On the Panel

This column took something of a hiatus last week because none of the comics I read I felt were particularly worth writing about, also time kind of ran away from me as sometimes happens. Anyway it's back now as I did read something that was worth writing about.

The Superior Spider-Man #32

After the recent replacement of this comic with the relaunched Amazing Spider-Man we get an encore appearance from the Doc Ock controlled version of Peter Parker. This comic is primarily used to set up the upcoming event Spider Verse.

Eagle eyed readers with remember that Spidey vanished for 24 hours during the events of Superior Spider-Man #19 and it wasn't explained why until now. Turns out Ock was initially thrown forward in time to the year 2099 having recently been vacated by Miguel O'Hara. Ock immediately gets to work trying to figure out a way to get back and discovers something more sinister along the way.

He finds himself thrown into various different realities where it appears that someone or some thing is hunting different versions of Spider-Man and killing them. There are corpse cameos from the Spider-Man that joined the Fantastic 4 all the way back in 1977s What If #1, the House of M incarnation, the Iron Spider suit from Civil War and some kind of armoured Spider-Man costume that even I haven't seen before. These are all great to see because I'm a Spidey nerd and the idea of all these different versions coming together is something that really excites me, I hope that it'll be a dramatically satisfying story too.

Once Ock learns what's going on he decides to amass an army of Spider-Men to fight this threat which gives us a great image of several different versions all together which includes Spider-Man Noir and the six armed Spidey from Amazing Spider-Man #100-102 back in 1971.

In terms of story this one is completely filled with fan service. There are cameos from different versions of Spider-Man all over this comic and there's plenty for fans to get excited about. I have to rate it highly because I enjoyed it immensely and I really can't wait for Spider Verse, it's going to be an event that I'll hopefully really enjoy

Miles Morales: Ultimate Spider-Man #4

Things are really coming to a head in this issue as many of the bubbling issues really start to escalate into something very serious. I feel like this issue is a very important one for all that is sure to follow.

The comic opens on Katie Bishop who is in shock after finding out that Miles is secretly Spider-Man. Her reaction is something I really liked, the shock and betrayal she is feeling is very well presented and I really liked that she confided in her sister. Perhaps proving that she wasn't ready to be burdened with such an incredible secret. Her reaction was different to Mary Jane or Gwen and I found it very refreshing.

Miles' battle with The Green Goblin takes up the bulk of the issue and it's fantastic, Osborn thinks that he can handle another Spider-Man following his defeat of Peter Parker but it turns out he's not as ready for Miles as he assumes he is. That's not to say it's an easy battle for Miles but he more than holds his own here. The eleventh hour appearance of the seemingly resurrected Peter Parker works really well too and seeing the two of them fight together is also really cool. Their individual styles shine through nicely and it's becoming less likely that Peter Parker's return is a red herring. To my knowledge he will be the first resurrected Ultimate Comics character and that's something I find interesting, I hope they don't screw this up.

Overall, this issue was great. It's very light on content in the sense that only two things are covered but the exposure these get is superb. Katie Bishop's conversation with her sister is excellent and the battle against The Green Goblin is an absolute blast, definitely one to be experienced and I was sad when the issue ended.

The Punisher (2014) #9 & Black Widow (2014) #9

I chose to cover these issues together because they make up the same story from different perspectives. Something that I haven't seen done an awful lot recently so it's nice and refreshing.

Both issues have The Punisher and The Black Widow find their way to the same tanker for very different reasons. Everything from their agenda and their reason for being there is different but there's common ground in that they're both fighting Crossbones who had captured Frank Castle in the previous issue. Naturally escape proves easy for Frank and the story can continue.

Black Widow and The Punisher are characters that should really team up more often, in terms of methodology they can see eye to eye easier than others can and they're both very driven in carrying out their missions. This is shown really well here as the comics highlight their similarities as well as their differences. Their eagerness to not work together was something I really enjoyed as well as them ultimately supporting each other.

There's not much to say about the story as it's incredibly simplistic which is by no means a bad thing. It's easy to follow and coasts on the strength of the characters. It's also interesting to note that you don't have to read both issues to understand what's going on; something I thought was damn decent of Marvel because sometimes people just don't want to have to fork out twice for comic books to get a complete story that could be told in one.

To conclude, it's great to see these characters team up in these fast paced, action heavy stories that highlight the strengths of each character. I hope this will happen more often as this was a very fun read.