Over the edge.
Slott caps off a very erratic first arc with a good finale,
though not without all the problems with the setup coming into play here.
The cliffhanger from the last issue is resolved pretty
weakly, but after that, there are some genuinely good Spider-Man moments that
uplift this issue from okay to good.
What doesn’t work so much is the main villain of the piece –
Black Cat. Her actions seem overly dark, and in the climax, what she does feel
like more a plot device than an actual progression of her character.
Ramos’ pencils as usual are somewhat ineffective during
action pieces, though at other times it works as he’s able to bring out the
emotion in play.
SPOILERS FOLLOW…………….
Black Cat manages to get Peter’s mask off, but with Jonah
standing in the way, nobody can see it before Silk is able to web his face.
I don’t really get it (and from the look on Cat's face, neither does she).
First, that was soap opera level cliffhanger reveal.
Everyone’s startled reactions followed by the twist that it’s because they can’t
see his face, instead of the other way around.
And given what Felicia is trying to accomplish, she could
have just said ‘Peter Parker’. Sure, not many would have believed her, but
Peter would go through hell to divert suspicions.
Anyway, Silk is able to escape with a web-gagged Peter, and
they retreat to Anna Maria’s flat.
Elsewhere, the C-list supervillains have gathered at
Franchine’s wake (the girl who got electrocuted when she went first base on
Electro, and was apparently a den mother to them or something), when Black Cat
arrives. But the C-listers are livid of her association with Electro and refuse
to work with her.
Peter is pushed to go to the live demonstration of the
Electro neutralizer by Anna, but on the way, Silk realizes something’s not
right and they exit, leaving Anna Maria as the proxy.
Using Sajani’s knowledge, Black Cat is able to sneak into
the demonstration and put the real Electro as the guinea pig. But instead of
powering him down, Felicia powers him up out of control, almost taking out the
waterfront.
Peter, at great risk to himself, is able to protect Electro
from blowing up, but only a timely save from Silk is able to keep them alive.
In the mayhem that follows, Black Cat escapes.
In the aftermath, we see Jameson blaming Spider-Man yet
again for the waterfront incident, but among good things Electro has been
depowered and Cindy Moon aka Silk gets a job at the news place as the new
intern.
Black Cat gains the respect of the C-listers with her
demonstration at the waterfront harming Parker Industries, Spider-Man and
Electro – all good things in their book. And apparently, Sajani has told Cat
all about Peter’s plans for the future.
Now, some reflections. I get Cat is mad, but what she did
this issue smacks of Norman Osborn psycho-levels. Cat has always been more of a
gray character, but this seems to rob her of her complexity in Peter’s life and
instead makes her just another villain.
Silk seems to be currently the dues-ex-machina for Spidey,
and I don’t like it. Oh, Peter is about to be revealed? Enter Silk. Oh, he’s
about to die? Enter Silk.
Feels more plot device than actual character.
SPOILERS END……………….
While Slott provides a satisfying finale, all the problematic
elements of this arc rear their ugly head once again.
Ramos’ artwork is a take it or leave it situation right now,
and you need to make the best of it.
All in all, not a very ‘amazing’ first arc.
So, I give it 6.5 out of 10.
+Some excellent interplay between Peter and Anna Maria
+Ramos’ artwork is more hit than miss
-Black Cat ends up becoming too one-dimensional in this
-Silk-ex-machina
-The resolution to last issue’s cliffhanger reeks of soap
opera levels
According to Editor Nick Lowe, Felicia will now be a permanent villain for the foreseeable future. If this was the case in her first appearance in 1979, she would have been placed into the forget pile by now. What they do not understand that the reason why Felicia has remained so popular til now was because of her unique relationship with Peter Parker/Spider-Man. Now they took that away to make her into a villain. I do not think that Nick Lowe or Dan Slott was even interested in the idea of Felicia being a love interest of Peter Parker/Spider-Man in the first place. I was sure that when Stephen Wacker left there would be an Editor who would standby Slott's ideas no matter what. I was right, unfortunately. But as soon as both Lowe and Slott are gone, she might someday return to her former status. But it'll take a very long time to get there with a different creative team who are fans of the Pre-OMD Black Cat whose still a registered super hero in the Pre-OMD timeline. Post OMD-Black Cat as a super villain, I am not interested.
ReplyDeleteI feel that Marvel destroyed Felicia's status as Peter's partner in favor of Silk, who I feel that Marvel is pushing down our throats, as they have done with Carlie Cooper. While it remains to be seen if Felicia's role as a super villain with be successful, I doubt that it will be because she's now the female version of the Kingpin.
At the end of the day, creative teams come and go. But 30 years worth of history of the Black Cat as a friend of Spider-Man/Peter Parker is very difficult to get rid of. I really wished that she had died in the Ends of the Earth storyline. And I do not think for a minute that Cindy Moon will ever be the love interest of Peter Parker, in comparison to Felicia Hardy. I have always wanted to see other heroines as alternate partner to the Black Cat like the Black Widow and Jessica Drew. Now they destroyed that completely by making Felicia into a super villain with no real motive at all towards it at all. The fact that she lost everything is bullshit because Felicia is a clever woman who has various off shore accounts away from the FBI. There's no way that she lost everything. The super villain angle is just as bad as making Alpha into a first class asshole whose solo series fell flat on its face. Black Cat as a villain will be no different. In fact, I think that there is going to be a huge backlash towards Marvel on the idea of Black Cat as a villain with fans writing to them about making her back to how she was. And she's going to appear in the Hawkeye vs Dealpool mini-series. A lot of readers, as well as those who do not have a vested interest in the Black Cat even agrees that what Dan Slott's done to her is completely out of character.
Loved the podcast!
DeleteBlack Cat had a particular set of characteristics, that Lowe and Slott DO NOT GET!
I wish Felicia could be more of a solo act instead of Slott deciding that he needs to leave his mark on every character in the Spiderverse.
I like the Totem idea and have high hopes for Spider-Verse the event. But Black Cat is now a straight up stereotypical mad villain - murdering people right and left all to get at Spider-man.
As for AMS Learning to Crawl, you can see my views on that series. Clash is a horrible plot device but I like it when Slott highlights Peter's life, through overall it was a very unnecessary miniseries.