Superior Foes of Spider-man #4

Superior Foes of Spider-man #4

"Foe-ning it in..."

Story: Nick Spencer
Penciler/Inker: Steve Lieber
Colourist: Rachelle Rosenberg
Letterer: Joe Caramanga

Boomerang's plan to steal the head of Silvermane for Chameleon becomes more clear as the gang is reunited, but does it feel so good?  Hit the jump to find out!


Summary:  The remaining members of the Sinister Six have just voted Beetle as the new leader and Speed Demon, not remembering the vote from five minutes earlier, already wants to vote again.  The villains are interrupted by Luke Cage and Iron Fist, who learned of the gang's location from Boomerang's apparent betrayal last issue.  An impressed Overdrive is beaten up along with the rest of the gang, and they are arrested an hauled away by the police.  Meanwhile, Boomerang is meeting with Chameleon, who demands Silvermane's head within 24 hours.  After his meeting with Chameleon, Boomerang heads to his regular bar where he encounters a new, female bartender who instantly recognizes him as Fred Myers; former pitcher for the New York Mets.  After an awkward (and hilarious) conversation with the bartender, Boomerang breaks the gang out of a police truck and resumes leadership of the Sinister Six.  Later on, Shocker reveals to Boomerang that he saw Boomerang and Chamileon (posing as the Punisher) together in the diner (from issue #2) but promises not to tell the rest of the gang.  An optimistic Boomerang is then seen asking the bartender to go to some baseball games with him, followed by him pushing a car into the river.  This seems to not make any sense until it is revealed
that a tied up Shocker is in the trunk.

The good:  To begin with, Lieber's artwork is absolutely perfect for the comedic tone the book takes. Lieber's facial expressions are stellar and really capture the characters' emotions in a way that is funny but not overly cartoony.  He also manages to incorporate just the right amount of humor throughout, like the jack-ass head on Boomerang at the bar, without going over the top.  As for the story, this issue is top notch.  The opening scenes with Speed Demon not remembering voting Beetle as the new leader (he really just said she was hot) and the gang getting clobbered by Luke Cage and Iron Fist is hilarious.  The scenes with Boomerang and the bar tender are also very funny, and look to set up an interesting relationship going forward.  Spencer does a great job writing funny, engaging dialogue and also manages to write in some good fight scenes and a bit of impending doom with Chameleon threatening Boomerang if he doesn't succeed with his mission soon.  The best part of this issue, however, is the end.  Spencer creates this very "heart warming" scene with Shocker confessing to seeing Boomerang with Chameleon but promising not to tell the gang as the embrace as old friends.  This is followed by Boomerang thinking to himself how things are looking up for him, as he scores a few dates with the bartender.  He goes on to think about how him and his gang need to stick together, as he pushes the car with Shocker tied up in the trunk into the river.  Spencer manages to write scenes like this so that they are both funny and tragic, and really give you great insight into the mind of Boomerang, who is quite mad it seems.

The not so good:  There is really nothing wrong with this issue.  It's not "perfect" but it deserves pretty high marks.

Overall rating: 9.8/10 (A+)

Ads:

The first ad has been popping up in most of the Marvel books this week, and is for a "card battle game" inspired by the current "Battle of the Atom" event going on in the X-Men books.  The second ad is for some cool Spider-man clothes at JC Penney.