Superior Spider-Man #5 – Review

By: Dan Slott (Writer), Giuseppe Camuncolli, John Dell (Artists), Edgar Delgado, Antonio Fabella (Colorists)

The Story: Spider-Ock meets an unusual aide for his classes and deals with Massacre.

The Review: This is a little bit more like it. After the last issue that had shown some unpleasant business, Dan Slott is back on track with some much-needed elements that were a little bit lacking in the previous issues of Superior Spider-Man.

One of these is a small change in the supporting cast, as even though it is still Spider-Man we’re talking about, this is not Peter Parker. The use of the ancient supporting cast was a wise choice in the beginning, as it permitted us readers to get accustomed to the new nature of Otto as Spider-Man. Now though, Slott is trying to gather up some new characters for Otto to interact with, giving us the delightful Anna Maria Marconi, a dwarfish woman that is also a tutor in chemistry and physics. Such an unusual character, both in her look and her demeanor, can only bring some good storytelling potential to the book and it also bring the promise of perhaps more new characters.

Superior Spider-Man #4 – Review

Dan Slott (Writer) Giuseppe Camuncoli, John Dell (Artists), Edgar Delgado (Colorist)

The Story: Otto still has to adjust and upgrade some aspects of Peter’s life, while Massacre has escaped from detainment.

The Review: Well, this is different, as in this is a sharp contrast to the previous issues of this very controversial series in many ways. With the three opening issues focusing on other aspects or characters that are directly connected to the basic approach of Superior Spider-Man, this one does not have the same drive behind it as those other issues.

There is still a lot that drives the series forward and make it enjoyable, to be sure. The various ways that Otto comes up with various ways to ‘’improve’’ on Peter’s life is fun to see, be it with his role as Spider-Man or in his general life. The ways he interacts with the entourage and the past decisions of Peter are actually quite interesting to see, be it with Peter reaction to his inner thoughts or his action. Contrarily to the second issue, Slott has found a good way to balance Otto and Peter to make sure we get a good dose of both characters here.

Something that was not as much balanced, though, would be some of the violence that shows in this comic. Now, I know that nowadays a lot of comics are much more violent and that I truly should expect some with a villain named Massacre, but some of these scenes made me a bit uncomfortable, especially the restaurant one. I do get that this is to set the tone and to show a psychopathic villain, but it seems a little bit like overkill here (pun unintended).

Something that was shown a little bit more here, albeit not in an overkill, would be the advancement of some small plot points that are very well incorporated in the grand narrative. One of them would be how people react to this newly arrogant Peter Parker, mainly the people from Horizon labs, which may lead up to the Fired storyline teased a few months back. Another would be the fact that Otto seems to be affected by what Peter say and feel, something that had been hinted at in the first issue, yet was not shown much in the two issues after. It’s those little points that keep on slowly progressing with each issue that makes me have faith that Dan Slott does have a long-term plan for this series.

Batwing #3 – Review

By: Judd Winick (writer), Ben Oliver (artist), Brian Reber (colorist)

The Story: Obviously, Batwing never saw those anti-fighting after school specials as a kid.

The Review: In this age of the decompressed comic, writers tend to draft stories that work better within the trade format than the typical serial style.  This trend has opened up new avenues of storytelling choices, but mostly it’s resulted in watering down the substance of each monthly helping of any given title.  DC certainly hasn’t helped things by reducing the average page count to 20 pages, turning some titles into mere wisps of story, ending almost right after they begin.

Three issues into this series, and it still feels like we haven’t moved on from the debut.  The status quo, tension, and conflict remains pretty much the same as when they started: Massacre killing off a member of the Kingdom, and Batwing in critical condition.  It would help if Winick filled the space with some entertaining character work, but he continues to keep the supporting cast sparse and largely absent.  This issue, only Matu appears, just once—and as a silhouette.

We do get a couple interesting, new factoids about our protagonist.  Unlike his privileged counterpart from Gotham, David grew up as one of the infamous Congolese boy-soldiers, and a fairly hardcore one at that: “Every armed man in the village met with a quick death…”  An intriguing development, to be sure.  Now you have to wonder how David went from young gunner to upstanding man of the law to sworn member of Batman, Inc.

Keep in mind, however, that David didn’t shoot alone.  The revelation that David had a brother, one as equally fierce a child warrior, can only bode ill for the future.  You’ll notice that anytime a character has a family member who’s mysteriously out of the scene, when they reappear, it’ll usually be in the context of some shocking cliffhanger, most likely the revelation that they’ve been the villain or villainous the whole time (see Professor X’s brother, Cyclops and Havoc’s brother, Batgirl’s brother, and Batwoman’s sister).

Batwing #2 – Review

By: Judd Winick (writer), Ben Oliver (artist), Brian Reber (colorist)

The Story: When someone stabs you in the back like that, it just gets you right in the heart.

The Review: It’s pretty hard to develop a whole new superhero from scratch.  Not only do you have all the usual personality, background, power set bits to weave into place, you also have to build their supporting players, rogues gallery, and surrounding world from the ground up.  To do all this in a serial fiction medium, a writer has to work quickly and with purpose, ensuring each issue offers enough meat to tide the readers over from month to month.

Winick has an unfortunate habit of writing slow, decompressing a story to the point where each issue takes you only half a step further than before.  When you take in his entire run on the now defunct Power Girl, he accomplished almost nothing worthy of note, with the titular star and her mythos virtually unchanged from when he started.  And so it goes here, in Batwing.  Everything you knew from last issue is left nearly untouched, forcing the storyline to stall in place.

Massacre seems hopelessly one-dimensional, a murderer whose only agenda is apparently to behead and decapitate any and every one he sees.  The gruesome…massacre (if any of you groan at this sentence, I’d like to say that in my defense, the villain just has a pretty terrible name) of practically all of David’s police unit comes across pointlessly bloody, an over-the-top reward for their “attempt to investigate me.”

So you have no inclination to take Massacre seriously at all, even though he hints that he has good reason for cutting down the victims he does.  He spatters his confrontation with Thunder Fall, formerly of the Kingdom, with all kinds of resentful barbs: “After all that you were and all that you’ve done…  I know the truth!  I know who you are!  I know what you are!  And it is time for you to finally pay!”  But who cares when they’re spoken by an indistinguishing murderer?

And who cares what happens to the Kingdom when you have only the vaguest idea who they are and what their importance is to the story?  You can appreciate their background as Africa’s first team of superheroes, but with no other information whatsoever, you can’t expect to develop much of an attachment to their fates.  Winick does little to make them relatable, as most of Thunder Fall’s speech runs like this: “I have wisdom!  I have power!  I have God on my side!”