written by Dan Slott and Christos Gage
drawn by Mike Hawthorne (p)Terry Pallot (i)
colored by Marte Gracia
For the second installment of "Threat Level Red" his prelude to his swan song, "Going Down Swinging" Dan Slott, writing with Christos Gage and joined by fill-in artist Mike Hawthorne delivers yet another amusing done-in-one, this one starring none other than Loki. The Asgardian god of mischief summons the down-on-his-luck Peter Parker to offer him a long-owed favor (one owed as far back as Straczynski's run, if I'm not mistaken): he proposes to turn back time so that Peter can evade all of the misfortune that is currently his lot in life. Things are particularly bad now; between the last issue and this one, Pete's broken up with his girlfriend Bobbi Morse, aka Mockingbird, with whom he had a relationship and at whose place he was staying, and is basically out of money until payday. His problems notwithstanding, Peter angrily refuses Loki's offer, and accidentally smashes a jar that contains deadly mystical creatures that he now needs Loki's help to chase down. Meanwhile, Norman Osborn uses the artifact he purloined last issue with terrifying effects. Things are about to get nasty for Peter Parker.
As much as I liked the way Slott wrote Loki, I had issues with the slightly contrived nature of the script, which works on the presumption that Peter would be stupid enough to lash out and punch things in other people's houses with his super strength, and that his Spider sense wouldn't tell him that the contents of the jar were extremely dangerous. I'm also not a big fan of how Dan Slott basically had Peter and Bobbi break up between issues; it highlights that theirs was a throwaway relationship in the first place, and if I'm honest that's not particularly flattering to Peter's character. Pre-One More Day, the guy was a devoted husband, and during the course of Slott's run he's gone from one failed relationship to another. It's not the kindest portrayal, really.
Also, I found myself sorely missing Stuart Immonen in this issue. While I understand that Stuart will be drawing issues #797 all the way until the mammoth 800th issue and therefore needs the rest, I feel a tinge of regret that I couldn't have seen him drawing a Spidey adventure featuring no less than Loki, one of the Marvel Cinematic Universe's breakout stars. Mike Hawthorne is certainly a competent artist in his own right, but Immonen's a superstar.
We continue with the preliminaries for one more issue, after which the march to 800, and Slott's swansong, begins in earnest.
6.5/10
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