Superior Foes of Spider-Man #11 – Review

By: Elliott Kalan & Tom Peyer (writers); Steve Lieber, Carmen Carnero, Terry Pallot, & Nuno Plati (artists); Chris Sotomayor & John Rauch (colors)

The Story: The first step is acknowledging that you have a problem…and that the problem is not Spiderman…

The Review: The Superior Foes of Spider-Man has carved out a fun little niche for itself, examining the hopes and aspirations of a very different class of supervillain, those just looking for the next big score or an ounce of respect. It’s a fascinating corner of the superhero genre that few books have really examined.

While Boomerang has served as our focal point, last issue gave us a look at the other four members of the Sinister Six. Now, with our roster ‘exhausted’, we turn to an even lower tier of crook, the recovering villains that Mach VII introduced Boomerang to way back when. The issue is split into two stories, the first about the Grizzly and the second about the Looter.
The Grizzly story is a pretty funny tale. The former wrestler is down on his luck, reduced to luring drunks into ambushes, but rather than simply mug them he takes just what he needs and splits a pizza with them. It’s a cute concept and one that brings a couple of resonant moments to the issue.

The strongest element of “A Grizzly Situation” is the way that all the parts work together. There are a couple distinct ideas at play in Grizzly’s character but, in the end, it all comes back to nostalgia and self-loathing. It makes sense why Maxwell ended up in a twelve step program.

Thunderbolts #143 – Review

By Jeff Parker (writer), Miguel Sepulveda (artist), Frank Martin (colorist)

The Story: Asgard lies in ruins as Norman Osborn’s own empire falls to pieces around him. With the assembled might of Marvel’s heroes poised to emerge victorious, Osborn’s team of covert operatives must decide whether to go down fighting or betray their boss for a greater good.

The Good: This version of the Thunderbolts comes to a satisfying conclusion while paving the way for what I genuinely hope will be a weirder and more interesting team roster. As soon as I’d read that the likes of Crossbones, Juggernaut, and the god damned Man-Thing would join the new Thunderbolts, well, this current team became a lot less interesting. But at least they went out on a high note, attempting a Dirty Dozen kind of mission to steal the Spear of Odin with the kind of reckless bravado that only a band of villains with nothing to lose can successfully pull off. I like that kind of attitude, especially when Parker complicates things by making Paladin, Ant-Man, and Ghost realize they do have something to lose and that maybe some ideals are worth fighting for after all. There’s a tense and frenzied atmosphere in this issue, a desperate sense that these villains know the battle is lost and that all they can do now is scurry about and claw at each other like drowning rats as they fight for survival. Parker did an admirable job pacing this issue and choreographing every fight for maximum impact, and when smoke clears and the dust settles from those battles, and we’re left with those great splash pages of Cage and Jessica looking out over The Raft, damn it all if it didn’t make me excited for the Heroic Age to arrive!