JT's Take: Avengers Academy #36

Hey X...Squad...JT...Maniacs or... whatever. Today's a JT day, which means it's infinitely better than yesterday or tomorrow :D Today we're gonna check out Avengers Academy, as the "Final Exam" storyline comes closer to the end, along with this series, let's see if your Academy Teens have what it takes to stop Briggs.

Avengers Academy #36

Summary: Things start off quickly, with a pissed off Hazmat blasting Briggs and Enchantress as they attacked Striker, they run off, in fear of getting cancer from Hazmat, as Striker stands up, showing his face is now scarred all over due to Briggs and Enchantress' attack. Veil and Mettle come to find the two but say they can't get Hazmat's suit because it's behind a protective door, so Striker follows Veil to short out the electronic panel. Hazmat tells Mettle to leave before he's hurt by her powers, but he says the reason he hasn't changed yet is because Osborn had his skin cut away to show his powers, so Hazmat tells him he can leave and be normal. Mettle steps closer to Hazmat, as her powers slowly melt away his skin and he embraces her, saying she does get her last kiss, as the two share a passionate kiss while Mettle returns to his previous form. Veil and Striker return with Hazmat's suit and head off to stop Briggs. On the other side of the building, Finesse, X-23, Reptil, White Tiger, and Lightspeed take on Coat of Arms, with White Tiger and Reptil basically giving up on getting their amulets, until they get a speech from Lightspeed telling them they need to take control of their lives. Inspired by her words, Reptil and White Tiger attack Coat of Arms and each grab their amulets, causing each to be teleported inside of them. White Tiger talks to her amulet's avatar and says that she needs the power, because she needs to save her friends, and because it's her legacy. The Amulet's Avatar agrees, is she gives the amulet one day each moon cycle to run free, and she agrees.

Meanwhile, Humberto speaks with the Hag of the Pits (Bwahahahaha!!! Hag! Priceless...) the person that created his amulet. The old Hag tells him he can take his powers back, but he must pay a price. One day he will have to fight for the creatures whose powers he possess, and he may die in doing so. She asks him if he can bear that burden, and he says yes, re-powering him as well. With their powers and the help of X-23 and Finesse, the teens make quick work of Coat of Arms, and are then reunited with Striker, Mettle, Hazmat and Veil. The team has to make a quick decision, as they have to go after Briggs before he releases the Clean Slate on the world's superheroes, but if they don't get X-23 the cure fast, she'll die of adamantium poisoning. They discuss splitting up but they know they won't be able to get the antidote without doing it together, due to Briggs having it under lockdown. They decide to go after the antidote to save X-23, and giving them to the rest of the team that needed them as well. With everyone re-powered, they head to the roof after Briggs, but arrive just as he's released the Clean Slate to the world, as this issue comes to a close.


Thoughts: First things first, that scene with Mettle and Hazmat, like most of their scenes in this arc, was amazing. Just the visual of seeing Ken's flesh burn away as he embraced and kissed his girlfriend was extremely strong and it goes to show how talented of an artist Andrea Di Vito is, as well as the always Grade A+ writing of Christos Gage. Also, this is one of the first comics in a while that I can remember having no Credits page, which was good because it never broke up the flow of the pages. I enjoyed mostly everything here, except for the fact the gang didn't split up. I kinda get their point but if Hazmat could kick Briggs and Enchantress' ass earlier, then why not just send her and Finesse or her and White Tiger to at least slow Briggs down? And Lightspeed's speech was a little cheesy and awkward for a fight in the middle of a room, but those things aside, I still enjoyed this comic. I'm definitely looking forward to seeing how the Academy crew, and I'd wager, Jocasta, stop Briggs' master plan.

Score: 8.5/10 

Hazmat: That's right, run, you little brie-eating hipster! (I love Hazmat more and more each issue.)

