Superior Spider-Man #21 – Review

by Dan Slott (Writer), Giuseppe Camuncoli, John Dell (Artists), Antonio Fabela (Colorist)

The Story: Spider-Ock confronts a rather stunning woman as he tries to find a way to make sure he gets his doctorate.

The Review: The more I read certain comics, the more I am starting to appreciate those that can get to the point. Decompressed storylines are dimes a dozen these days, with some comics that really elongate their plot to make sure the eventual trade is the right length. While it is a rather pessimistic view on how stories are written, it seems that there is a definite effort from publishers and editors to make this a thing of the past, with titles such as Hawkeye, Abe Sapien, Astro City and countless others simply telling their stories in smaller amounts of pages. It’s something that is rather refreshing in this industry.

It is also a category in which Superior Spider-Man falls in, with some of the larger storylines being only three chapters long. With this arc, Slott tells his story in simply two chapters, with the final one being this very issue. However, does he allow for all of the plot threads to conclude in a satisfactory manner while still providing potential for future stories?

To his credit, Slott does address pretty much everything in his story in a concise manner, be it Lamaze and his rebuttal at Otto’s wish to make Peter a doctor, Stunner’s vengeance along with other smaller points. What’s pretty good is also the fact that the general plot moves along without any unnecessary scenes or pandering, with the story getting to the point on pretty much everything introduced in the previous issue.