Superior Spider-Man #2 – Review

By: Dan Slott (Writer), Ryan Stegman (Artist), Edgar Delgado (Colorist)

The Story: Spider-Ock tries to properly seduce Mary-Jane while Peter watches with absolute horror what the villainous Otto Octavius is trying to do with his body.

The Review: Dan Slott is a smart guy.

This may sound like something out of the blue and a rather weird way to start this review, but bear with me. It seems he knew right from the start all the negative hype the turn of events in Spider-Man’s life would ensue from fans. He anticipated just what the fans would hate and cringe upon in his concept of Spider-Ock and managed to do something unexpected about them. In the first issue, it was about the fact that Peter was still somewhere in there and in this one it’s all about Mary-Jane Watson.

Superior Spider-Man #1 – Review

By: Dan Slott (Writer), Ryan Stegman (Artist), Edgar Delgado (Colorist)

*Spoiler alert*

The Story: Spider-Ock takes on the new Sinister Six formed by Boomerang.

The Review: So here we are, after the controversial 700th issue of Amazing Spider-Man, with this new status quo. For those who don’t yet know what has actually happened to Peter Parker, here’s the short version: Otto Octavius is now in Peter Parker body’s after promising to be Spider-Man from now on.

This decision, story wise, is ripe with potential, as we have a new point of view on how Peter Parker lives his whole life, thanks to the former villain. Indeed, Dan Slott takes full advantage to show that Otto is a very different person than Peter Parker. He reacts differently to the supporting cast and he has a much more tactical mind when it comes to being Spider-Man. However, he also is manipulative, violent, arrogant and much more self-centered, which results in him being a rather unlikeable character.

The Punisher #14 – Review

By: Greg Rucka (writer), Mico Suayan (art), Matt Hollingsworth (colors), and Joe Caramagna (letters)

The Story:  Frank and Rachel plan and execute a daring attack on Exchange HQ with their leader, Dr. Gerard, firmly in Rachel’s revenge-fueled cross-hairs.

The Review:  Talk about a white-knuckle issues.  If you want a nice, easy read to relax you, this isn’t it.  This entire issue just drips with tension.  Every page feels impossibly heavy, with all the characters clearly clenched with stress and tension.  If I could give a prize for “most stressful issue of the month,” it’d be this one.  I cannot overstate the tension that Rucka has injected into this issue.  It’s almost like you have to grip the comic extra hard or something.