Writer: Nick Spencer Artists: Cory Smith Editors: Nick Lowe E.I.C: C.B. Cebulski Crawlspace Staff: Chi-Town Spidey Crawlspace E.I.C: Brad Douglas
Recap: So Spidey got talking to Black Ant, who was betrayed by Taskmaster and found out that Kraven has this master plan, not just to hunt the animal themed supervillians, but to also have them go after the hunters themselves. There’s a twist for ya! Poor Bob didn’t make it in ASM#20, but hey at least on got some last minute aggression out on when he killed Iguana because he didn’t get laid enough in high school. Spidey goes to confront Kraven when Arcade introduces both himself and a whole lot of VERMIN to Spidey. You can read all about it on Mark’s Review.
Story: Starts off with a narration of who Adrian Toomes is. How all his hard work was taken from him for someone else’s motives. The narration continues on how Adrian rise to the top during this Hunted story line and has become the leader to all the animal themed baddies trapped in the Central Park. That’s the big question though, how did the Vulture become the leader to all these baddies? Quite simple actually, he was invited by Arcade to have a meal. During a sit down, Arcade explains the who thing. This was all Kraven’s plan which doesn’t satisfy Vulture one bit since they were buddies in the Sinister Six. Arcade also explains that there’s a slim chance in his contract to all his death traps. Right there in fine print. He hands Adrian a small disk that can disrupt the robot Kraven’s. Slight catch though, the range on this “Hunter Killer” is limited. In order to extend the range and the “Hunter Killer” full potential you need to kill more robot hunters. More dead robot hunters, more power you got. Like Arcade said, think of it as Mario and the mushroom. Vulture approves of this because it gives him the advantage and boots his ego. He flies away to rally the super baddies to join him in killing the robots and going after Kraven. Unknown to Vulture, this was all part of the plan! Kraven’s plan. Arcade told Kraven that Vulture took the bait and there is gonna be a huge fight in the upcoming issues. The hunted vs the hunters! ….but wait folks, we’re not done yet…back story of Arcade injecting Vermin with a serum that creates MORE Vermin. Vermin is no longer alone! He’s got a bunch of (clones?) buddies with him now!
The Writer: Nick Spencer continues to deliver the goods in his run. Not just the particular arc, but his entire run on Amazing Spider-Man! I have said this plenty times before on my reviews and on the podcast that there is a particular reason we have these “HU” tie ins. Marketing. They are saving the anniversary issues (ex: #25) for something big, but they want Spencer’s entire vision and story to be told, hence the “HU” tie ins. It doesn’t bother me, since Spencer does one thing correctly. He has the characters drive the story, not the story/plot that drives the characters! Characterization is the main focus in his run and he’s nailing it. It’s an Amazing Spider-Man book without Spider-Man in it, but it’s okay because the other characters in the story also have a part to play and Spencer wants the reader to see the grand schemes of all things. It makes sense to have these character driven issues in the “HU” tie in, while keeping the main core story in the core title. Some people say it lags the story on and that is true it does, but there’s a means to the end and I trust Spencer. He’s doing an AMAZING JOB. Although…there are times. A very own George Berryman has put faith and trust in Spencer writing, then this panel shows up…
“Scattered and AFRAID”? “RUNNING FOR YOU LIVES”? The Stupendous Stegron!? Ouch…that’s gotta hurt.
The Art: When you have a great story to read it only gets better to see it as well. I’ve said this last time and it’s still warrant. Cory Smith’s art in the first part of this story is easy to following along with the dialogue and nice to look at. Everything is where it needs to be. Tyler Crook’s art in the second part of the story is the somewhat the same but it’s more cartoon-ish/anime looking. I think Teen Titans GO! when I see some of facial expressions on Arcade and Vermin’s face.
Characterization
The Vulture: “Love be a Vulture tonight!”. That’s exactly what his weakness is isn’t it? His ego. Adrian has always prided himself on well..himself. He plays right into Arcade’s hands when Arcade informs him that the only one capable of leading this rally against the robot hunters is him. Not saying he’s an easy villain to take down. As shown in previous issues the does play and sacrifice Gibbon to the Hunters and loses no sleep over it. His only purpose is to escape this death trap and something tells me down the line that the group he’s leading into the great fight, he’ll sacrifice a few to get to what he needs. Again, his ego is his downfall and like Kraven said, he’s predictable.
Who would of thought an X-Men villain would actually work so well in a Spider-Man comic. As much as this tie it deals with Vulture, fiffty percent of this character driven tie in goes to Arcade. He lives up to his name. In order to extend the “Hunter Killer” device and reach it’s full potential you need to knock off more robot hunters. It’s like playing a video game on your smartphone or gaming device. Reach this certain point to and achieve the power up. Brilliant characterization on Spencer’s part. He’s not a “throw away” villain and actually drives this story pretty well.
Final Grade: A
Arcade is better as a carnival-like tech facilitator. There’s only so far they could take him with his incessant traveling-death-carnival shtick.
Honestly, I’ve never liked Arcade more than I have here, partly because he just suits Spidey really well (a wisecracking tech genius who likes to play games with his enemies is a very fitting opponent for him), but also because Spencer has given him such a great voice. As a guy who’s always liked Vulture (he’s had so many great stories in my opinion), I can safely say that Spencer has handled him incredibly well too. I guess my only real problem with his presentation is the rather silly bubble-head he now has, it looks like they wanted to give him a bird helmet, but also wanted to show off his iconic bald, skinny head, so they tried meeting it both ways, and kind of ended up with mediocrity.
Well, while Arcade has featured in X-Men a lot, he’s really not an X-Men villain. He first appeared in Marvel Team-Up #65 where he battled Spider-Man and Captain Britain.
I’m actually really happy to see Arcade making another major appearance in a Spider-Man comic, since battling Spider-Man is how the character started out.
@Mark: Agreed! Spencer characterization on both Vulture and Arcade is spot on. I love how he is writing these characters. Kraven 87 is basically old Kraven from back in the day. He basically just wants to HUNT where as the present Kraven who USED to be like that, now has a plan and learns from past experience.
@Old Guy: True, on to see a 16 HU and 18 HU and not a 17 HU. Maybe there was no character driven story that Spencer could pen between ASM 17 and 18. It’s possible.
The biggest problem I see with the .HU issues is that they could not figure out a # 17.HU issue. Then we could just consider all five of them as part of the Legacy numbering system, and we could be back on track.
I give it an A as well, Chi-Town! I am not a Vulture fan, but dang if Spencer can’t just pull me into his characters. Plus, just when I think I know what it is that Kraven’s doing, a wrench gets thrown into the mix. To figure out what his true end game (an I allowed to use that term anymore?) is, we really need to figure out what 87’s purpose is. To that end, I’m just not sure. Can’t wait to read next issue!