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Marvel Comics Scarlet Spider #1 Story: Christopher Yost |
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I have a confession to make: I own about 99% of the original Clone Saga garbage. It may be 100%, but I’ll have to check the long boxes. So when Marvel announced the new Scarlet Spider series, I had visions of confusion and Chromium covers. Today, I can’t even convince the recycling guys to take these old books, but I bought the new one anyway. How was it? Let’s see.
Kaine has made his way down to Houston to get out of the country, but he needs some duckets (money), so he crashes some kind of shady deal to grab the cash. As he’s disposing of the thugs, he fights back his urge to kill. This is a new Kaine, no more snapping necks for him. Ready to leave, he smells something funny coming from one of the containers. It’s filled with bodies, and dead ones at that, all except for one.
At the Park Plaza Hospital, Kaine busts in with the female survivor and demands medical attention. Again he fights the urge to kill when a local cop threatens him.
Kaine just wants to chill one night, so he takes some of the stolen loot and puts himself up at The Four Seasons. He knows it’s probably not the best way to stay under the radar. After a nice hot shower, he cleans himself up, recaps his origin for new readers, and decides to test out his new web-slinging abilities. He even saves an old lady from getting hit by a Hummer but almost kills the driver when he smashes the car. Hey, he’s still learning.
Back at the port, police officers are investigating the container when a villain with a face tattoo that Mike Tyson would make fun of shows us what kind of power he possesses.
Kaine sees the news report at a local bar, but decides it’s not his problem. He’s not Parker. He’s not a hero.
Back at the hospital, the new villain from the port shows up to finish the female survivor. Who will save her?
Christopher Yost has done something I thought impossible: he made me like Kaine. Somewhat. I was actually happy when Kaine died in Grim Hunt. I thought it was the final piece of the Clone Saga that can now be filed away, never to be seen again. His resurrection in Spider-Island was handled well, but I thought it was just paying respect to the character and he’d ride off into the sunset. No such luck.
Yost has given readers a conflicted Kaine. He wants to be a hero, but he’s fighting back his instinct to kill. I know in the book he says he’s not a hero, but c’mon, the guy can’t even stick to a building without saving an old lady. Just expect a verbal lashing after he does it.
The tag line on the cover reads “All of the power, none of the responsibility.” Bull. He has his self-imposed responsibility, I call it his “Parker Sense.” He’s good at the core, it’s in his DNA.
Ryan Stegman handles the art, and it’s just the right amount of cartoony detail, without being too stylized and distracting. A great choice for a Spidey family book. His style is very similar to Stefano Caselli’s, and that not a bad thing. The splash page of the three way Spidey fight is particularly poster-worthy. Just one thing I did notice: none of the panels had borders. It’s as if each one was created digitally, and placed on a page. Just something I noticed.
All in all, a fine start to a new Spider-Man family book. While it wasn’t a home run, it was a triple, with no outs.
I give this issue 3 Magnificos! out of 5.
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