Spider-Man: Sibling Rivalry Review

Hello everybody, Donlinedude here & welcome to my review of Sibling Rivalry, the crossover storyline between Superior Spider-Man Team-Up & Scarlet Spider!

Synopsis:

Superior Spider-Man Team-Up #2:

As the "Superior Spider-Man" goes about his new life, he narrates about how when he says that he is the greatest superhero ever, there is no ego at play, only fact (I think I'm going to be sick). As he arrives back at Peter Parker's apartment, still gushing about his accomplishments, he is startled by a voice, one that doesn't trip "his" Spider Sense. The voice belongs to Kaine, the Scarlet Spider (who actually earned that name), who says that he and "Peter" need to talk (I wonder what about?).

Unfortunately for Kaine, he's soon forcefully ejected from the building by Otto, who remembers how Kaine killed him some time ago by breaking his neck, and is certainly not in a forgiving mood. He attacks Kaine relentlessly, rambling about how he took his life. Kaine at first is confused by SpOck's actions, but he soon gets his head in the game and begins to dominate the fight.

Suddenly, a mutant spider-monster...thing interrupts the brawl, attacking Kaine. Correctly deducing that the Jackal is responsible for the creatures, SpOck decides to leave and let them kill each other, but is stopped by more mutant monsters. He's rescued by Kaine, who jokes that they "get away from his idiot brother". As they resume their fight with the clones, Otto attempts to use the moment to strike a killing blow to Kaine (Coward!) but he's thwarted by the Jackal of all people, who's backed up by several more mutant clones as well as Carrion.

Kaine leaps at the Jackal, with every intention of murdering him. Carrion gets in the way however and starts choking the life out of Scarlet Spider. Try as he might, Otto can't leave Kaine to his fate and saves him, declaring to himself that he will be the one to kill Kaine. He then heads for the Jackal, despite Kaine's protests, only to be blasted by a clone of Gwen Stacy, who apologises to "Peter". The weakened Spider-Men are surrounded by the Jackal, who proclaims that "this is going to be good."

Scarlet Spider #20:

Kaine awakens after a trippy dream/flashback to find himself and SpOck (who is busy insulting practically everything in the room) chained up. The Jackal arrives with
Carrion, informing Kaine & "Peter" that he's calibrated their shackles beyond Spider-Man's strength level. SpOck asks the Jackal what his endgame is, to which Jackal responds that he wants Peter's soul, every chromosome of it, which causes Otto to flip out, yelling that "his" DNA is his and his alone (Oh no it isn't). He also calls the Jackal pathetic for prattling on about nonsense (Hypocrite!), only to be surprised when the Jackal reveals he's already taken all the samples he needs.

Kaine then chooses the moment to break free of his chains and attack Jackal, who sics the mutant clones on him. Kaine frees SpOck, reasoning that he'll need some help. The Jackal orders Carrion to kill Kaine, the living virus complies by attempting to possess the Scarlet Spider, but he doesn't count on "The Other" presence inside Kaine's head. Having cut his way through most of the clones, Otto disarms the Gwen clone and attempts to kill her. Kaine prevents his "brother" from doing this, arguing that this isn't her fault. SpOck calls her an abomination, "a worthless mockery of humanity...just like all clones"

Swinging away, Otto throws a piece of detritus at the Jackal's equipment, setting off an explosion. The Jackal, horrified at the prospect of losing "his babies" charges into the fire to save the DNA samples. Kaine tries to save the Gwen clone, but she refuses his help, apologising again before she is consumed by the fire. Outside the building, Otto is feeling pleased over his actions, thinking he has disposed of the DNA samples, the Jackal & Kaine in one fell swoop. Suddenly, Kaine emerges from the wreckage, surprising SpOck. Kaine wants to know what the hell Otto was thinking, as he could have killed Kaine, walloping Otto in the jaw (now that's well deserved) when he responds that he "took the most efficient path". Kaine then walks away after telling "Peter" that while he knows he is not a hero, "Peter" is, and he should act like it. Otto swears that this isn't over as Kaine leaves.

While arriving back at George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Housten with Aracely, Kaine is hit in the back of the neck by a mysterious pellet, which he assumes is a mosquito bite. While musing on "Peter's" words to him, Kaine makes a horrorfying discovery on his return to the hotel. His cellular degeneration is back!

Back at the Jackal's lair, it's revealed that he survived the explosion, and while all the samples he took from SpOck were lost, the mutant samples from Mister Sinister are intact since they're off-site. He also managed to salvage Kaine's DNA, which he plans to use to produce Spidercide 2.0!

Thoughts:

When Marvel first unveiled the Superior Spider-Man's identity, the characters whose reactions I was itching to see the most was Venom & Scarlet Spider, which made this team-up a highly anticipated story for me, and for the most part, it didn't disappoint .

