i think it was a bit poor. hasn't yet surpassed the kick-ass battle with electro a few ishs ago. (where's the scorpion? you never see the scorpion around any more.) he told jonah it was john? won't john get angry, maybe, y'know, lycanthropically angry, at this slight taking of liberties? does john jameson know the real deal, and has agreed off camera to help peter out? and how could venom get the guy on the roof mixed up with proper spidey? was man on roof doing the whole 'how can you do this venom' thing? and when he hands the girl the dog he just rescued, are we supposed to forget the poor bloke driving the truck who's completely crispyfried? tempted to say these moments of disconnection are to show us how much of spidey's super-life is front and selective memory, how blind to himself he is, but that's qute a big, dark cloud to cast over the character and i think sheer millarian hackery is more likely. he's taking the 'hush' route on both spidey and wolvie now, and i fear that none of it's as good as he or loeb think it is. (johnny romita certainly doesn't seem inspired enough to turn out the normal good goods.)
interested to see the ben reilly thing work out, much as it might stick in craws. it's silly to leave this slice of continuity out in the cold when there's a potentially good character there: a neglected eighties-style version of parker, with a grudge burnt into his dna, an uzi and a ripped shirt? as a villain there's nuff potential there to turn reilly into the first iconic spiderbaddie since venom-and-spawns. must admit not entirely confident millar's writing has the verve to pull this off these days.
but, after the whinging diminishes, as directionless as this book very often seems i think in a run it will read as a good self-contained spidey tale, something which there isn't really much of historically. |
