Despite the way some posts have gone on this blog over the years, I don’t want to be a hater. I try to find the good in things. But how do people look at this and think “wow, cool!”? It sucks. It just sucks. Ramos will become one of the defining Spider-Man artists of the 21st Century somehow. And he’s not the only artist I think is terrible this happens with! I feel like the Principal Skinner thing. “Am I out of touch? No, it’s the children who are wrong.” But, like, his stuff is so mid-to-late 90s. All around him, the trend in comics and at Marvel in particular is slick, sharp cartooning or realism. All the guys who’re in the process of becoming Marvel’s biggest name artists in 2003… Steve McNiven, Jim Chueng, Olivier Coipel… They all deal in a clean, “realistic” style. Photorealism will become very common through Alex Maleev, through Salvador Larocca reinventing himself, through someone about to become a part of this blog and many others. The trend is “realism.” This sort of hideous, cartoony, late 90s art is completely out of fashion, and somehow, Ramos plants his flag in the Spider-Office and sticks it out. I just do not get it. At any rate, this one opens with a splash not unlike the one at the end of last issue. A thing is sticking out of the Venom goo that could genuinely be Spider-Man’s head or foot, I can’t tell due to the Ramos of it all.
Spider-Man would say “Reed,” not “Richards,” come on, he’s not Dr. Doom. Spidey’s desperate gambit works, but he passes out, and we cut to Eddie Brock back in the confessional. He worries to the priest that the alien stole his soul, but in a way that doesn’t give away who he is. The priest says he can’t lose his soul. Eddie leaves all the money he has in the confessional and leaves.
It’s almost always a pleasure to see the FF in Spider-Man, but maybe not this time. Look at that Thing. Ugh.
Ben would never say that about Spider-Man, come on. Maybe in the 60s, in Stan Lee’s usual “Ben makes fun of everything all the time” mode, but not in this situation. Cut to Flash and his stupid stereotype nurse and Aunt May, listening to Helga complain that Peter didn’t show up when he was supposed to, nothing important, then back to the FF for 2 pages of pseudo-science. Spider-Man has somehow decided his Spider Sense is part of the creature feeding on his adrenaline, which Reed ties to research he did on Sue’s powers, saying adrenaline is a factor for hers, as well. This is all dumb. He works on an adrenaline suppressant while telling Spider-Man the suit only becomes more attached the more he struggles with it.
This characterization of the symbiote is completely at odds with what little backstory it ever got up to this point, most notably in those Planet of the Symbiotes Specials, but is also frankly better, so it’s fine, I guess.
Hideous.
Ok! Meanwhile, Detective Garrett reads a letter from Eddie Brock, who says he wants to set the record straight, then doesn’t even mention the symbiote. He says he’s always respected the cops and he hates Spider-Man. Ok! Then Spider-Man’s swinging around, sensing his way to where he needs to go through the dumb psychic link he has to the symbiote that he’s never mentioned in the last 15 years, and he goes into an old ship and finds a pretty sick Eddie, who says he expected Spider-Man sooner.
…which anyone could have guessed 2 or 3 issues ago, what a reveal. Only one issue left in this big ball of nothing. Hard to say what will happen, but based on Jenkins’ track record with big stories like this, my bet is “nothing.”