Amazing Spider-Man #693

Hmm, it's been a while since I actually did a post...  Let's see if I remember how I'm supposed to do this.  Okay, intro first.  The last issue of this comic ruled in ways I'd forgotten comic books can rule.  The character Alpha, who was introduced last issue, was fantastic.  Speaking of fantastic, this issue's cover rules pretty damn hard, but then a lot of the covers from the books I picked up this week are damn good(I'm looking at YOU, Deadpool #60!).  So yeah, if I had scored last issue, it would have come away with an EASY 10.  Let's take a gander at this issue and hope it lives up to my crazy hype.

Amazing Spider-Man #693:

Summary: So Alpha managed to singlehandedly take down Giganto last issue, no thanks to his "sidekick" Spider-Man, who the media figures was there to add color and moral support...  HA!!  *sigh* I've missed that "HA!!"...  Anyway, being the greatest hero ever(in his mind at least), Alpha leaves the lesser heroes, you know, Spidey and the FF, to clean up Giganto while he heads home.  Mr. Fantastic reiterates to Spidey that Alpha is Spidey's responsibility, which leads to a depressed Spidey(as Peter Parker, naturally) heading to Mary Jane's club.  MJ tries to cheer Spidey up, since, in Spidey's mind, Alpha is what he could have been had Uncle Ben's death not shaped him into the hero he is today.  While talking to MJ though, Spidey realizes that Alpha's identity is public and rushes off...  At Alpha's house, his girlfriend catches him making out with a cheerleader and storms off, even though Alpha tries to explain that he had no choice, since she WAS a cheerleader...  Again, HA!!  At this point, Jackal and one of his Spiderzons show up at Alpha's house, thus upping the awesomeness quotient of this issue tenfold.  Well aware of Alpha's inability to use more than one power at a time, the Spiderzon defeats Alpha, and Jackal kidnaps him, the cheerleader, Alpha's parents AND his agent.  Spidey arrives on the scene too late and rushes back to Horizon Labs, where Max Modell helps Spidey(as Peter again) create a device that could hone in on Alpha.  Spidey heads to an abandoned schoolhouse and is jumped by a mess of Spiderzons and is defeated.  The Spiderzons take Spidey to Jackal, who is his regular hilarious self, telling Spidey that Spidey had "out-mad-scienced" Jackal when Spidey created Alpha, and as such Jackal wanted to clone Alpha and create an army of Alpha clones that would do his bidding.  With that, Spidey reveals that he had faked his defeat at the hands of the Spiderzons to get closer to Jackal and attacks Jackal, destroying Jackal's body with one punch...  But wait, that was a clone, and another Jackal walks into the room, releasing the Alpha clones from their tanks, telling them to destroy Spidey.  Unfortunately for Jackal, the Alpha clones don't have Alpha's powers since the Parker Particles didn't alter Alpha's DNA.  With that plan a bust, Jackal goes to Plan B, steal Alpha's powers.  Jackal heads to a computer, and to distract Spidey tells one of the Spiderzons to kill his hostages.  With Spidey distracted, Jackal goes about draining Alpha of his powers, even though that would kill Alpha.  Spidey tells Alpha to fight out of his bonds to save his family, and Alpha does end up freeing himself, but not for his family, for himself and his fear of losing his powers.  Now free, Alpha destroys his clones, so Jackal turns to Plan C, press the big red button, which destroys Jackal and all of his Spiderzons, leaving no trace of where the real Jackal was holed up.  You can't say Jackal didn't come into this with plenty of plans.  With that, Alpha realizes that he still has a lot to learn, which cheers Spidey up...  Until Spidey realizes Alpha was talking to his agent.  Alpha's agent ends up getting him emancipated from his parents and sets him up in a penthouse, where he spends his time drinking and fooling around with models.  This issue ends with Spidey hard at work at Horizon Labs, doing everything he possibly could to come up with a way to strip Alpha of his powers since he was, to Spidey, not worthy of them.