Kaine has proved to be a surprisingly compelling character in his solo series thanks to writer Christopher Yost and he's probably the best thing about this story. Kaine deals with a lot of abuse in this story, both physically and mentally, from Otto and the Jackal and I wound up feeling sorry for him by the end. Kaine is shown to really look up to Peter and though he doesn't say it, deep down he wants to be accepted by his "big brother", which makes it all the more heart wrenching that Otto is there instead to deal out some hurtful words. The final twist (while a little predictable) was rather exciting and it certainly looks to make the next few issues of Scarlet Spider impactful, though I hope that Kaine is still the Scarlet Spider when Peter inevitably returns as there would be some interesting stories to tell between the two.

This is the one time where I actually don't mind Otto being portrayed as an entirely reprehensible jerk
since it puts Kaine in an interesting place.The focus is really on Kaine for this story and Otto is just buisness as usual, though I appreciate that Yost remembers their prior conflict since it's a good driving point for a fight scene between the pair. I also appreciate that Otto gets his arse handed to him by Kaine during their fight (it's about time that happened). The Jackal is the weakest part of the story for me since his motivations are rather lacking. Why does he want to replace everyone with clones? That being said, I loved the "I'm not a Bond villain" scene, it felt straight out of Watchmen and gave Miles Warren more credibility as an antagonist.

The art on display is stunning. I've been continuously impressed with Marco Checchetto's work on Avenging Spider-Man and he knocks it out of the park in Superior Team-Up #2. K-Studios In-Hyuk Lee also produces some stellar artwork in Scarlet Spider, blending hyper-realism with comic book-style poses and angles.

While the plot is pretty predictable and the Jackal's motivations hollow, this is still a thrilling team-up story and I recommend you check it out simply for the art alone. So, one down, one to go, bring on Agent Venom...

Score: 3.5/5.0

Avenging Spider-Man #18 Review

Hello everybody and welcome to my review of Avenging Spider-Man #18. This issue features a team-up between Doc SpOck & the Mighty Thor. Both of these heroes have huge egos, but will they be able to put them aside in order to combat the return of Electro? I guess we'll find out.

Synopsis:

The Superior Spider-Man observes a small crater in Queens. He determines due to the energy signature that it was caused by Electro. He then correctly figures out that Electro desires revenge against Thor after the thunder god blasted him into space during Ends of the Earth. Meanwhile Electro talks to members of A.I.M via video link. They tell him that they can help him kill Thor.

At Avengers Tower, SpOck warns Thor of Electro's return. But Thor laughs at this, saying he has nothing to fear from Electro, which leaves Otto infuriated. Back at Peter Parker's apartment, SpOck stews over Thor's arrogance,. He taps into various weather satellites in order to track Electro's energy signature. Upon discovering his current location (an unknown A.I.M laboratory in New York), he curses the villain.

Meanwhile, several A.I.M scientists run Elector through the procedure, which will hook him up to a quantum field generator, converting his electrons to protons. They warn him that he could kill himself as well as Thor, to which Electro that he doesn't care as long as he takes Thor with him. As they start the procedure, Doc SpOck arrives, effortlessly defeating the A.I.M soldiers. By the time he reaches Electro however, it's too late. Electro has been successfully converted to anti-matter. He leaves to find Thor.

However, SpOck gets there first. Thor once again shrugs off SpOck's attempts to warn him, only to receive a massive shock from Electro. He prepares to attack Electro with lightening, but SpOck prevents him, saying that if Electro were to take a direct hit of electricity in his current state, the protons and electrons could possibly collide, causing, as Thor put it, "annihilation", wiping out New York.

SpOck asks Thor to buy him some time whilst he rigs a field version of A.I.M's Q-Field generator, complaining to himself yet again about Thor. As he works on the generator however, he observes Thor taking more punishment from Electro, noting to himself that Thor's willingness to die if it means saving lives. Minutes later, SpOck finishes the machine, telling Thor to blast Electro now, which he does. At the point of annihilation, the generator redirects the energy, seemingly killing Electro. SpOck helps Thor to his feet, telling him this. Thor acknowledges that he should have heeded "Spider-Man's" warnings, but he also notes Spider-Man's disrespectful attitude towards Electro.

Later, at Doc Ock's underwater lab, he muses on how far he is willing to go to get what he wants. We then see that Electro is indeed alive, SpOck has imprisoned him in his lab alongside Sandman...

Thoughts:

This is the best issue of Avenging to feature the Superior Spider-Man so far. The dynamic between Thor & SpOck is surprisingly entertaining. Christopher Yost captures Thor's voice perfectly, . It's also good to see SpOck gain a form of respect for Thor, given how the last two issues featured characters on which his opinions did not waver. As with #15.1, it's not enough to make him grow substantially as a character, but he definitely comes away from the issue a little contemplative, even while he continues with this mysterious scheme of his.

The fact that Thor notes Spider-Man's change in personality also impresses me, I'm really hoping this will tie into the Fired storyline as Thor also features in the teaser image. This is the first issue to feature a prominent Spider-Man foe, Electro is a sensible choice given past events and I enjoyed his battle against Thor. Marco Checchetto takes the reigns as artist this issue. His artwork is just fabulous. I really like the way he draws the Spider-Man suit.

