Customer Reviews

Spider-Man: Return of the Black Cat

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Oh, well, here it is then, the bad apple in the barrel. AMAZING SPIDER-MAN, publishing thrice a month, has enjoyed a run of really good stories, but then someone went and slipped Marc Guggenheim a sip of stupid juice. This trade, THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN: RETURN OF THE BLACK CAT, collects AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #606-611 and the "Kaine of Echoes" story from WEB OF SPIDER-MAN #1. The book-end issues aren't so bad. It's the stuff in the middle that cheeses me off, like, severely.

I don't know what all this junk is about the Peter Parker luck. Surely it can't be that bad, right, when you've got three gorgeous women squabbling over you? There's Peter's ever angry roommate Michele Gonzales who has this love-hate (mostly hate) relationship with our boy. And gabby journalist Norah Winters is hanging around in the periphery. The newly returned Mary Jane Watson is just easing back into Peter's life. Now we get the return of Felicia Hardy a.k.a. the Black Cat, always sexylicious and once again felonious. And she's still got that bad luck mojo going, much to the chagrin of Spidey.

The nitty gritty plot breakdown: Spidey becomes an unwilling accomplice when Felicia breaks into the posh digs of the new owner of the Daily Bugle, Dexter Bennett, only for them to stumble onto a stone corpse. But that's not important. The draw to this two-parter (issues #606-07) is that playful, unpredictable sizzle between Spidey and Black Cat. Something about Felicia - and partly it's because she and Spidey both inhabit a world of costumed crazy - had always called out to Peter, to the freer, more irresponsible side of him. Their relationship is the most interesting thing about this arc, and I like that Peter gives in to temptation even as he realizes that this isn't such a good move. Dude's only human, and it's nice to see that he's not always Mr Goody Two Shoes. Is it me, or is Parker getting laid more often lately? I'll say again, that Peter Parker bad luck is over-rated.

The villain-fighting bits come off as lackluster. Diablo, diabolical an alchemist though he may be, isn't the most dynamic of villains and his insurance fraud scheme simply isn't that interesting (how does this sound: In this issue, Spidey battles **drumroll, please**... insurance fraud!!). Seems a bit too white collar and beneath someone of Diablo's formidable power levels. Also doesn't help that Spidey dismisses him as "Dr. Kevorkian's evil Spanish cousin."

Joe Kelly writes the thing, and he excels during the Peter-Felicia moments. I really like Mike McKone's take on Spidey and how much more dramatic and dynamic the wallcrawler looks when rendered in black and red, as opposed to his familiar blue and red threads. Artistically, the downer arrives when Adriana Melo takes over penciling duties late in issue #607. Her style is different enough from McKone's smoother lines that there's immediately this jarring disconnect.

Next is "Kaine of Echoes" from WEB OF SPIDER-MAN #1, as J.M DeMatteis and Val Semeiks give us further insight into one of Peter's clones, Kaine. This serves as a precursor to the next story arc in AMAZING SPIDER-MAN. Speaking of which...

Someone was criminally tardy with the intervention, because Marc Guggenheim and his slew of artists went ahead and did "Who Was Ben Reilly" anyway (issues #608-10). Absolutely NO ONE demanded this, but still these three issues hit us with a 1990s blast, the story revolving around relics from the Clone Saga, Ben Reilly and Kaine. Bottom-tiered villain, the Raptor, nurses a mad-on for Ben Reilly and comes all out to revenge himself on him and everyone he holds dear. Except that Ben Reilly's been dead for a bit now.

This leaves Peter Parker holding the bag, since he's a dead ringer for Reilly (what with Reilly being his clone and all), and this has got the Raptor believing that Peter is actually Reilly. Or something like that. Lame, messy, uninteresting shenanigans ensue, the wake of which leaves the detritus of Aunt May's ruined home, several distraught (but still lovely) cousins, a dangerous loose end that - thankfully for Spidey - Kaine cleans up, and me regarding Guggenheim with truly unfavorable eyes. This read is truly crapdoodle. And haven't Marvel writers learned by now not to ever poke at that unsavory carcass that is the Clone Saga? Let it rest in peace, man. Don't wake it. The only semi-cool thing to come out of this utter misfire is the introduction of Screwball, the World's First Live-Blogging Super-Villain. I've been waiting for the next Rocket Racer to come along. I'll mention that Marco Checchetto, Luke Ross, and Rick Magyar are the artists, because why should only Guggenheim get the blame? I didn't think much of the art, but that could just be resentment by association.

