Rhino's Smart Enough to Know He's Dumb
I haven't heard much about this comic, but it sounds like a great idea: Spiderman stories from the viewpoints of other characters. I've heard of other comics doing something similar. With such a good idea, the more, the merrier!
I noticed this story inside a paperback (that unfortunately had that abominable 9-11 issue in it, they may have had good intentions and a great message, but I see it as a horrible idea to bring a real life terrorist attack into a universe where thousands of superheroes stop this kind of thing every day. DC was smarter with their take, instead translating the true stories of the rescue workers and others into sequential form, and still saying the same message with it's cover.)
Anyway, stupid ideas aside, I glanced at the issue after this and really liked where it was going, so I went and gave this two-parter a look.
Rhino's starting to feel depressed about his life. How he's a joke to pretty much everyone, even lamer villains. After falling for the daughter of a crime lord, Rhino sets off to find the scientist who gave him his powers to remove his Rhino skin, hoping that losing powers would give him some dignity. But no luck there. The skin was intended to be permanent, and not even advances in science are able to change that.
After being hired to be the woman's bodyguard, Rhino gets a verbal beatdown from her (she just recently discovered her father's a crime lord, and wants nothing to do with any of it.) While she may not have meant the words that she said, the still hurt Rhino in the only part of him that isn't invulnerable. His heart. Even crashing through walls doesn't cheer him up like it usually does.
Right before he's about to kill himself, he remembers the newsest project the scientist was working on, an experiment that increases intelligence.
This issue was good, like I was hoping it would be. This really puts Rhino into a new light for me. (I wouldn't expect him to be a polka fan, either. I would have thought 80's rock.) As always, Fegredo is awesome.