing Spider. Justice sends Turbo into Manhattan to find Scarlet Spider II. Turbo is a little miffed at this, realising that this superhero thing isn’t for her, unlike her friend Mike, who she shares the Turbo armour with. Unbeknownst to her, Scarlet Spider II has reverted to Joe Wade who makes his way home.
Elsewhere at the Daily Grind coffee shop, Ben Reilly heads for a pretty early lunch and uses his New Warrior’s comm-badge to learn that Scarlet Spider II has been spotted, so he suits up as Spider-Man As he climbs towards the rooftops, he wonders whether he should tell the New Warriors that he was the original Scarlet Spider, but he decides that would be more than a little awkward to explain, so he’ll keep it to himself. At the local FBI office, Agent Steph Briggs is at a briefing led by her supervisory agent (now identified as Nelson Stone) who informs his team that Joe Wade is to be found and brought in. Steph leaves grabbing the stakeout assignment for Joe’s house. She finds Joe who is even more debilitated from being in his spider form. I’m getting the idea that the Scaret Spider II isn’t eating, drinking or stopping and Joe’s body is being worn out. Steph is conflicted, Joe needs help, but the FBI want that tech and who knows what would happen to Joe if they went in.
Spider-Man arrives at the bridge and says hello, asking where Speedball is (knowing that he’s got his own stuff going on) and offers his help. Firestar accepts and invites him to join them. This is a printed comic and I could feel Justice’s eyes rolling. Elsewhere at a train station, Robbie ‘Speedball’ Baldwin returns along with Niels the cat and is my by Rina ‘Timeslip’ Patel who has prophesised his death and he’s a little weird around her. To try and fix that he invites her home to watch his mum on a TV interview. There’s a bit of exposition about recent events and as they two are in different rooms, Speedball’s powers go haywire, destroying all the food in the fridge. On the TV is Robbie’s mum Madelyne Naylor who is being interviewed along with several other soap opera actors. We go back to Joe Wade’s place and he has transformed to his alter-ego and sees that same interview and decides to go and let millions of people watching see what he will do next. At the Crashpad, Ben (as Spider-Man) hangs in the corner as debris from the bridge attack is analysed by Alex’s spaceship Friday. They are trying to scan for materials that Scarlet Spider II is made off, but what’s actually leads them to his location is his arrival at the local TV studio and his attacking the guests and interviewer. Speedball sees this and vows to save his mother. Timeslip tells him that this could be when he dies, but Speedball replies that if that’s the case, then this is how it’s meant to be.
Notes: This is the last of the New Warriors tie-in issues as after this month, the Scarlet Spider is nothing to do with the team and Spider-Man stays away too. It’s been an interesting look at this era, but ultimately I don’t know that it’s really added anything to the overall mythos. I sort of feel the same about Scarlet Spider II in general, in that it’s an interesting idea, but it doesn’t further the Ben Reilly plot either. Were they setting up a Joe Wade led Scarlet Spider run? Maybe I’d be here for that, I don’t know. Either way, this felt a lot more like filler than it really had to and apart from a couple of panels, not much was made of the HUGE plot point that Ben had been a member of that team, knew all their names and many of their secrets and they had no idea. Let me repeat this part of the show, NO IDEA who this guy was. I made comment on the fact that no one recognised Ben as once Spider-Man, now after working with the guy for months, no one recognised him as the original Scarlet Spider either? And it is just glossed right over, almost like the writer didn’t know about it, despite it being the same writer. Still, it sort of illustrates the point of this being part filler and part missed opportunity.
Verdict: Writing 2 out of 5 – This was an okay issue that missed chances to do something interesting and moved this story from something interesting to a by the numbers family member in peril yarn.
Art: 4 out of 5– Again, solid art. Zircher does a great job and while not flashy is very consistent and does the job well. His Spider-Man is a bit off model, but honestly it does what it needs to do an improvement on the art from the last part.
Overall: 6 out of 10:– It’s the middle part of a story, bringing to the end the middle chapter of the clone saga. I wasn’t expecting much, but I am looking forward to part 3.
Next Time: Westchester Fashion Week, apparently.
My Marvel Life 