written by Joe Kelly
penciled by Ed McGuinness
inked by Mark Morales
colored by Jason Keith
Spidey and Deadpool track down the mysterious Patient Zero, who has stolen secrets from Peter's company, including genetic manipulation. They find a formidable foe and, in Patient Zero's army of mutated homeless people, a heck of a fight. Worst of all things may yet take a turn for the worse next issue. Meanwhile, Peter's memories from his deal with Mephisto to undo his marriage seem to be slowly creeping back.
This issue marks the return of the creative team that launched the book following a couple of throwaway filler issues, and more importantly, a return to form after a couple of issues I was not entirely happy with. Kelly now declares what I had suspected, that it was because of the enchantment of the succubus that Peter was unable to evade Deadpool's fatal bullet back at the end of issue #4. Quite rightfully, Peter is seriously pissed at Deadpool, who gets his comeuppance somewhat for his misdeeds with several shards of glass being shoved into his backside.
I confess I'm quite interested to see where this Patient Zero business will go, and by finally bringing him out of the shadows Kelly and McGuinness have started to fast-track the book in that direction.
While Peter Parker only gets half the book's page-time considering he shares it with Deadpool, I like the way Kelly handles Peter and his new status quo. I really am not a fan of Giuseppe Camuncoli's artwork, which is why I dropped the main Spider-Man book upon its relaunch last year, but Kelly has more or less kept me up to speed on where Peter is, and I have to say, though the "One More Day" reference vaguely annoyed me last issue, I'm slightly intrigued to see where he will take this, and how far editorial will let him take it.
McGuinness not only treats us to his usual sterling artwork; he treats readers to his own take on a "stealth" costume for Spidey, departing from the "classic" alien-based suit and the more recently "Tron" inspired suit. This one's got red eyepieces and a red Spider-logo, and seem to affirm that, with his multi-million dollar company and formidable tech, Peter really is the new Tony Stark (especially since Tony Stark, as I understand it, is, per events going on in other books, somehow out of the picture). I'm also a fan of his design for his monsters; it seems McGuinness is a fan of Guillermo del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth and Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away, judging by some of these designs, and by the way he drew the old Spider-man bad guys Styx and Stone a few issues back. I never tire of looking at this guy's artwork, and hope he sticks around this book for at least another year.
Next issue promises a major throw-down, and I hope Joe and Ed can keep things interesting!
8/10
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