Scarlet Spider #20

Writer:  Chris Yost, Erik Burham

Art:  In-Hyuk Lee, Olliffe, Bit & Loughridge

Get Caught Up...

Sibling Rivalry part two!  The Superior Spider-Man and Kaine join forces (begrudgingly) against the Jackal.  And Kaine knows something’s off with “Peter.”  And who doesn’t love a two-parter that you get both parts of the same day?

What’s Good?

I’m not generally an art guy.  I can’t critique very well.  Considering I can barely doodle a stick figure, I feel I have to room to talk about the art in a book.  I can say whether or not I like it, but beyond that I don’t have the chops to talk about it.  But that’s something I’m working on.  I digress.  The art in this book is fan-flippin-tastic.  It’s beautiful to look at, and I can’t even imagine how long it took to create.

The flaws in Otto Octavius’s approach to being Spider-Man are starting to show.  He broke rank with his Spider-Man persona and reverted back to Dr. Octopus.  He had to differentiate between the two in his mind.  Something big is coming in the next few months for the Spider-family.  Hints are being dropped and the pieces are being put into place.

 

What’s Not So Good?

This is a set-up book.  We have the meeting of the pair of Peter Parkers out of the way now, and the readers know they are aware of one-another.  I get the feeling that this is just in place to set up further stories down the road, as nothing was really accomplished here.  The bad guys are stopped, but still out there.  It was a lackluster ending to a promising idea.

The Verdict...

 

Meh.  It was fun, but didn’t give  much in the way of gratification.  It seemed like it just ended and everyone went their separate ways.  However, I did enjoy the idea of the mini-crossover and the art was great.

 

Oh, Yeah, And...

Great toss-up to the clone saga at the end.  Spidercide 2.0 made me laugh out loud.  I look back on the clone saga fondly, which puts me in the minority.  I was young and naive back then.  Reminds me of simpler times with convoluted stories.