Time to wrap this up. The lady in the van exposits that Rabin told her he caused this blizzard, and he is about to become a “god-king.” That he killed her partner Dave, and he was on his way to sacrifice her, too, when the van broke down. Spidey wonders, then, why Rabin would send him back for her, but Wayeb has been following him the whole time, so…
As I’m sure you could guess, some cursory research indicates this guy looks nothing like the actual Mayan Wayeb would be depicted. Again, why’d they do this? Why not just make up some flooblargs from Dimension X and avoid the cultural appropriation?
That first panel on this last page… not so good. Really, really underselling her being caught. Spider-Man is being beaten up by Wayeb, in a pretty inventive 2-page spread where the god, who says he’s in all times, is hitting Spider-Man from other panels, where he couldn’t possibly see it coming. And then, a now shaven Rabin smashes out of the precinct garage in a police truck with Carlie tied up in the back. Spider-Man, meanwhile, stops at one of the city’s last working payphones to try to call Carlie and warn her, but gets a recording about the high volume of calls due to the blizzard. So…
Why… couldn’t he say he was Peter? Come up with some line? He should have, cuz…
Rabin says he only has 10 minutes, but it’s enough. He rambles about having found the perfect location in New York and hwo he’ll be joined with his god and so forth. Then Vern, the guy from last issue, turns back up, with a small army of unhoused people with molotov cocktails. And guess what, their scraggly beards ward off evil spirits by the rules of Mayan culture, so Wayeb is unnerved. What luck! Then he gets molotoved.
I just… if they hadn’t done the Mayan thing, this would’ve been the best story of the reboot with no asterisk. I mean, look, they’re threatening me with more Freak already, this was the best comic story ever made compared to THAT garbage. Frustrating. But boy oh boy, the implications… I doubt anyone working on this could ever dream… But that’s getting ahead of myself.
With this issue, we’ve seen what each of the “Brain Trust” writers has to offer. Dan Slott: Decent 1970s-style action. Marc Guggenheim: Crap. Bob Gale: Utter garbage. Zeb Wells: Pretty good, culturally insensitive comics. Artwise, the briefly visiting Steve McNiven: Typically solid. Salvador LaRocca: Typically awful. Phil Jimenez: Genuinely one of the worst Spider-Men of the 21st Century. Chris Bachalo: Typically interesting and challenging pages. This is really not the full court press return to greatness this title absolutely demanded after the idiocy of One More Day. You’re trying to get people to feel like the stupidest Spider-Man story of all time and the most DC-style reboot in Marvel history were worth it, and you give them Jackpot and the Freak. We’re not batting 1000 here. And I really have no idea how many of these artists will be back. Already a 5th penciler next time. And Barry Kitson is not exactly… someone I’m excited to see. At least he’s not LaRocca…
But that’ll have to wait. Now that we’ve gotten a look at the “Brain Trust” and their Brand New Day, well… I got no less than 11 comics about Spider-Man running around in the red & blues published during Back In Black to circle back to. That’s right. The rest of this block is… housekeeping…