Issue #611 rolls around and the tone shifts immediately from oppressive to fun silly buggers, thanks to Joe Kelly & Eric Canete. It's usually what happens whenever there's a Deadpool sighting. The Merc with the Mouth takes a contract to take out Spider-Man, and the wallcrawler soon finds himself caught up in Deadpool's insane world of meta references and fourth wall breaking. To add to the surreal vibe, we meet the deadly Lady Stilt-Man (yes, Lady Stilt-Man!). Plenty of fighty fight, and it's probably apropos that it climaxes in a Yo Mama joke-off. As a bonus, this cup of silly is even relevant to the ongoing arc as there's purpose behind the hiring of Deadpool.

Hopefully, the currently ongoing Gauntlet arc makes up for the disastrous Clone Saga revisit, but even the Gauntlet stories have been kind of hit or miss for me. Somewhere, Mephisto must be grinning like a bastard.

This book is supposedly called the "Return of the Black Cat". And from the outside, it DOES look like it. This book is beautifully packaged and the cover art is great. However of the 168 pages, the Black Cat only appears in 25 pages of it. LESS than 1/4. If you are buying this book to enjoy seeing the escapades of Spidey and Felicia, DON'T! $20 later and I feel cheated and VERY disappointed. The only thing this book is good for, is propping up a bookcase or starting a fire on a cold winter's day.

I was a big fan of the original relationship between Spider-Man and the Black Cat. The dynamics involved, mostly Felicia being almost disgusted by a maskless Spider-Man, were something I don't think I'd ever seen in comics before. Here we have them reuniting and sadly most of Peter's actions seem out of character. Yes, I understand that Miss Hardy is supposed to be ridiculously sexy but most the time Peter acts like he's fourteen around her here after years of acting normal. Then you have the clone related arc. I actually enjoyed Ben Reilly and pieces of the clone saga, however this didn't thrill me. Raptor (lame 90s dinosaur name) could have been easily stopped with a plausible explanation (Ben was Peter's cousin) instead of everything that went down. Also there was a huge plan by Peter that completely goes against character by involving a civilian in the middle of a battle. Lastly, the Deadpool story didn't belong in the pages of Spider-Man since it was a just a Deadpool story and the art was atrocious. This trade is supposed to lead up to the big Gauntlet event and this limped into that. Sadly this is just a hodge podge of bad characterization and miss matched plotlines.

This collects Amazing Spider-Man issues #606-611 and part of Web Of Spider-Man #1 that were originally published by Marvel Comics in 2009. The highlight of this volume is the mediocre two-part "Long Term Arrangement" story written by Joe Kelly and penciled by Mike McKone (with help from Adriana Melo). After a funny opening scene in his apartment, Peter Parker/Spider-Man reencounters a highly sexualized Felicia Hardy/Black Cat, after which hijinks ensue. #608-610 is Marc Guggenheim's "Who Was Ben Reilly?" story with a team of three artists. This arc continues the recent Annual's revisiting of the Clone Saga - I did not enjoy the story or artwork. #611 is perhaps the worst ASM issue I've ever read: the less said about this barely comprehensible, painfully self-referential issue, the better. This run of issues made me seriously consider dropping this flagship title, as the poor quality seems like clear evidence of fatigue from the aggressive thrice-monthly publishing schedule. I'm hoping that things improve with the subsequent "Gauntlet" storyline.

Black Cat is back and better than ever! Marc Guggenheim takes Spidey and Black Cat's relationship back to its roots in a much needed fresh take. Spider-Man fans will definitely want to check this one out.