Given how few books from any other publishers have shown up lately, I guess it's a good thing I did this brief foray back into Spider-books. I'd have practically nothing to review otherwise.
So, Beyond Corporation combined some Goblin, stuff, I don't know what, with the clone of Ashley Kafka they have on staff and created this Goblin Queen lady, who is tearing up a lot of stuff. Peter wants to go play hero, so Felicia webs him to his hospital bed and heads out herself. She manages to save Mary Jane, who is mixed up in this for reasons not worth explaining, but gets otherwise whupped by a knockoff Penance Stare. Except it doesn't make you feel the pain you inflicted on others, but all your worst self-doubts or something.
Felicia's about to be street pizza, but Peter managed to get himself free and save her. Actually a pretty nice sequence where she's falling and we're watching her face through a tear (because of the emotional trauma attack), and then the web bursts the tear. I thought it was a nice bit, anyway. Peter finally gets the costume back and jumps into battle because hey, he was able to break through his webbing, he must be almost back to normal. Except we see in a flashback it was Ben Reilly's girlfriend that cut him loose.
That probably won't end well. Especially considering Dr. Kafka already had a pretty good idea of all the crap running around inside Peter's skull. Not like he has a massive guilt complex or anything! On the other hand, attacking him on that level might actually work better for him, since his spirit seems willing to fight crime, but the flesh ain't up to snuff.
I'm guessing Hennessy inked the first part of the issue and Dell the second based on the order they were listed in. If so, I'd say Hennessy did the stronger job because on the last few pages, some of the faces are really indistinct and vague. Like "Rick Leonardi when he doesn't have a strong inker," vague. Bagley's Peter Parker is also a little different looking from how I'm used to, but the look does convey the fatigue he's under just trying to climb walls. The sense that he's still not right inside, but he's itching to get back out there.
OK, the new Shou-Lao hasn't hatched yet after the events of Heart of the Dragon and when the egg does crack open, people are shocked by what they see. Back in New York, Danny Rand's fighting some demons when he gets an assist from a guy in a Iron Fist outfit. Who doesn't seem to have much control of the old dragon chi, but does have some glowy green fist thing working. Danny tries to ask the kid questions, but he just runs off.
Wong doesn't waste a lot of time on the mystery, revealing right off this is a character called Sword Master. Got introduced with White Fox, Aero, some of those others characters they put in that new, more Asia-themed Agents of Atlas group a few years back? Anyway, he nearly died in something spinning out of Dr. Strange dying and his sword got shattered. Which is bad, because it's supposed to help keep some demon locked up. A demon whose henchmen are after the pieces of the sword, some of which are embedded in Lin's arms. Hence, the glowy green thing. They also hurt, raising the question of why, if he's trying to reassemble the sword, he doesn't just, you know, take the pieces out of his flesh.
Anyway, he hasn't, but when he fell to his apparent death, he somehow or the other got infused with Shou-Lao's chi. Maybe all of it. Which he can't control, and will destroy him if he doesn't figure it out. And the family he's staying with in K'un-Lun seems nice, but the dad is secretly one of those demons, and he's after the sword (although it's supposed to be in a box no one but Line can open.)
Well, they definitely hit the ground running with this issue. A lot going on. Lin's got this quest to repair his family's sacred weapon, while also trying to figure out how to be Iron Fist. There's the inevitable family drama, the dad being a demon, and the daughter helping Lin by somehow opening portals to Earth from K'un-Lun, which is unfortunately helping demons enter K'un-Lun. And now Danny's clued into the fact something's going on, so he's not going to let this drop. Not sure why Lin wouldn't at least ask a guy used to using the Iron Fist for some help, but he figures everything is his fault, so he probably figures he has to fix it himself.
Michael Yg's is nice. The costume's not bad, could probably ditch the single shoulder guard, though. Yg can make Lin look cool when he has the mask on, then he removes it and looks more like an exhausted teenager. I don't know if that's what you'd expect since he's been fighting demons and things prior to this, but he's also struggling with feeling like a failure on multiple levels, so maybe it fits. I think he overdoes it on Danny's jawline though. A couple of panels his chin just looks massive relative to the rest of his head. Maybe just the angle, or the particular expression.
2 comments:
I thought ASM had gone back to the original numbering? I can't keep up.
They're having it both ways. The 89 is the larger number, but under it they have a smaller "legacy" number, which I think is up to 890 as of this issue.
They'll slap a big "900" on there when they get to that point, but not before they go back to #1 for this Zeb Wells/Romita Jr. run coming up. It's kind of pitiful.
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