Spider-Man #239 (2016) Review – Javi’s Take

“I came here because I’m the only one in the world who knows you’re better than this, Stupid!”

Miles goes after his uncle, but he can’t take on The Sinister Six alone! Will his backup emerge as the champions in a match between the Six and their mysterious buyer?

WRITER: Brian Michael Bendis

ARTIST: Oscar Bazaldua

COLOR ARTIST: Brian Reber

LETTERING: VC’s Cory Petit

COVER ART: Patrick Brown

TITLE PAGE DESIGN: Idette Winecoor

ASSISTANT EDITOR: Kathleen Wisneski

EDITOR: Nick Lowe

Spider-Man Created by STAN LEE AND STEVE DITKO

STORY: Miles goes to Aaron’s to look for clues and finds the lead he needs. The Sinister Six deal with the traitor in their midst on their way to meet their buyer in Latveria. Danika gives Ganke a note forlornly. As the buy for the helicarrier goes down, Miles and The Champions arrive to bust it up. A melee ensues, with Miles and Aaron seemingly gunned down by a firing squad and simultaneously falling to their deaths off the helicarrier.

THOUGHTS: I really loved this cover by Brown. I don’t think I noticed the first time I saw it online that Miles is sticking to the side of the wall and the city is rising horizontally in the background. It became pretty apparent the second I saw the cover in person though. Not sure how the Iron Spider can be laying on the side of the wall like that, but the cover is pure Spider-Man to me-a mixture of angst, drama, and spider-powers. It’s one of the best Brown has contributed to the series.

Getting in to the book itself, I liked Miles having the wherewithal to go back to the apartment for clues, with Bendis hinting at this future employer with a Batman reference. Employing a flashback to a happier time, Bendis shows us the basis for Miles’ search. Not only does it move the plot along, but also gives us some characterization, reminding us how close they were and how much Miles looked up to his “cool-enough-to-show-you-an-R-rated-horror-movie” uncle.

It’s not a Bendis comic without a pop culture reference or two (or three) and I had to chuckle at Iron Spider asking the helicarrier to play the theme from Star Trek, “The good one. The J.J. Abrams one.” Not entirely sure if he means the theme is the good one or the modern big screen version of Trek, but I have to admit that the Giacchino score was a big help in getting me to like those movies, the odd-numbered ones anyways. I’ll stop there before I start rambling about the critically underrated Star Trek Beyond.

I was surprised to see Sandman basically murder Hobgoblin, traitor or not. Makes it a little harder for him to go back to being reformed. As excited and nostalgic as I was to see a Hobgoblin on the Sinsiter Six again (I was a teen when they returned for the first time in the 90’s) this iteration hasn’t done much other than be a whiny weasel. I had to ask my fellow Crawlspacers who he even was, so I’m more upset about the repercussions for Sandman than ol’ Hobby. Not a good month to be a Goblin, either!

Bendis goes all meta again with Ganke proclaiming that some people have trouble pronouncing his name. I hear ya, fella. Even worse. a distraught Danika hands him a letter instead of having breakfast with him and runs off. She’s either ratted out Miles, dumped “Ned”, or both. Bendis is gonna have a lot to wrap up in an issue and my heart goes out to poor Ganke.

Not reading any other Bendis titles, the reveal of the buyer fell totally flat to me. If I’ve heard of her before, she left no impression. It made the confrontation fairly anticlimactic to me, one that even a two page spread of The Champions jumping in to save the day couldn’t save. It makes sense that Miles would bring them in, but I don’t read that book either and have no attachment to these characters. Hell, I don’t even know what Cyclops that is.

As the battle becomes enjoined, it’s all just noise and distraction for me, with the only parts I cared about being Lana versus her mom and Miles taking on Aaron. It gets a little Return of The Jedi, with Miles wanting to redeem and turn his uncle back to the side of the angels, but the conflict is short lived as it winds up ending in a cliffhanger, er helicarrier fall.

As the penultimate issue of Bendis’ epic run on not just Miles, but the Ultimate universe he helped create back in 2000, I couldn’t help but feel this issue came up short for me. I literally finished reading it in less time than it took me to eat the two tacos I bought for lunch. That places a monumental and unfair burden on the final chapter. Bazaldua does his normal serviceable job, but nothing about this comic wowed me beyond the cover. It’s not horrible by any stretch, but it’s average, feeling like it’s going through the paces when it should have me so excited to see everything wrap up.

MY GRADE: C

JAVI’S HUH?: No, seriously, how is Iron Spider’s unconscious body sticking upside-down against a wall like that?