Thoughts: Come on, it was Alpha AND Jackal...  In the same comic!  How couldn't I love it?!  Alpha continued being self-absorbed and an all-around jerk, while Jackal was his regular crazy, funny self.  I will admit that I was a tiny bit let down by the end of this one when Alpha blew Spidey off and didn't take Spidey up on his offer of more training, but to be honest, that kind of fit Alpha's whole deal.  He was a regular kid who gained insane power.  After being ignored by his schoolmates, his own parents and girls, he now had everybody throwing themselves at him.  What does he do?  He goes with it.  In a way it's more realistic than your usual superhero origin(starts out as regular guy, gains powers, becomes selfless), which is probably what I'm enjoying about the whole Alpha thing.  If I was in his place and gained those powers would I become Spidey or Alpha?  If I'm being honest with myself, I'd almost definitely become Alpha.  As for this storyline going forward, there are still a couple of different ways Dan Slott can go...  Alpha DOES become the responsible hero Spidey wants him to be.  Spidey does manage to drain Alpha's powers, leaving him normal again.  Spidey tries and fails to drain Alpha's powers, turning Alpha into a super-villain in the process.  Spidey does drain Alpha's powers, leading to him siding with one of Spidey's enemies(Jackal?) to get revenge.  Alpha ends up just becoming his own kind of hero, regardless of what Spidey wants.  Or of course something else altogether.  But needless to say, there are tons of ways this story can go, and you know I'll be eager to find out what happens next...  Man, this review was way longer than I anticipated it being...  Methinks I'm gonna have to try to tone down the verbiage going forward...

Score: 9 1/2 out of 10.

I'd forgotten how awesome Jackal is...

New Comic Day! September 5th edition.

It's Wednesday, it's the first week in September, and I am X.  What does it mean when you put those three things together?  It means it's New Comic Day of course!  This is actually my first NCD post since June 6th...  Which is actually a hell of a long time...  Anywho, let's get to the heart of this post...  The comic books!  I ended up coming home from the comic shop with the following books: Hypernaturals #3, Stormwatch #0, Hell Yeah #5, Amazing Spider-Man #693, Avengers Academy #36, Dark Avengers #180, Deadpool #60, First X-Men #2, Hawkeye #2, Invincible Iron Man #524, Mighty Thor #19, Venom #24, X-Factor #243.  So Ol' X ended up with 13 books for the week.  That is the perfect number of books in my honest opinion.  Not too many, not too few, just perfect.  As for JT, he'll post what he's getting a little bit later on in the post...  Probably.  We're still getting used to this whole "sharing the blog," thing.

Now, normally this is the part of the post where I give my Pick and Runt of the Litter, or the comics I most and least want to read.  This time around though not only will I tell you the Pick and the Runt, I'll tell you which comics you can expect JT and myself to review over the course of the next 6 days...  First things first, the comic book I'm most looking forward to reading this week is Amazing Spider-Man #693.  And this was actually a very difficult decision because there are a lot of really strong books dropping this week...  Spidey, Avengers Academy, Deadpool, Hawkeye, Thor, Venom, etc.  What puts Spidey over the top for me?  One word...  Alpha.  'Nuff said.  This week's Runt of the Litter?  That has to be Hell Yeah #5.  I was thisclose to dropping that series last month, but a strong #4 gave this series a reprieve.  As it is though, this series is still on a pretty short leash, meaning a less than stellar issue could easily see this comic leaving my pull list.  Next up are the comics I plan on reading out of that bunch...  Spidey and Hawkeye are definite, and will be posted Thursday and Saturday respectively.  I'm also leaning towards reviewing Venom for Monday, but I could easily be swayed to review something else...  Just sayin'...  As for JT, I know he'll be reviewing Avengers Academy and Deadpool.  Much like myself though, he was undecided on that final review.  As of right now, the next four days will see reviews for Spidey, Avengers Academy, Hawkeye and Deadpool.  Monday and Tuesday's reviews?  To be determined...  And that's gonna do it.  Until next time?  X out.

