We haven't even officially gotten to summer and I'm already sick and tired of it. Why did climate change have to empower my least favorite of the seasons? Couldn't make fall nicer, or even just wetter, no, had to make summer even more like living inside a jock strap.
Ben has to go fight all the released patients. Which goes better than it ought to because he gets a little help. First from Mysterio, then from Vermin, who Spidercide somehow brought back out of Edward. Still, Ben's losing until Spidercide concludes that Dr. Kafka was right and he does care about Ben. So he beats all the villains he released, again uses his abilities to bring Ben back from near-death (somehow) and falls into a coma. Except he seems to be out of that by a page later while under Dr. Kafka's supervision.
Woof, that was not a great ending. I guess Spidercide's face turn - one issue after his previous face turn - is supposed to mirror Ben's internal monologue during the fight about not dismissing the people he's fighting as crazy, because it allows him to dehumanize them and ignore their suffering. He tried to understand Spidercide, and it paid off. But considering this whole mess is Spidercide's fault, I might have been more impressed if Ben actually reached the patients, Mysterio helps because he wants a defeat of Spider-Man to be done with style, and Edward manages to resurface inside Vermin, but there isn't much indication Spider-Man's making any attempt to reach any of these other people.
Maybe it's because reaching out to Spidercide and trying to accept him as a brother is a step in Ben accepting himself as an individual again, rather than the cheap copy of Peter Parker he believed himself to be. Self-acceptance, but the self is actually somebody else. But it just feels so damn abrupt. Spidercide is gleefully turning Edward into Vermin and taunting Ben about what he'll do to Kafka while Ben's stopping the riot, and then he's all outraged that Ben's about to die. All within a couple of pages. The pacing wrecks any emotional impact.
Also, Spidercide's attempt at a knock off Spidey costume to "mock" Ben doesn't really carry it off. It just looks like an uninspired Spider-Man costume. Making sure his mouth is still visible through the "mask" is a little unsettling, but it doesn't scream mockery.
Jack Beans is a former accountant for a mob, now in witness protection. Except it seems he's been found, and decides his best option is to just kill everyone in the mob. Tobin moves the story between the present-day, as Jack begins to put his plan in motion, and a series of flashbacks explaining his knack for numbers and total recall, and how he got to this point. That part is related through a discussion between two federal marshals. Omaha Avery is retiring, and Elsie Santos is his replacement, curious about this Jack.
There are two things established during this issue that feel like they'll be crucial to the story. One, Jack has a girlfriend he only knows through the internet. There are a few pages at the end that are meant to be text conversations between Jack and various women he tried meeting, and I'm guessing Vera is the one he's dating.
Second, Jack apparently can't lie. This was apparently part of why he wanted to stop being a mob money manager, because it wouldn't inevitably cause problems when he dated someone and they wanted to know what he did for a living. Case in point, in one of the unsuccessful text conversations, "Phoebe" asks if he has a criminal past and he admits he does, though he doesn't specify what exactly.
I'm not sure how either of those will end up being relevant, although the issue ends with Jack meeting Omaha and Elsie at a diner. Hopefully neither of them ask if he's been killing people today.
It feels like it's going to be enjoyable. Tobin and Albuquerque keep the tone a bit light most of the time. There are two main crime families, the Keys and the Van Dykes. The keys get tattoos on their backs, the more keys the higher status. The Van Dykes have facial hair, although Albuquerque makes it look drawn on, rather than something they grew. Maybe it's a tattoo as well.
Thing I noticed that may not mean anything. Omaha's narration boxes are these neat, precise blue rectangles. Crisp edges and corners. Jack's narration boxes are a dingy grey, with bent corners and brown stains. I guess I expected, with Jack being so good with numbers, he'd be more fastidious and so his narration boxes would reflect that, but it isn't really the case. Jack doesn't dress poorly, but he doesn't seem bothered by blood or mess, or anything not being perfectly in place. If it doesn't mess with his plan, I guess it doesn't matter.
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