cyclonus_the_warrior's Superior Spider-Man: Necessary Evil #1 - Volume 4 review

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    When the future clashes with the present again.

    The time stream is being ripped to pieces with the year 2099 being terribly effected and in danger of being wiped out. The Spider-man of that era, Miguel O' Hara, is forced to return to the Heroic Age once again to discover the anomaly. He once again encounters the original Spider-man, but learns quickly something is very different about him. -summary

    The Superior Spider-Man was the only storyline I followed by the issue during its original run, and the only reason for that is because the series was awesome all around. To me, it was the best series running among the big two. Dan Slott took full advantage of this new era he created for Spider-Man and the surprises and twist kept on coming. This volume collects The Superior Spider-Man issues 17 - 21.

    For starters, this is an awful place to pick up this story and run with it despite a small bit of information delivered, by explaining that Otto Octavius aka Dr. Octopus switched bodies with Peter Parker, thus becoming Spider-Man and choosing to make a try at becoming a hero. Therefore, I highly suggest beginning from the first volume or better yet, begin at Spider-Man: Dying Wish. The plot here follows Spider-Man 2099 as he traces the anomaly that's wrecking his world to his grandfather Tiberius Stone. It appears that the Superior Spider-Man is dead set on killing him, or perhaps he's going to die a different way. This leads him into an encounter with Spider-Man that has no idea whom he is, and this is due to Otto Octavius erasing the memories of Peter Parker from his mind, in which this occurred in the previous volume.

    Although a very interesting twist, one of the main issues I had with this series was Peter Parker hanging around in some form. It definitely did help the story plenty with Otto being able to use Peter's memories to get around in his life, but at the same time Peter stole a lot of Otto's thunder despite even helping him grow in a way. It was a double edge sword in a way. Therefore, getting rid of Peter not only helped Otto grow even more, but it also opened many doors to explore, and we get to see much of this now. There are numerous plot threads to keep the pace moving and it's quite exciting to read. The later stories bring Stunner back into the Spider-man mythos after a rather long hiatus, the Superior Spider-Man meets up with the Black Cat, plus Otto is still working on re-earning his doctorate.

    This volume is indeed non stop fun with good dialog, character interactions, and three growing sub plots that appeared to be very promising and I think they did deliver in the end of this series. I'm also very happy to see that Humberto Ramos had nothing to do with the artwork in this volume. I personally can't stand his work. Ryan Stegman and Giuseppe Camuncoli deliver the goods with some finely drawn character designs and nice backgrounds. The inks are wonderfully delivered; the visuals are stylish and very intense. While the action is drawn very nicely, I think there could have been more.

    This is a very solid follow up volume where each story felt very important, and there's still a very good amount of suspenseful build up. The only weakness is the lack of seriously brutal action. When compared to the last volume especially, the action is pretty weak. Fortunately the story is very strong. I highly recommend this to those whom began following this series with great interest. If you're one of those who hated the idea of this story, then don't bother with it at all because this book isn't going to change your mind at all.

    Pros: More story progression and build up, wonderful artwork

    Cons: Less action than before

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