written by Dan Slott
drawn by Humberto Ramos (pencils) Victor Olazaba (inks)
I didn't review the end of the much-hyped "Spider-Verse" crossover because if I may be honest, I was quite disappointed with how that event turned out both in terms of story and in terms of the art. The talented Olivier Coipel didn't even finish the series, and the guy who drew the issues in his place, the competent but unremarkable Giuseppe Camuncoli, a Spidey veteran, turned in work that was below even his own standards, never mind Coipel's, so along with my lack of time, I also suffered from a lack of inclination.
Even though this mini-review is quite late, I felt it worth writing if only to weigh in on what I think is the last storyline before yet another potential major status quo shakeup in the line-wide event called "Secret Wars."
Much to the chagrin of Peter's partner Sajani, his project of a prison for supervillains is pushing through. Parker Industries' biggest competition for the project, however, namely Alchemax, isn't about to go down without a (dirty) fight; they hire freelance corporate saboteur Ghost to bring the whole place down around Parker's ears. Of course, he doesn't count on Spider-Man being on the premises. Meanwhile, in a parallel story, Felicia Hardy, a.k.a. the Black Cat, who was once Peter's girlfriend and a part-time superhero, hatches a scheme to get revenge on a woman who pawned off all of her belongings, and in the process free herself from anyone's control ever again.
Though I found his inter-universe spanning "Spider-Verse" to be extremely underwhelming, especially at the end, I am looking forward to another of Slott's major projects, specifically his "Renew Your Vows" miniseries. With this story, Slott basically seems like he's knocking down everything he's been building up ever since he became the regular writer of this title five years ago and to be honest I'm still on the fence about whether or not that's a good thing. With one brief story arc Slott's basically wiped out Parker Industries current raison d'etre, and though Sajani and Peter's ex-girlfriend by way of Doctor Octopus, Anna have a nanotechnology project in the pipeline, it's hard to see Peter keeping the company afloat much longer, barring a complete about face in the way he does things. Incidentally, the recent Amazing Spider-Man annual by Sean Ryan and Brandon Peterson (which I didn't review either, because I didn't like it much), took great pains to demonstrate just how important Peter's company is to him, which is, not particularly. Still, even though Parker Industries may be out of the picture soon, I really hope we don't see a return to the old status quo of Peter living off freelance photography. I think the character deserves some kind of progression here; after all, he does have a doctorate now.
After several months away, Humberto Ramos is back, and while I don't exactly welcome him with open arms, I will say that his art here is better than Camuncoli's awful, rushed work in the last few chapters of Spider-Verse. I won't exactly miss him when Slott teams up with Adam Kubert for "Renew Your Vows" but I'm glad that he did the last pre-Secret Wars Spider-man story. It seems fitting, considering he relaunched this title to much fanfare a little over a year ago.
7.5/10
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