And JT has tagged in! Hey guys, since X has done all the heavy lifting, for ONCE, I'm just gonna pop in and let you guys know what I picked up Earth 2 #0, Green Lantern #0, Smallville #5, World's Finest #0, Guarding The Globe #1, Amazing Spider-Man #693, Avengers Academy #36, Deadpool #60, First X-Men #2, Hawkeye #2, Venom #24, and Ultimate Spider-Man numero 14. Like X mentioned, I'm definitely reviewing Avengers Academy and Deadpool, but for my last review I'll leave it in the hands of the people. It's a democracy up in here! Well, for me anyway. :P As of right now, I'm leaning towards First X-Men or GL, but you guys decide, and expect to see it on Tuesday, til then, we are outta here!

X Marks the Spot!

Well, it's been a while since I've said this... Hello X-Maniacs!!! That is if there are any of you left... It's my understanding that you have all been brainwashed and converted to the Todd Squad... Whatever THAT is... Seriously though, before anything, a HUGE kudos to JT for keeping things running smoothly while I was doing the whole Vampire X, sleep all day and work all night thing... Good times that. And by “good times” I mean awful times. However, that has come to an end and I no longer work the dread overnight shift meaning that I can try to dip my toe back into the blog waters. It's been a while, and I'm probably kind of rusty(I haven't done a post since early JUNE!), but I'm sure blogging is much like riding a bike. Just with a bruised ego instead of scraped knees. And anyway, it's not like I can suck much worse now than I did then, right!? Let's see, where to begin... I know, let's start with something positive!

Kissing ass and taking names!
First and foremost, I once again want to give JT a massive thanks for stepping in and doing a fantastic job here at the blog. I never felt like I had to come back because JT was doing as good, if not better, than I could have possibly done. JT, I bow down to you. I also promise to pay you back someday for this... Really, I do!

The world according to Alpha.
By far, the best single issue I've read during my blogging absence(as well as so far this year) was Amazing Spider-Man #692. Yes it cost a horrifying $6(!!!), but you know what? It was actually worth it. The primary story rocked big time(Alpha is already climbing the ranks of my favorite characters... After ONE appearance!), and the back-up story by Joshua Hale Fialkov(he of I, Vampire fame) was also enjoyable. But back to the main story... Dan Slott wrote Alpha amazingly(get it?) and then there was Humberto Ramos' art... It was fantastic!!! I've been a fan of Ramos' since reading the Impulse series, as it was his artwork that basically shaped the Bart Allen character and helped turn me into a huge fan of Bart to this day(well, that and Mark Waid's writing of course). Alpha's look reminds me of Impulse SO damn much... And any time I'm reminded of Impulse I'm happy. So yeah, needless to say, I'm really hoping Alpha sticks around for a good long while after this one.

XvAvX
But enough of that nice stuff. I'm X, and I don't do nice. So hows about we talk about the disappointment that is AvX... There's so much wrong with this event that I don't even know where to begin... You have the X-Men being corrupted by the Phoenix Force, you know, like EVERYBODY said was going to happen. You have the Phoenix powered X-Men doing NOTHING for mutantkind, even though that was supposedly why the X-Men wanted Hope to gain the Phoenix Force, to restart mutantkind. You have Cable, who was the main character in the AvX prelude, X-Sanction, doing nothing. I guess he's still in a coma, which, once again, makes no sense since his father has a portion of the Phoenix Force! Couldn't Cyclops, oh, I don't know, take a few seconds away from planting flowers and burning Avengers to either fix Cable, or at the very least have Emma do it? And who can forget the whole Iron Fist angle... Because I know when I think, “Phoenix Force,” my mind immediately thinks, “Danny Rand!” I mean did Bendis(or whichever writer thought adding the Iron Fist aspect was a good idea) just pull a character's name out of a hat at random? Ugh... So yeah, big surprise, yet again we have a Marvel event that started out with such promise devolving into... Well, this. On the bright side though, this IS better than Secret Invasion...