So far it seems as though Ock is gathering his former Sinister Six teammates for some kind of plan. I'm very curious as to his motives with this, and I also wonder how this involves the Jackal?
Right now though, it definitely looks as though Avenging Spider-Man is the "Superior" title. It's actually making Otto bearable as Spider-Man, and given how irritating the character can be, that's a big acheivement...

 Score: 5.0/5.0

Avenging Spider-Man #17 Review

Hello everybody & welcome to my review of Avenging Spider-Man #17, which sees Otto Octavius tackle one of the toughest jobs in the world...babysitting.

Synopsis:

A faceless employee of the Time Variance Authority bursts into a room to tell his "superior" (see what I did there ;) ) Mr Oborus, that there's been an "incident". Oborus takes a look at the employees papers, authorising the target to be eliminated from the timestream, just as he realises the location of the fraction.

We then cut over to SpOck approaching the Baxter Building, where he comes face to face with Ant Man, She-Hulk, Medusa & Ms Thing. Ant Man tells him that they've received a distress call from the Microverse, which they are about to intercept. Otto arrogantly assumes that they want him to lead the expedition, but Ant Man corrects him. He tells SpOck that they want him to babysit the child members of the Future Foundation.

SpOck checks up on the children one-by-one, constantly irritated at the fact that, well, their children (he has no help from Dragon Man, who is apparently a pacifist). He then comes to Bentley's room, where the young clone is working on blueprints for a chronal engine. He rudely dismisses SpOck, who then forcibly views his blueprints. they are interrupted by Dragon Man & Alex Power, who ask SpOck if he wants to work on a project or give a lecture. SpOck agrees and asks for them to gather everyone and begin brainstorming a way to eliminate crime.

However, it turns out be a distraction to get them out of the way so he can reach the Baxter Building Vault, just as he's about to open it, "his" Spider-Sense tingles, warning him in advance of Death's Head (a bounty hunter from the future) materialising in front of him. Members of the T.V.A materialise throughout the building attempting to erase the children. They are quickly subdued however thanks to the unique security systems Reed Richards put into effect. Mr Oborus materialises with additional members, effortlessly neutralising the security system. He states that the Future Foundation must be eliminated for their future crimes against the timestream. He notices "Spider-Man" and (after flipping through his notes on the timeline) realises that he is really Otto Octavius, though SpOck webs his face before he has a chance to say, which resumes the fighting.

This leads to SpOck knocking Death's Head's head off. The T.V.A pull an earlier version of Death's Head through to battle "Spidey", but he is swiftly defeated. The Future Foundation plead with SpOck to talk this out, which he reluctantly complies with. Mr Oborus tells him that in two days, a device created by the Future Foundation will rip a hole in the space/time continuum, causing chronal devastation. Otto quickly realises that it is Bentley who will do this (having glimpsed the plans for it earlier) and convinces him to destroy the plans by whispering a threat in his ear. The T.V.A confirm that this has indeed altered the timeline and leave, but not before Mr Oborus warns SpOck they'll be watching him.

Later, Ant Man & co return to find SpOck and the kids safe and sound. When Ant Man asks what happened, SpOck brags that he saved the universe and warns them not to pawn their responsibilities off on him (like he'd know anything about the word). As he leaves the Baxter Building, a T.V.A employee tells Mr Oborus that Otto indeed saved the timeline and that they lost track of Death's Head (who is now stuck in the present day) when the timeline readjusted. The employee asks what the future holds for Spider-Man. Oborus hands him a document containing such information, to which the employee reacts with shock. He asks Mr Oborus why they can't interfere and save all the lives SpOck is about to destroy. Mr Oborus replies that it's out of their jurisdiction and that he can't back up the threat he made to SpOck.

Meanwhile, it's revealed that Otto got what he wanted from the Baxter Building. He takes it back to his underwater lair, where it is revealed that what he stole was Sandman, trapped in a glass jar...

Thoughts:

This is once again a very solid issue of Avenging. Its highly amusing to see Otto put in a situation he loathes. As far as I'm concerned it serves him right, the bespectacled git. The younger members of the Future Foundation are a little annoying, but that's kind of the point really. Seeing SpOck interact with them is the high point of the issue's comedy.

The Time Variance Authority are the just the kind of oddball antagonists to go along with a story involving Fantastic Four characters, and I found them quite intriguing, though I didn't find Death's Head all that funny. To be honest, I didn't find this issue to be as fun as the last, but that's probably down to the fact that I don't know much about the Future Foundation, nor am I really that interested in them.

I like that Christopher Yost is gently threading a loose narrative across the series, the twist at the end is "sinister", and I'm very interested to see what Ock is planning to do. Paco Medina's artwork continues to impress, though I still wish he wouldn't draw SpOck with a nose spike. It makes him look more like Owl-Man. This series is in no danger of losing it's charm in my opinion, and I'm especially looking forward to seeing SpOck interact with Thor next issue, we'll see if he feels Superior then...

Score: 3.5/5.0