Superior Foes of Spider-Man #9 – Review

by Nick Spencer (Writer), Steve Lieber, Rich Ellis (Artists), Rachelle Rosenberg (Colorist)

The Story: It’s Boomerang versus Bullseye. Who will emerge victorious?

The Review: There is a certain trend that has been going around for a good number of years in the comic market, one that has changed the very way books are written and sold. For a good period of times, arcs and long saga were varying in their lengths, with creators having a certain control over the whole thing. Cue the arrival of the trade paperbacks, hardcover’s and the overall collection of storylines. With them came the popular expression ”written for the trade”, indicating a story that has been created specifically to be collected in one single book, leading to decompression sometimes and a general presentation that creators had to recreate as to get work. Long gone was the approach that made such epics like Walter Simonson’s Thor and other such work.

However, with a more open approach nowadays for creators, there is a certain resurgence of complete stories in a single issue, more stream-lined stories and experimentation more akin to the past of the market. One of the books that is clearly part of the new wave is Superior Foes of Spider-Man, with Nick Spencer and Steve Lieber simply making the story progress with each issue, the book being an evolving arc instead of a series of stories leading to a massive progression made step by step.

This issue, in itself, is a wonderful example of why that is a good thing, with plenty of the plot threads moving forward, yet without sacrificing what makes the title fun to begin with. Continuing the adventures of Boomerang, a loser super-villain, and the rest of his crew, the title entertain not only through its vision of what it means to be a lower-class villain in the Marvel universe, but also through its emphasis on showing them as people and not just as antagonists.

Superior Foes of Spider-Man #8 – Review

by Nick Spencer (Writer), Steve Lieber (Artist), Rachelle Rosenberg (Colorist)

The Story: As Fred’s problems get bigger, the rest of the Sinister Six begins to understand that their boss might be an absolute crook.

The Review: It’s always fun to see a title that should not work actually managing to do just so. To see a book with a concept that could fail or with characters that aren’t popular enough see success, be it critical or commercial, is something to look forward to. It encourages diversity and it means that some of the less-appreciated stereotypes aren’t always true, as readers can be open to diversity when dealing with capes comics. X-Men Legacy, Hawkeye and, of course, Superior Foes of Spider-Man each does things differently and they are all very good.

However, doing things differently isn’t always a proof of innovation and a certain path to quality, as not every writers can handle everything in the same way. Nick Spencer, for all his worth, can stumble here and there, with even the best of his series getting in a funk once in a while. Is this issue, in a way, the fall in terms of quality for this series?

It would be rather harsh to say that this issue is bad, as it stands far from this approximation in terms of quality, yet it unfortunately isn’t as strong or as funny as previous ones. While this does mean in any way that this is a bad issue, there are certain flaws that makes this issue far less enjoyable.

Superior Foes of Spider-Man #6 – Review

by Nick Spencer (Writer), Steve Lieber (Artist), Rachelle Rosenberg (Colorist)

The Story: Boomerang goes on a date and in more trouble as the other Sinister Six are the captive of the Owl.

The Review: Identity is something impossibly important for a book. In a market where there is a severe load of stories in similar settings, a title needs a hook, a style or something else in order to differentiate itself. There are plenty of zombie, super hero and post apocalyptic stories, yet there is a huge difference between title like Hawkeye and Swamp Thing, like there are differences between Sheltered and Wasteland. Some people may like a specific genre, yet there must be something different between each titles or else the interest of readers would soon become naught. Thankfully, some titles goes out of their way to be different, which may work or not depending on the angle.

Superior Foes of Spider-Man is a title that simply works very well, as its identity, style and angle of presentation are close to unique, with a specific insight on one side of the meta-human equation that doesn’t always get presented as much as it should. However, how does the adventures of a bunch of super hero losers tend to work so well in terms of entertainment?