Superior Spider-man Team-Up #5

Superior Spider-man Team-Up #5

"The Superior Six"

Story: Chris Yost
Penciler/Inker: Marco Checchetto
Colourist: Rachelle Rosenberg
Letterer: Joe Caramagna
Cover: Paolo Rivera

At long last, the Superior Spider-man debuts his Superior Six!  Is this issue superior or sinister?  Hit the jump to find out!

Summary:  The issue opens with the Wrecking Crew attacking the newly formed Alchemax, the company created by Liz Allen and Tyberius Stone and currently employing Miguel O'Hara A.K.A Spider-man 2099.  The Wrecking Crew is after a Quantum Particle Engine (QPE), that Lyla informs Miguel will destroy the majority of Old New York in three days.  As the Wrecking Crew battle Sun Girl, who has responded to the crisis, Spider-man and his Superior Six show up to stop the robbery.  Sandman, Chameleon, Mysterio, Vulture, and Electro are all being mind-controlled by Otto, and he uses his power to control the villains abilities and actions to fight the Wrecking Crew.  As the battle ensues, one of Sun Girl's blast temporarily removes the Superior Six from Otto's control.  Otto manages to regain control, as the Wrecking Crew retreats. 
Spider-man and his team leave the scene, taking the QPE despite Liz Allen's protests, as well as an unconscious Sun Girl back to his base.  When Sun Girl awakens, Spider-man tells her she needs to tell him who she is and where she got her equipment.  Meanwhile, the Wrecking Crew report back to the man who hired them, who turns out to be Light Master.

The good:  First and foremost, the cover by Paolo Rivera is pretty fantastic.  The use of a claw machine for Spider-man to gather villains is a fun and clever concept that is relevant to the issue and made even better by the fact that the claws are Doctor Octopus' tentacles.  Checchetto's interior artwork is also quite good, with Roesnberg's colors complimenting the work well and delivering some great fight sequences in a book that is full of them.  As for the story, Yost is not at his strongest here but does have some nice moments.  For one, it is great to see Miguel involved in the story right off the bat, even if it is in a very minor role.  Hopefully this is a prelude to seeing Miguel and Spider-man team up in a later book, or at the very least, it is nice to see he is going to continue to be a part of the Spider-man books.  It is also nice to finally see what Yost has been setting up for quite some time now, by having Otto gather up some of the former members of the Sinister Six.  Having Otto create a new team whose minds are all being controlled by Otto is a great touch and is very much in character for Otto as he continues to be a hero with no morals.  The use of Sun Girl seems an odd choice at first, until it is revealed that her powers can disrupt Otto's mind control.  This sets up an interesting confrontation in the next issue, as Otto is going to attempt to find out how she is able to do this and it is not clear how far he will go to find this out.

The not so good:  Unfortunately, this is not one of Chris Yost's best issues.  There really is not much story in this issue, as almost all of it revolves around the fighting to acquire the QPE.  The issue is very fast paced and at times a little choppy.  Everything happens so quickly there is no real time to develop any of the events that happen during the fight, and it is almost unclear that Sun Girl was the reason that Otto loses control of his team.  There is very little drama when he does lose control, as he is able to regain control immediately with no explanation.  There is apparently supposed to be a panel where Sun Girl gets knocked unconscious, but we never see this panel.  Later Spider-man claims to have been the one who knocked Sun Girl out, but again, there is no evidence of this so the reader is left wondering what really happened.  The issue is really just an average comic book story that feels a bit rushed, but is bumped up a bit due to great art.

Overall rating: C+ (7.8/10)

Ads:

Only one ad to share for this issue, as I'm pretty sure I've used all of them but this one for other issues.  Halloween is coming up, and kids costumes now are a lot better than they were when I was a kid.