Superior Spider-Man #5 - Emotional Triggers
Cover -
Writer - Dan Slott
Pencils - Giuseppe Camuncoli
Colours - Edgar Delgado & Antonio Fabella
Review -
My friend told a funny story about this issue when he was at the comic store buying his DC comics (traitor). A young boy with his dad picked up this comic and exclaimed "Why is Spidey-Man holding a gun? Spidey-Man doesn't use guns!" May not have made you laugh, but it made me chuckle.
Anyway, Massacre's escaped and killed many people because he didn't get his Mocha Cola, and Spider-Man's looking for him.
This issue begins with Miranda Pullman, the C.E.O of Phizzy Cola, receiving a phone call from Norah Winters concerning the "Burger Town Massacre" of the last issue. Pullman refuses to give comment and returns to who must be her P.A. on the other line. This is a serious P.R. disaster for her P.A.!
The problem is, whenever someone mentions "Burger Town", all they think of is "mass murder". Not a good thing, and Massacre appreciates that as he announces himself after being in Pullman's apartment for what may have been hours, waiting for his chance to make a cool entrance.
He tells her to end the call or he'll kill her. A bit OTT. He has a proposition for her, for a small $12 million, he can walk into New York and kill everyone, all whilst wearing a Mocha Cola logo. Nice one.
We then cut to Spidey and Uatu Jackson sitting on the roof of Horizon, uploading the facial detection software to the spider-bots. As it's uploaded, Spidey's D&Gs light up yellow, and he can see everything his bots can se, including someone who looks a lot like Wolverine...
Uatu confesses he doesn't like that Ock now has so much power, but he reminds him that he's a hero, not "Big Brother". Obviously, that isn't completely true. He swings off to the location on the card he received last issue.
Anna Maria Marconi answers the door. It turns out, she's a "little person"and wants to to tutor Peter. The first one's on the house too. Score! He also gets a free meal, which is better than "my mother's", according to Peter, but does he mean his mother, or Ock's mother?
They go over Lamaze's class, and for his hard work, Anna Maria offers him dessert.
Whilst swinging his way home, Pete's app detects Massacre at Grand Central Station, and alerts the police, something Peter never did.
Ock switches his D&Gs to detect radio waves so he can find hostages that Massacre usually keeps at a separate location as a back up plan. Ock is right, and saves all the hostages, even getting a hug off one, which shocks him.
Over at Grand Central, the cops spot Massacre, but he mows them down. All doors are locked, rendering civilians trapped inside with Massacre. Jameson begins bitching about Spider-Man and how he can't trust him, but doesn't realise that Spidey has crawled through the windows and is sneaking up on Massacre.
He is about to attack, when ghost Peter forces him to save a child on Massacre's line of fire, pulling him away with his webs. Massacre obviously notices and turns his guns on Spider-Man.
Otto questions why he messed up his tactical advantage by saving the child, and has the age old debate about letting one day to save many with himself. He concludes he should just go for Massacre, which he does.
The impact sends Massacre's guns flying. Massacre tries to detonate the hostages at the other location, but does not realise Ock has taken care of them. Spidey picks up one of the guns and shoots Massacre in the shoulder.
What just happened?! Did Spider-Man just use a gun? This isn't right! "Spidey-Man doesn't use guns!"
As Massacre reaches for the other gun, Spidey breaks his hand by jumping on it. What a d*ck. He then points the gun straight at Massacre's emotionless face.
He asks Massacre what he should do to him, kill him, or let him go to jail. The public start egging Spidey to kill him.
At this point, Massacre begins to feel fear; his first emotion in years! Ghost Peter tries to hold Otto back by saying that he can change, and that there's hope. Ock concludes that he will always be a killer, and that there's only one solution...
Back in Pullman's apartment, Miranda is disappointed that there was no mention of Mocha Cola, but that, on the bright side, no one's talking about Burger Town anymore. At least it's all over...
A scary end for Pullman, as Spider-Man deploys his bots into her apartment, presumably to bring the same justice that Massacre got.
Unfortunately, Spidey's gone power mad, and concludes that his power and responsibility is to watch and judge the city. Oh dear.
So, this darker story has reached a close. It was good, and, after complaining a tiny bit about the art last time, it seems much better this time, not that it was bad before, it just looked a little "Adventure Time-ey".
Dan Slott has made this story the darkest to date in Superior, although it's only been a few months. It's a nice image for Spidey, and really emphasises the change that's taken place in New York now Peter's gone.
Like I said, the art was better this time, and has re-earned it's 5/5 position!
Rating -
Story - 5/5
Artwork - 5/5
Overall - 5/5 - A great conclusion to a controversial and current story line. Could be argued that it's pro-gun, but I know Slott is very anti-gun, and I don't want to start a debate. Basically, a cracking story!
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