Marvel Soon!
Next up? How about we talk about Marvel Now!? As of right now I plan on getting EVERY one of the announced Marvel Now! books that are dropping starting in October. Yes, there are some things that frighten me(Bendis on X-Men?!? Hickman on Avengers?!? X-Men Legacy starring Legion?!), but overall I am relatively excited for this. But then I was also excited for DC's reboot and the new comics they ended up putting out... And now I'm picking up less than half the number of DC books I was picking up when they did the reboot... However, I do have more confidence that I won't be dropping the Marvel Now! books nearly as dramatically as I dropped the New 52 books. I mean at least Dan Didio isn't a part of the Marvel Now! launch. That's a huge advantage right there!

Alright, now for a few quick thumbs up/thumbs down concerning a few comic related things from the past few months...
-Ed Brubaker leaving Marvel? Thumbs down.
-Avengers Academy being canceled(and thus far) not announced for Marvel Now!? Thumbs down.
-DC doing a Team 7 book? Thumbs up.
-Dan Way off Deadpool? Thumbs down.
-Mark Waid on Hulk? Thumbs up.
-Hawkeye having a solo series? Thumbs WAY up.
-Christos Gage not announced on any Marvel Now! books(so far)? Thumbs down.
-The idea of DC's Zero Month? Thumbs down(prove me wrong, DC.).
-The Scarlet Witch apparently back on an Avengers team post AvX? Thumbs up.
-Alpha? Thumbs up.
-Hawkeye #1 getting a second printing? Thumbs up.
-The conclusion to the Court of Owls stuff? Thumbs down.
-'Everything Burns' thus far? Thumbs up.
-The current direction of Ultimate X-Men and the Ultimates? Thumbs up.
-Any time Dan Didio opens his mouth? Thumbs way down.

Now, back to the blog... I still haven't decided just how active a blogger I'm going to be this time around... I mean there were weeks where I was reviewing 20+ books over the course of 7 days. That's a bit crazy. After talking with JT, we're probably going to do some sort of rotating schedule, where we both do three reviews a week, posting them on alternating days. That way there's a post a day, with neither one of us being overwhelmed with blogging... Or at least that's the plan... But then I suck at plans, so who knows how long that'll last! I mean hell, I may feel like doing 7 reviews in one night. Or suddenly want to do a retro-review or something... Who knows! But on the plus side, there WILL be reviews, and they WILL be done by both JT and myself, meaning there will always be something to read here, regardless of the day. So huzzah for that. Now, tomorrow IS New Comic Day, and as such there will be a NCD post up, either by JT or myself. Whoever does it, we'll both list which books we're getting for the week, as well as a tentative idea for who will be reviewing what. Or at least that's the plan, and I've already stated how well I do with plans... With that taken care of, for the first time in about three months I get to say the line... What line? X out.

New Comic Day! August 29th Edition

Hey everyone, JT here with a pretty late/early morning post. I apologize for the lateness, but when life gets in the way, there's not getting around it. Anywho, let's get to this week's comic haul. As always, recommendations for reviews are welcome, I'll try to get everything up if time permits, and feel free to let me know what you guys picked up.

Now, let's get to it! This week I picked up Aquaman 12, Green Lantern Annual #1, Avenging Spider-Man #11, AVX VS. #5, Gambit #2, and Captain Marvel #3. So, six books this week, let me know which ones you guys would like me to review/discuss, and we'll take it from there guys. Til later today, JT signing off!

JT's Take: Venom #23

Hey Todd Squad, today we're gonna check out the first issue of Venom since Rick Remender's departure. I'm on the fence about Cullen Bunn after Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe and Spider-Man: Season One, but he's writing Venom, a favorite of mine, and even writers I don't like have been surprising me when it comes to a Spidey-based character. *cough* Chris Yost *cough* So let's see how Cullen Bunn fares with Corporal Flash Thompson, Agent Venom.

