Review: Superior Spider-Man #8

As an ABC after-school special on the dangers of Narcissism, this particular new entry in the War of the Realms Saga hits the Spot! Â All that was needed was the ominous music, the pat moralizing, Where“s the catchy title, and the catchphrase!

Superior Spider-Man is pretty good for what it is, an engaging and nuanced drama, that teases an “if Doc Ock joined the West Coast Avengers”“ scenario”¦and I got admit I am intrigued. The War of the Realms is sort of in the backdrop, as the mission gets side tracked by the whole team trying to convince Doc Oc that he is needed on the wall defending the civilians.

Doc Ock (Superior Spider-man) has a plan to destroy the Black Bifrost and want the Avengers to abandon their current mission of rescuing Thor, to go help him.Â Though I agree his reasoning is sound his delivery is a Double Boinker, as presumes to make the war all about himself and not about the people who need help.

Only when they don“t the West Coast Avenger let him know that they don“t have his back does begin to understand that maybe he should stand down, until someone actually asks for his advice.

The risk that Superior Spider-Man #8 took is putting so many character in this book.Â Instead of trying to cram so many plot lines into the story arc they just stayed with one story line and touched on how it affected the main mission .Â Another big risk is having so many characters on the same page at the same time, but Lan Medina succeeds.

For me that“s going to be my outlook for Superior Spider-Man”¦is that it succeeds where a lot of the other War of the Realm tie-ins have been failing.Â Christopher Gage teams up with Medina to deftly shows the anger and frustration beneath Doc Ocs wanting to be a part of the big action. (I“m still trying to wrap my head around the idea that he“s supposed to be a good guy now.)

The West Coast Avengers were never going to be up to the level of some the other super hero team-up.Â But here it feels right.Â It feels like that thing that was missing has suddenly been acquired, and I“m hoping that Marvel will find that it has enough going for it to steal away a few issues from something else.

[yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]

Writer: Christos Gage
Artist: Lan Medina
Cover Artist: Mike Hawthorne