Scarlet Spider #14
Thoughts: And I thought Batman and Robin was bad.... X complains about the books he had being mediocre and I get this(Yes, I complained about the mediocre books I had this week... But at least none were painfully bad like this one!). Really? Before I jump into "The Other" stuff, let me say this. Houston must have the baddest ass ghettos ever... because not one person in the Shark gang seemed to be shocked or afraid that they were fighting legitimate werewolves... I mean, I'm from Detroit, and I don't know much about gangs, but I know a bit, and I know that if a gang was confronted by an honest to god werewolf... they probably wouldn't provoke it into a fight(See, I'm from New York and yes, we WOULD provoke a fight with a werewolf! On sight, actually! Furry bastards...). But not the Sharks.... they went to war for Aracely... and I guess Street Cred(Street Cred IS important...)... I was waiting for one of them to say "TEAM EDWARD, MUH'F***A!!!!"(HA!! I love that line...) But... I digress...
For those who don't know, this "Other" crap is from a story called Spider-Man: The Other(Makes sense), in which Peter Parker died and was reborn with new powers or something equally stupid. Anyway, it's generally regarded as a horrible story that's pretty much ignored except when Kaine returned in Spider Island, he told Pete he was reborn with new powers. Anyway, all of that aside, I don't think anyone was lobbying for the return of The Other. Especially considering as JW pointed out, Kaine's been struggling with his "monster" side for the better part of this series, so him finally moving past it, only to literally become a monster in the next issue felt like a slap in the face. I'm hoping he turns back to Kaine soon(Word!), like at the end of the next issue soon, but it really hurt the flow of the character development for me, I mean even if he is becoming a monster to protect Aracely... Kaine seemed pretty capable before he had to give in the The Other. I wasn't a Chris Yost fan before this series due to his subpar run (in my opinion) on Red Robin, but I gave this series a chance and was happy to see how well Yost did with the series and Kaine's character, but if this is gonna be a constant struggle of "I'M A MONSTER!!! I'M A BIG RED MONSTER!!!"(It's Kaine!!) I can't see myself sticking with this series, especially considering the return of The Other...ugh(Damn, one bad issue and JT is all, "I'm out!"). So yeah, all in all, not a fan of this issue or the developments here, here's hoping things go back to how they were two issues ago, as soon as possible.
Score: 1/10. (Yup, my score would have been roughly the same.)
Kaine: NO! (I said the same thing when I saw The Other.)
Well, we know X's opinion of Yost.
ReplyDeleteI've actually changed my opinion of Yost in recent months. His work on this series has been really strong, and he's resisted his natural impulse to murder 70 characters every issue, so yeah, he's been slowly winning me over!
DeleteAnd let us not forget about his two stellar issues of Avenging Spidey so far. And X you know nothing of Street Cred!!!
DeleteWhat?!? Nothing of steet cred?! I don't even have a come back for that! Thems be fighting words, JT!!
Delete*cracks knuckles* Bring it, Yawker. (Remember when this blog was about comics? Lol)
DeleteOh thank god Im not the only one suffering from mediocre comics!
ReplyDeleteHopefully this week has better stories.
Agree with everything both of you said , I hate the 'other' storyline with a passion but I hate the 'sins past' one even more.
I don't think I've read Sins past but if its worse than The Other, I think I'm pretty lucky...
DeleteNorman Osborn and Gwen Stacy love child. Can't beat that.
DeleteOh God!! That's THAT storyline?! Ugh...
Delete"I mean even if he is becoming a monster to protect Aracely... Kaine seemed pretty capable before he had to give in the The Other."
ReplyDeleteIt's not that he can't protect Aracely with his normal powers. The problem is that he's dead (again), and can't revive without the Other.
Well if that's the case, he couldn't protect Aracely with his normal powers, since he... died, like you said. My thing is, I found it hard to believe that he's been capable enough to go toe to toe with Carnage but here he can't handle two werewolves and dies for the second time in a few years. I feel like it hurt his character development by having him die and then give in to the Other to come back, because now we have to deal with more of his "I'm a monster!" crap.
ReplyDeleteWith the teasers that Yost gave of future arcs, the "I'm a monster" tagline looks like it'll be around for a long while. We'll see the Guild of Assassins come back and Kraven the Hunter and both will likely remind him of his own checkered past and brutal instincts.
DeleteThe only reason he lost to the werewolves in #13 was because he hesitated when he had a chance to kill one of them. And that's the problem, I can easily see Kaine going round and round this theme of whether he's ethical or willing to kill to protect for the rest of this run. Maybe he does need to get away from that for a while or run the risk of being repetitive as you say.
You're right, I forgot he was gonna kill that werewolf then stopped himself. I think the character can grow more once he gets away from the monster conundrum, kinda like how Venom was able to flourish after they did away with the thing about him only being able to wear the suit for so long.
DeleteNit-picking here, but isn't Venom still on that time restriction? That's why they were keeping the symbiote in a jar in Secret Avengers, as far as I know.
DeleteOf course, I dropped the Venom series a long time ago, so maybe the status quo has changed in that series.
Oh is he? I never read Secret Avengers, and I dropped venom after Bunn took over, but I know they stopped mentioning it.
DeleteThe only redeeming thing about this issue is that I got to read JT's line saying that the Sharks were going to yell, "TEAM EDWARD, MUH'F***A!!!!" Comedy gold!
ReplyDeleteDude, you're totally right, I'm so effing pissed about this monster crap again! Every effing time we move past it and just get Kaine struggling to control his impulses and do the right thing, Yost does something that has him crying in the corner about his feeling. Plus, the Other? The effing Other? Wasn't it enough that we were going to finally get somewhere on the Aracely front? We had to add the Other to the mix?
Also, on gangs and werewolves: being from Jersey, and rural Jersey at that, I kind of feel like I'd be OK if a werewolf came at me. But, I'm a little surprised that Kaine couldn't defeat los Lobos, but the effing gang members took down their asses in one brawl. I was waiting someone to pull out the old guy's HYDRA brass knuckles from "Winter Soldier" #15.
Man, this issue SUCKED.
Why thank you JW, I do think of myself as a young Richard Pryor. Lol
DeleteI felt so bad after you commented on that other issue about how you were happy they moved past the monster crap and all I could do was laugh after having just read this... I coudln't believe this Other crap had to happen. Like you, I was happy finding out more about Aracely and her powers but ugh, The Other took all the wind out of the sails for me.
Detroit, Queens, Jersey... You, X and I should start a werewolf hit squad. And yeah, I mean I know Kaine was trying to keep Aracely safe too but he's taken on much bigger threats so far than Los Lobos... so seeing him get killed while the Gang members just shot at werewolves was kinda.. yeah.
Dude, seriously, I finished this issue and was like, "WTF did I just read?" (We'd totally kick some werewolf ass. We just need those brass knuckles apparently.)
Delete