Venom #23

Summary: This issue starts off with Venom on a recon mission, after being told by Hawkeye that due to recent events that he's on probation and should not pursue anyone, he's strictly on recon missions. Venom's night starts off with him meeting up with a reporter by the name of Katy Kiernan, as she gives him info about the Department of Occult Armaments. Venom investigates but of course, things end up going haywire so he has to get involved. The Symbiotic Superhero has to do this one alone since for some reason his communication systems with the Secret Avengers are blocked while inside the building. Venom takes out a bunch of "Nazi demon-worshippers" and starts freeing their prisoners from containment pods when one attacks Venom. The seemingly possessed prisoner suddenly stops attacking when he see's the mark on Venom's soul left by Mephisto, and when Venom commands him to leave, a demon exits the prisoner's body, leaving him unconscious. Venom has no time for answers as Hellstrom appears and brings the fight to Venom. Venom somehow doesn't lose the symbiote when hit by Hellstrom's fire, which confuses Hellstrom as well, and he catches Hellstrom off guard, demanding to know his plan. Hellstrom says the D.O.A. are building him an army of volunteers and that Venom is just like Hellstrom in the sense that people are waiting for him to go rogue and come after him, just like they did to Hellstrom. He says Venom is marked by the beast and knocks Venom into the pods that house his volunteers, causing some of the liquid they are submerged in to waste onto Venom. Flash screams out in pain as the symbiote contorts his body into a giant, demonic version of Venom as the issue comes to a close.


Thoughts: Well this issue was odd... I'm not a big fan of the stuff with guys like Hellstrom and Mephisto, and I didn't care for the Circle of Four storyline, so this immediately put me off. I did like the stuff with Venom and Katy and I would like to see more of Venom and the Avengers, which I can assume will happen soon as Hawkeye finds out that Venom got involved instead of just gathering info. All in all, this was a normal average issue, I enjoyed it less that I would've liked but it's far from bad.

Score: 6/10 

Katy: Anyone ever tell you that you look like Spider-Man?
Venom: I've heard that a few times. It goes in hand with "I thought you'd be bigger." Different guy, though.

JT's Take: Deadpool Kills The Marvel Universe #4

Hey Todd Squad, today we're gonna check out the final issue of Deadpool Kills The Marvel Universe. With Deadpool already disposing of The X-Men, The Avengers, Spider-Man, and the Incredible Hulk, plus many, many more, what does Deadpool have up his sleeve for the finale? Let's see if Deadpool succeeds, or if he's cut short, pun intended, by The Taskmaster.

Deadpool Kills The Marvel Universe #4 of 4

Summary: The issue starts off with mayhem, some heroes and villains like Black Widow, Iron Fist and even Hit-Monkey fighting one another in the streets. Other heroes and villains are committing suicide by jumping off of buildings, including Bullseye, Kingpin and Nick Fury. We see The Punisher staked out in a building when he snipes Deadpool and heads over to finish the job, but finds a dead Puppet Master in a Deadpool costume, Deadpool comes out behind The Punisher and shoots him, pointblank in the back of the head before moving onto even bigger fish, as Deadpool has somehow managed to kill Nova, Silver Surfer and Thanos. We finally get the main event fight with Taskmaster and Deadpool in a swamp, and the two seem evenly matched until Deadpool distracts Taskmaster by talking too much, causing him to rely on muscle memory. Deadpool then asks Taskmaster if he knows Deadpool so well, what would Deadpool have next. Taskmaster thinks for a second and gets frightened by the thought of Deadpool's plan, as Man Thing emerges and touches Taskmaster, causing him to burn up, killing him instantly. Deadpool then tells Man Thing about his plan, so Man Thing kills himself to open the gate to all realities for Deadpool... okay. Deadpool steps into the portal and see's a ton of different world's before landing in our world. The issue ends as we see Deadpool getting ready to kill Cullen Bunn and the rest of the creative team for this comic. Ugh.


