What I Bought 11/15/2014 - Part 14

Finally this round of reviews come to an end. Of course, November's books may have arrived by the time you read this - I'm typing this the week before - so we might jump right into the next round. Or not. Can never tell with my comic guy, you know?

Superior Foes of Spider-Man #16, by Nick Spencer (writer), Steve Lieber (artist), Rachelle Rosenberg (color artist), Clayton Cowles (letterer) - Nice going, Boomerang. You got your gang arrested, and the city is burning down. I hope you're happy (Note: He is happy).

Let's see, the Punisher is back in New York, Fred's lady friend is understandably pissed at him for trying to save his own hide by throwing her to the Bullseye robot, Mach-7 is trying to get some help from Tony Stark, and gets some bullshit pep talk before Tony hangs up on him. Hydro-Man saves the Shocker, who has had it with people betraying him and is out for blood. Go Hermann! And everybody's attempts to double-cross everyone else over Silvermane's cyborg head lead to a huge battle. Which Boomerang skips out on, only to run smack into the Owl and Chameleon, who beat the hell out of him.

But wait, that isn't Fred. Fred is actually about to impersonate the Mets' star pitcher, by using some serum Chameleon uses to change his appearance these days. That's what Fred stole from Chameleon's safe some issues ago. I have no idea who the Boomerang getting beat up is. His skin color is wrong to be Mach-7, and I don't know why Abe would be impersonating Fred if that's who he was trying to capture. Find out next issue, hopefully.

It's somehow fitting that a loser like Fred would consider pitching for the Mets, "winning". At least aim for a team that's good, like Tampa, or Detroit. Maybe the San Francisco Giants. But the Mets? I knew there was a reason I hated Fred. Though there's a halfway decent chance he's just trying to ruin Demang Pendak's career. He's breaking some of Fred's records, I could see Fred intentionally trying to injure several opposing players to wreck the guy's rep.

Actually, I might give Beetle the credit for most evil in this issue, not for the betrayal, just for using "Sorry, not sorry". That's such an irritating phrase. "Let me show you what a jerk I am by apologizing for the fact I'm not going to apologize for whatever I did." Just say you aren't sorry and get punched in the face.

Silly little note, but thanks to Steve Lieber for drawing Madame Masque's mask as a mask, rather than like a second skin. You can see a little skin around the eyes under, because it's a big metal thing, it shouldn't fit completely snugly. Tigh Walker was drawing it like that on Avengers Undercover and it bugged me.

I got to see part of the final issue online, and it helped with my perspective on the book. I've mentioned my irritation with the fact everyone seems to have become an idiot so Fred can pull this off. But as it turns out, Fred is actually retelling this story to someone in a bar, so he's just making shit up for the parts he wasn't around for. He admits he's making up half of it. Which should have been obvious to me, since I knew it was Fred telling the tale, but when he's the only narrator I've got, and the art isn't contradicting what he's saying, what option do I have? So there's a distinct possibility a whole lot of this is crap.