The temperatures have been like mid-July all week around here. I hope this isn't going to be an insanely hot summer. I found the only comic from last week I wanted, and one of the three from this week. Both of which highlight the futility of seeking help for mental health issues! Joking, or am I?
So, Spellbinder's time working at Arkham convinced him the ones kept there were the most sane, because they refused to be dictated to or let anyone else determine what they think. He wanted to encourage everyone to see things that way, and somehow his brush strokes on his paintings interact with a particular type of fear gas to. . .make people agree with his ideas about tearing down society. Which doesn't seem like it's encouraging people to think for themselves, but oh well. Guys like that are good at excusing their hypocrisy.
Barbara beats him down with her legs tied to a chair and gets him to confess through a video she posts on the Tutor's account. Cass is trying and failing to fight an entire mob, and Steph is only doing so-so against the Tutor. At least she's not getting hypnotized. Cass does keep the reporter from falling to her death, the keep the Tutor from blowing himself up, but lose their car in the process. But people like them again, and now the Seer shows up on their door, looking for help.
I'm still very confused by the fact it seems like Spellbinder must know their secret identities, and considering the Seer walked in on them while they were just hanging out on the couch, she probably does, too. Yet this doesn't seem like a concern to the heroes. Odd, when you consider they were supposed to be hiding out to avoid being arrested after the false accusation they blew up the Clocktower. That keeps nagging at me, the usually secretive Bat-folk don't seem to care about enemies knowing who they are. But Spellbinder seemed surprised Barbara could fight effectively without her legs, so does that mean she was Oracle, but not in a wheelchair at all, or that it wasn't common knowledge Commissioner Gordon's daughter was in a wheelchair? I have no clue what's in and what isn't at DC in terms of character backstory any longer.
Speaking of things I don't understand, I can't figure out why Barbara is doing in that first panel. The one before that, she grabs the lapels of his jacket, so maybe she slammed his face on her kneecaps. But the way the arms are posed is more like she did the old abrupt neck snap maneuver, which is definitely not what she did.
I almost went with a panel of Stephanie with her mask down, grinning in a frankly terrifying manner as she tries to drive the bomb a safe distance away. It's like she got Joker gassed, or turned into a painted doll or something. I don't know what the hell Corona was thinking there, either. It's weird, because he's generally done excellent work on the emotion in this series. The end of the issue, where they briefly try to fake-out that Stephanie died getting rid of the bomb, Corona's pretty good at having everyone look somber or thoughtful, but each with their own postures and expressions. Each person processing things in their own way.
That said, I think this is the end of the line for me with the book. There are parts I like, things I think I should enjoy, but the sum is less than the whole of its parts.
Spidercide really just wants to be a family for Ben, for them to be a connection to each other. Spidercide's been trying to understand humans, since he doesn't fool himself that he's one of them, the way Kaine or Peter do. And since Spidercide can apparently split himself into lots of people, he can be everyone Ben lost while he believed he was the clone. "A" for effort? Well, maybe A- since all the different forms he takes are lacking eyes, except for Jason Diaz, the one identity he created for himself.
Ben refuses the offer, there's a fight, Ben keeps offering to help, but it turns out dividing yourself repeatedly into separate beings tends to destabilize a person's genetic matrix, and Spidercide. . .blows up? Well, mostly, because there's still one Spidercide left, posing as a Doctor at Ravencroft, and he let all the patients out. Again I wonder what Mysterio and Scorpion are doing in a mental hospital. Send them to real prison.
Baldeon draws Ben without the mask for almost the entire issue, right up until the bit at Ravencroft at the end. Which is interesting since Ben declares during the fight with Spidercide (god I hate typing that) he's been lying to himself about not wanting Peter's life when really, he wanted it so much he wasn't even trying to have any sort of life as Ben Reilly. No friends of his own. So naturally, as soon as the fight seems to be over and he goes to visit two people he's decided are his friends (Dr. Kafka and Edward "Vermin" Whelan) he puts the mask back on.
I get there are secret identity reasons, since more than 2 people work there, but it just struck me as a funny juxtaposition after he said he'd been hiding behind the Spider-Man mask. Anyway, next issue would appear to be a big knock-down-drag-out fight, though i expect Spidercide will have a face turn and help out. I hope Dr. Kafka's able to reach a couple of her patients and convince them to calm down. If she hasn't reached a single one, that's kind of a damning indictment. Also, considering Mr. Hyde is apparently among the patients, Ben needs all the help he can get.
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