Superior Spider-man #19

Superior Spider-man #19

"Necessary Evil, Part 3: 1.21 Giga-Whats?!"

Story: Dan Slott
Penciler: Ryan Stegman
Inker: John Livesay
Colourist: Edgar Delgado
Letterer: Chris Eliopoulos
Cover: Ryan Stegman and Jason Howard

The conclusion to "Necessary Evil" finds Superior Spider-man and Spider-man 2099 racing to prevent Horizon Labs from blowing up and wiping out the future!  Does this arc go out with a bang or is time not on it's side?  Hit the jump to find out!


Summary:  The issue opens with the Wraith and Carlie in Grand Tauro, attempting to shake down Antoine Morant for information about how Spider-man is paying for his army, island, and high tech equipment.  The issue then jumps back to Horizon Labs, where Spider-man has just knocked out Spider-man 2099 as he was about to explain how to prevent Horizon Labs from blowing up.  The situation is explained to Spider-man, including the information about Tiberius Stone's sabotage, and he is able to figure out how this "time bomb" came about.  Max is clearly unhappy about Spider-man's presence at Horizon, but together with the rest of the Horizon crew they begin to go about setting up a device to counter the bomb.  This requires Otto to recall something from Peter Parker's past, which he is unable to do, despite how hard he tries.  As pieces of Peter's life flash by, a mysterious, shadowy image that resembles someone digging out of a grave is shown across the
bottom of the page. 

Spider-man suddenly comes to, unaware he had spaced out for eight minutes.  As Spider-man attempts to figure out the machine, Miguel wakes up and prevents Tiberius Stone from escaping, claiming he is going to let the bomb destroy them both, creating a new and better 2099.  Miguel begins to fade away, as doe Tyler Stone in the future.  Tiberius tries pleading with Spider-man 2099, pointing out that he can't be sure his friends or family will have better futures or any future at all.  A reluctant Miguel saves Tyler and himself, just as Spider-man fails to stop the bomb and Horizon Labs implodes.  In 2099, a perfectly fine Tyler Stone destroys the time travel device, trapping Miguel in the past.  Tiberius leaves the scene to oversee the creation of his new company with Liz Allen, which of course, is Alchemax.  Miguel shows up at Alchemax with documentation claiming to be Stone's new personal assistant, Michael O'Mara.  Meanwhile, J. Jonah Jameson, who had arrived in time to see Horizon Lab's destruction, tells Max that he will see to it that no charges are filed against him if he promises never to practice any kind of science in New York City again.  Modell agrees, and after Jameson's departure, him and Grady use a device that is able to pull Spider-man out of the destruction and save him.  Max tells Spider-man they are even, and that he does not want anything to do with him or Peter Parker again.  Spider-man returns home to a voicemail full of messages from Mary Jane.  When Otto returns her call, Mary Jane tells him she is done with him and that Carlie can be the one who checks up on him from now on.  The issue concludes with Max and most of his Horizon team leaving on a boat to pursue a new Horizons while Spider-man recruits Sanjani Jaffrey, who was left behind by Horizon due to betraying Max's trust.  Meanwhile, Carlie and the Wraith confiscate Morant's files, where Carlie finds out that Spider-man's financing is coming from a secret bank account belonging to Otto Octavius.

The good:  There is a lot going on in this issue of "Spectacular Spider-man", and fortunately, most of it is good.  As is to be expected, Ryan Stegman knocks it out of the park.  The entire issue is full of exciting, vibrant panels, highlighted by Delgado's colors who compliment Stegman's pencils perfectly.  In particular, the pages where Otto is recalling Peter's past are simply stunning, as Stegman uses famous scenes from Peter's past but with Otto's face, all connected with spider webs and Spider-man in the center.  To go along with these gorgeous pages, Dan Slott delivers an issue with full of surprises, endings, and new beginnings.  The biggest surprise, and the highlight of the issue, is Miguel O'Hara being trapped in the present.  One can only assume this means we will be seeing more of Spider-man 2099 soon, and this is great news.  Slott does a really nice job setting this up, as it appears Spider-man 2099 and Tiberius are going to be destroyed.  Slott really did a nice job establishing Miguel's conflicted feelings about saving Tiberius this entire arc, and that culminates in this issue with Miguel ultimately deciding to save him to ensure a future for his friends and his family.  This allows for the creation of Alchemax to occur, and it is a nice treat for fans of the Spider-man 2099 books to see the beginnings of the corporation that served as the main source of evil in the series.  Slott wastes not time in establishing that Miguel is going to be a part of Alchemax, as he shows up right away as Stone's personal assistant.  It will be very interesting to see where Slott goes with this particular sub-plot and for how long it will go on.

As for the world of the Superior Spider-man, Slott really shakes things up here.  For starters, Horizon Labs is destroyed, and Max is not allowed to start it back up in New York City.  This will see an end to Otto's employment there as Peter Parker, and likely will see the end of Max Modell and the Horizon crew appearing in this book.  While a lot of this has been foreshadowed in previous issues, it is still a little sad to see this dream job of Peter Parker's disappear.  Slott really does a nice job with Max in this issue, as he finally lashes out against Spider-man and even at one time claims that Spider-man 2099 is the one they should be working with.  It may have taken a bit too long but it was nice to finally see Max realize what Spider-man has become and sever ties with him.  As satisfying as this is, it is also a bit sad that Max also resents Peter Parker, and may never know the truth, as he and the rest of his team are leaving to start up a new lab elsewhere.  Going forward, it will be interesting to see how Otto moves forward now that he does not have maintain Peter's employment at Horizon.  It will also be interesting to see what Otto's plans are for Sanjani Jaffrey.

Finally, Slott seems to be finally delving more into the suspicions Peter's friends have about his behaviour.  Mary Jane decides to completely sever ties with him, which could be a good or bad thing depending on how it plays out.  If she really does cut ties and doesn't try to figure out what is going on then this is out of character and would be a poor decision by Slott.  If she decides to do like Carlie and start digging around behind Peter's (well, Otto's) back this should play out nicely.  As for Carlie, it is nice to finally see her get some proof about her suspicions.  Hopefully Slott continues to focus on this in the next few issues.  This is the 19th issue of the series and it is time to really delve into Peter's loved ones trying to figure out what is going on.

The not so good:  There are a couple of minor things that dont' sit right with this issue. Slott is developing a habit of giving Jameson far too much power as the Mayor of New York City, and uses this to move the story in the direction he wants it to.  In this instance, Jameson is going to clear Modell of Federal charges, immediately after Horizon Labs implodes in the middle of the city.  It is enough of a stretch to buy that Jameson would even do this for Max (I know it's explained he was friends with Marla) after all of the problems he has had with him, but to imply he can do this is a bit much.  Also, this is all accomplished in a couple of panels as passing conversation between Jameson and Modell, and is not really developed at all.  Also, the deus ex machina solution to bringing Spider-man back was a bit odd.  Clearly Slott wanted to destroy Horizon labs, but he probably could have done so without killing Spider-man and then using a device to bring him back.  Like the Jameson and Modell scene, there could have been more than a couple of panels explaining this, as it is a pretty big deal.  It is likely these two scenes did not receive more development due to the amount of other important things going on in this issue, so they do not hurt the rating for this issue too much.

Overall rating: A- (9.1/10)

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