Geekman's World

I’ll just get this out of the way now. I am beginning to love Humberto Ramos’s art. I had no qualms with the art at all in this book. I didn’t see any of those weird, exaggerated, contortionist poses. The art was consistent and beautiful from beginning to end. That first page of the crowd in the Daily Bugle is simply amazing.

That out of the way, Superior Spider-Man is doing the same old thing. And that same old thing is a great thing. Dan Slott deserves credit for putting out two books a month at this quality. This is a fun Spider-Man book and that is what it is trying to be.

With Phil Urich, the Hobgoblin, outed by Spidey, he finds himself cornered and with nowhere to go. Surprisingly, Robbie Robertson backs the kid up while face to face with Spidey. While his intentions are good, Robbie’s kindness and sympathy prove to be futile as Urich takes hostages. And we know that Ock-Spidey will not stand for that.

We see a situation in this book where Spider-Man comes dangerously close to killing the new Hobgoblin, all in front of the world to see. He did it once with Masacre, he could do it again. For a second, I thought it was going to happen. I think it would have had Spidey not been interrupted by a call from Captain America reminding him that he was on Avenger probation. And given that the cover displayed Hobgoblin with a sword through his chest, whose to doubt that it could have happened again? Ock-Spidey is hell bent on ridding New York of crime and at seemingly any cost. It’s these moral issues that arise in Superior that make it so good.

Ultimately Urich is arrested and promptly set free by the Green Goblin in a power-move that foreshadows things to come.

Meanwhile, Officer Carlie Cooper is still putting all her effort in figuring out what the deal is with Spider-Man’s change in attitude. While I didn’t think that ghost Peter Parker was all that bad in earlier issues, I was actually glad to see him go and all hopes of the real Parker returning ostensibly gone forever. The Cooper thread is something that I don’t think I am ready for yet. I want to see more of this wacko Ock-Spidey before he is outed. It’s just that fun.

My wallet is taking quite the hit with this book coming out twice a month at $3.99 a pop. However, I don’t regret any penny spent so far. Two more weeks.

Score: 8.9