Superior Spider-Man #6 Review

Superior Spider-Man is back with another issue. The series has been decent so far but this issue was a bit of a let-down.

I don’t know whether Dan Slott is saving the repercussions and reactions to the events of #5 for a later issue but personally I think he completely brushed over a major event in the storyline. For those of you who didn’t know Superior Spider-Man (Aka Doc Ock) crossed the line in #5 when he murdered Massacre. This is something that Spider-Man has never done before and I was expecting some kind of repercussions from this event.

The issue basically focuses around two pranksters/villains called Screwball & Jester. In the beginning of the issue they publically embarrass Mayor J Jonah Jameson by pieing him in the face while streaming it live on the internet. Mayor Jameson calls in Spider-Man to capture the two pranksters. He originally isn’t interested until he remembers being humiliated countless times by Spider-Man and agrees to capture Screwball & Jester. Also in the issue, we see more from Anna Marie Marconi who was introduced in previous issues to help Doc Ock with his school work. This is help which he obviously doesn’t need but agrees to because he is strangely infatuated by her. In this issue, we see her being bullied by a couple of guys because of her small stature. Ock obviously doesn’t like this because he likes Ann Marie Marconi and he hates bullies. Ock decides to punish the two guys by crushing their car… with them inside of it. Ock locates Screwball & Jester and goes to face them, when he gets there they make him look like a fool. This pushes him over the edge and he beats the living daylight out of the two of them.

Throughout the whole issue Doc Ock is remembering more and more about his history with bullies which leads to his eventual explosion of anger. This is one of things I actually liked about the book. We are seeing the repercussions of having a mentally unstable super villain inside the body of one the most powerful and well respected superheroes on the planet.  Some people just don’t have the mental stability to control such a huge amount of power and Dan Slott is doing a good job of highlighting this. My main problem was the complete brush over of Spider-Man killing somebody in the previous issues. This is a major event in Spidey’s life and honestly nobody seems to give a damn! The little reaction we do get is from the Avengers who are considering kicking him off of the team because of his most recent actions. We don’t even get a reaction from the “ghost” of Peter Parker. The one time his presence is important and he is completely absent, apart from the end where we get his reaction to Ock beating up Jester & Screwball. This is weirdly more dramatic than anything that was mentioned of the murder. I will say though that the dialogue was well done and the issue flowed well. It was fast paced and kept me interested throughout the issue. I also liked the two "villains" in the book Jester & Screwball, they throw an interesting twist into the story.

Another one of my main problems with the issue was the art done by Humberto Ramos. His art is extremely stylistic and in my opinion just doesn’t fit well with this type of comic. It makes a change from the regular art we come across in comic books but is this a good change? I don’t think so. That isn’t really the main problem with Ramos’ art; the main problem is his inconsistency. His art changes page from page. One page he could draw an awesome Spider-Man, the next he could draw a Spider-Man who I would compare to a Praying Mantis. Sometimes it’s just ridiculous. What I do like are his backdrop and his covers, which are usually really good. The one redeeming quality about the art in this book is the colors done by Edgar Delgado; who just happens to be one of my favorite colorists. His work redeems the art for me. He pulls everything together nicely and his work really affects the mood in the book. The cover to this issue is a prime example of his work.

Overall this issue was decent. It would have been better if a major event, which really needed to be discussed, wasn't brushed over. The art also brings down the overall quality of the book. The story does progress nicely with in this issue though. If you’re already picking up Superior Spider-Man I would keep going because of upcoming events. However if you aren’t already getting the book, I wouldn’t jump on now. The only reason I’m still picking up the book is I’m curious on how Dan Slott will bring back Peter Parker to the land of the living.

Story –4/5

Art – 3/5 

Overall – 3.5/5

 -Simon Dixon

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