Team-up, Kamala style!
If you’re a little isolated from the rest of the Marvel
universe, this will come as a shocker of an issue. First of all, Ms Marvel is
the main character here, with Spidey playing the part of supporting cast
strangely.
Kamala comes across as a likable and relatable character
(you should check out her series, it’s very good!) and you feel invested in her
story, while for Spider-man, it’s so-so.
That’s a serious problem when you’re reading Spider-man and
not Ms Marvel, by the way.
SPOILERS FOLLOW………….
Anna Maria is busy trying to keep Peter and Cindy apart
given their ‘chemical romance’, but after a particularly heated standoff, Cindy
decides to take a break and search for a place to stay alongside one of her new
intern friends at the Fact Channel.
Peter is twitching to go outside but Anna tries to restrain
him by first bringing up the topic that he is now the head of a company and
when that fails, giving him an example of a situation where the cops are able
to arrest the culprit without his help.
But that turns on its head when a second report comes
regarding a metahuman.
That metahuman is a certain Dr Minn-Erva, a Kree (alien
shapeshifter) geneticist with a very thin villain resume (I checked).
Apparently, she and her group are taking a patient with them
for experiments, when the new Ms Marvel arrives.
A little on why Minn-Erva wears that costume which was made
famous by the first Ms Marvel Carol Danvers. Captain Mar-Vell the original was
a Kree Superhero who turned against his race’s colonist ideals, and passed on
his powers to Carol. As it is the official costume of the Kree officers, you
can see why Minn-Erva and Carol both have similar costumes.
Still, it’s nice to see Kamala and Bruno discuss being
grounded, late for school and other such mundane stuff. Especially as Peter was
once the teenage trauma superhero of the Marvel universe and now Kamala has
taken his place.
Peter and Kamala team-up to take on Minn-Erva, alongwith
some meta-moments like Kamala excited about a ‘Spider-Man Team-Up’ and his
brief date with Carol Danvers.
The patient bears similarities to Kamala’s origin, but
before they can rescue him or her, Minn-Erva turns into a humongous chimeric
monster as Spider-man and Ms Marvel try to find a way to beat her.
In the backup, which is the most interesting part of this
issue, Spider-verse is in full effect as Spider-UK from Earth -833 watches in
horror as his fellow multiverse Spider counterparts are killed one by one, with
Morlun dispatching Spider-Man, Iceman and Firestar from what is seemingly the Spider-Man
and His Amazing Friends universe of Earth-1983 (also the year in which the show
was cancelled) and another named Daemos feasting on an animal counterpart of
the 616 Marvel universe.
Morlun gets a few nice jabs in with his comments that the 1983
world has no words for his devastation (given the child friendly language) and that
Peter’s essence tastes like a child’s confection (given it’s child audience).
Inbetween he glimpses the Hunters’ homeworld and is sickened
by the sight of a cat like Spider-man being toyed with by two siblings.
On Earth-7831, the animal world, Jennix, another of the
hunters arrive and is able to notice Spider-UK watching them.
Spider-Uk quickly gets up and switches off the comm., going
to report his findings to Captain Britain Corps headquarters and the Majestrix.
She has her own problems given the Earth colliding with Earth situation over in
New Avengers, which is leaving multiple universes destroyed in its wake.
In front of this, Spider-UK’s concerns seem trivial to her,
but her companion gives a universal teleporter that allows him to travel with
ease through the multiverse. He leaves, assuring that he will stop this serial
murdering.
SPOILERS END………………..
When Spider-man is the least interesting character in his
own book, you have problems. Kamala and Spider-UK both come across as more
engaging, and while that adds to my enjoyment of the issue, the fact that Peter
is the sore point is true.
The artwork is some of the best I’ve seen in this book in
recent times, as Camuncoli proves he’s a way better artist that Ramos ever was.
So, I give this 8.0 out of 10.
+Kamala proves a great protagonist, even in another
superhero’s book!
+Some great artwork
+The Spider-Verse segment is engaging
+Slott is able to get the humor just right
-Peter is easily the worst thing in this book. And it is his
book!
-Most of the non-Kamala segments fall flat
-The villain is very bland creep-of-the-week type
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