Thoughts: This issue really disappointed me. The series started so well, and the end with Taskmaster being hired was great, but that fight wasn't everything I expected, and Man Thing blowing himself up so Deadpool could jump worlds annoyed me. It bothered me that some big names like Venom, Black Widow and Dr. Doom were killed off panel yet the Puppet Master got a few pages. The ending was very bad too, I figured he was coming to out world but I thought maybe something would go awry and he'd end up somewhere else, like the Marvel Zombies world. Then we could have Deadpool kills The Marvel Zombies or something, instead, we got to see him lurk outside of Cullen Bunn's meeting and the book just ends. That was disappointing, overall I enjoyed the series but this last issue ended it on a sour note.

Score: 4/10 

Deadpool: "Dear Diary..." er, I mean "Dear War Journal..."

JT's Take: Amazing Spider-Man #692

Hey Todd Squad, JT here and man oh man, I am falling apart at the seams! Haha, I didn't even have time to get a NCD post up yesterday, so I guess instead of letting you guys know what I picked up, I'll surprise you guys with a review until I run out of this week's comics. I decided to review ASM first due to it's 50th Anniversary and it's huge price tag! This book was six bucks, so it had better have some great stuff in it. So let's see shall we?

Amazing Spider-Man #692

Summary: This mega-sized issue of our favorite arachnid has three Spider-Man based stories. In the first story we see a kid named Andy Maguire, who goes to school and is content with being a nobody, he's not a jock, a geek, a stoner, he's just there. He coasts by with average grades, has a mom and dad that are too busy for him and he's basically just an average kid. When his school visits Horizon labs and to see a new experiment by Peter Parker, who plans on debuting Parker Particles, something goes awry and the kid pushes a girl out of the way of a blast, and when he's hit, it gives Andy super powers. Unlike Peter Parker's origin, everyone see's and knows Andy has powers. Peter feels horrible that he could've killed someone, and Andy's parents quickly try to sue Horizon labs. Modell reaches out to the superhero/genius community and has tests run by Hank "Beast" McCoy, Reed "Mr. Fantastic" Richards, Hank "Giant Man" Pym, and Tony "Iron Man" Stark. We find out that Andy can fly, shoot energy beams, has super strength, super speed and force fields, but he can only use one power at a time. Reed then pulls Peter aside and tells him that Andy's powers will continue to grow, and how Hulk, The Phoenix and The Sentry are Omega level threats, Andy is currently an Alpha-Level threat. Modell assigns Peter to work with Andy to help make him a costume and gear like he does for Spidey, as they decide to hire Andy as their spokesman, Alpha. Andy quickly agrees, and his parents due as well when they realize how much money they can make off of him. Alpha wastes no time using his powers to show off to his fellow students, which rubs Peter the wrong way. Pete decides to take Alpha under his wing as Spidey and enter him into the Sidekick program, and teach him what to do and what not to do. When Spidey gets a call from the Fantastic Four to help out against Giganto, Spider-Man tells Alpha to stay put as, he's not ready yet. Alpha of course doesn't listen and ends up knocking out Giganto and getting all the glory, plus he steals Ben's catchphrase. A cocky Alpha then basks for the news cameras as Mr. Fantastic and Spidey talk about what a monster Spider-Man has mistakenly created. This story comes to a close as we see none other than The Jackal (!) watching Alpha, as he plans on doing what he does best, this time to the young hero Alpha.


Thoughts: I decided I'd just review the main story for this review, but don't get me wrong, the other two stories, especially the third one about Peter trying to make it to a meeting, were great, fun reads. As for this issue, I wasn't really looking forward to this storyline, but I'm really enjoying it. Alpha is kind of a less homicidal version of Damian Wayne, and he's a fun character. When he proclaimed that Spidey was his sidekick I couldn't help but laugh. I'm wondering where the character goes from here and what Spidey can do to get through to him. Plus, seeing The Jackal reappear was definitely unexpected, I can't wait to see how this story plays out.

Score: 10/10 

Alpha: Put me in their "Sidekick Program" and everything. Even gave me Spider-Man as a sidekick! Cool, right?