Amazing Spider-Man #672:
Summary: This issue gets started with Venom and Captain America battling the Queen in Central Park... So THAT'S why I was supposed to read Venom #8 first! Anyway, the two manage to floor the Queen, which leads to her tapping into all of the human spiders she's created over the course of this storyline and becoming a 20 story tall walking spider of doom!!! Meanwhile, Spider-Man and Kaine switch outfits(Kaine switches into the Spidey costume and Peter switches into his underwear) at Horizon Labs so people wouldn't wonder why Peter(Kaine) looked so disheveled. From there the duo head into Peter's private lab, Peter takes back his Spidey outfit and Kaine puts on Peter's sonic Spidey suit... All of this clothes swapping is like something out of a bad identical twins comedy... From there the duo head to the gigantic Queen and Spidey gets slammed by the Queen, but is saved at the last second by spider-powered Mary Jane. MJ implores Peter to use his brains to stop the Queen as opposed to his brawn, which gives Peter an idea, at which point he heads to a police station with MJ while Kaine teams up with the Avengers, the FF and the X-Men to try to halt the Queen's rampage. At the police station, Spidey grabs some of Dr. Octopus's impounded gear and sends out thousand of Doc Ock's octo-bots to gather the Anti-Venom cure and spread it amongst the spider-infected citizens of Manhattan. Spidey heads to the top of the Empire State Building to get the best reception and begins to cure New Yorkers by the hundred, rapidly depriving the Queen of her powers. Realizing what was occurring, the weakening Queen sends a small army of human spiders to the Empire State Building to stop Spidey's plan. MJ manages to hold off the horde while Kaine is able to deliver the deathblow to the Queen. With that, the Queen's menace has ended, Manhattan has been saved and this storyline has ended.
Thoughts: Okay, first let me get the positive out of the way. I really enjoyed this storyline, and LOVE the fact that it gave us Kaine back in what I'm hoping will be a prominent role moving forward(Scarlet Spider anybody?). BUT(you had to see that coming!), this issue felt really rushed for whatever reason... It starts with the Queen turning enormous, she rampages off page for most of this issue, and then gets killed... I mean we really didn't get a Peter/Queen showdown. Sure she bitch-slapped him, but that doesn't constitute a real battle to me. So overall this was a good storyline, but for me, the ending was a bit anticlimactic.
Score: 7 out of 10.
Huh, this is the second underwear scan I've posted tonight... That's... something, I guess...
Hm.. good point, I didn't notice that Spidey and the Queen never really interacted... but yeah, I enjoyed this issue and Spider-Island as a whole, and if we can't have Ben Reilly back, Kaine is the next best thing. Wallopin' Web-Snappers!
ReplyDeleteYeah, I mean that was the oddest thing about this issue/storyline... It all seemed to be building towards Spidey facing off against the Queen, as you'd expect in a Spidey story. Instead it built to the heroes and Kaine facing the Queen while Spidey did sciencey things on the Empire State Building.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, I am psyched at the prospect of Kaine taking up Ben Reilly's old spot. Maybe Kaine can step in and take over a few of the team spots Spidey is a member of...
I wouldn't mind Kaine taking Pete's place on a few teams but is he really worthy of being an Avenger or like a family member to be with the FF?
ReplyDeleteYeah, that's the thing... He's not what I'D call Avengers material. But hell, they let Wolverine on the team so obviously the characters I consider Avengers material aren't the same characters Marvel/Bendis considers Avengers material, ie: everybody. I would NOT be shocked to see him wind up on one of the two Avengers teams since pretty much everybody can be an Avenger nowadays...
ReplyDeleteAnd yeah, he def wouldn't fit the FF.
According to what I have read, Kaine is moving to Houston to start a new life. That is where the new Scarlet Spider series is going to take place.
ReplyDeleteExcellent! Sure it would have been nice to see him take some of the burden off of Peter, but as long as we get a Scarlet Spider/Kaine series, I'm happy!
ReplyDeleteI like when they take the heroes out of NY. In most situations the hero says "oh crap, better call one of the five other teams in NY". But they can't really depend on anybody else if they are in a different state. Plus, I am sure Kaine doesn't have many friends.
ReplyDeleteIt's a good point. Isn't Houston one of the top five most populous US cities? They SHOULD have a superhero protecting them! That's one of the things that always bugged me about comics, even as a little kid... If you're Electro, and you KNOW Spidey patrols NYC and has beaten you on multiple occasions, why not move out to Detroit, or Chicago, or Denver!? Those places have banks you could knock over, and don't have 150 heroes wandering around! Sure, guys like Osborn or Joker or Doom have certain heroes that they like tormenting more than they like stealing stuff, but for guys like Electro, Scarecrow or Shocker? Leave town and do your business elsewhere!
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I just finished it. (Seriously, I felt like getting through my backlog of "Spider-Island" issues was a part-time job.) Awesomeness. It hadn't even dawned on me, but I'd totally be down with him taking over Spidey's spot on, say, the New Avengers. I think he and Luke Cage would get along well. Regardless, I'm just excited to see where we go with Kaine and to get MJ back in the mix. Woot! I thought Slott really just gave us a quintessential Spidey story here, where he actually lets Pete be the hero and NOT have something tragic happen just to balance out the cosmic scale. Again, awesomeness.
ReplyDelete"Seriously, I felt like getting through my backlog of "Spider-Island" issues was a part-time job." I know that feeling! :P This was one of the few times I didn't pick up the tie-in issues that went along with the main story(I still have Shadowland tie-in books that I haven't read from LAST year!), although when the prices drop in a few months, I very well may pick up a few of the better ones...
ReplyDeleteYep, overall, this was a great storyline, JW. We get a "new" Kaine(well he's not new but you know what I mean), the Queen is finished, and as you said, we get ourselves MJ back in what will hopefully be a large role. And the issue that followed this one was pretty good as well. Slott is on a major role.