THE BASICS
A group of criminals decide that the incarcerated life isn't for them and attempt to break out of prison. But because this is a group of supervillains we're talking about, things don't go quite according to plan.
MY COMPLIMENTS TO THE CHEF
- Upon originally picking this up, I was expecting something much different than what I got. You'd be forgiven for looking at the cover of this book and thinking that it's just one big showdown between Spidey and every other villain not currently involved in a "take over the world" or "destroy NYC" plot. While there are a couple of panels dedicated to that, most of the story in this issue focuses on two groups of rival supervillains and the events surrounding their escape of a large prison. While I was looking forward to seeing a giant showdown, I was pleasantly surprised by what it actually turned out to be. The story plays out like a crime or escape movie with superpowers about betrayal and revenge, which works for me.
- We've got an interesting cast of characters so far, or at least an interesting character dynamic. While Spidey is definitely the hero, Vector, one of the villains who escapes from prison, seems to be the protagonist, for now anyway. And while Vector may be a villain, he doesn't seem to be the bad guy of the story. So, to sum up, our story centers around a villain protagonist who isn't the bad guy, though nor is he the good guy or an anti-hero. It was a little confusing at first, but it's an interesting approach and I look forward to seeing what is done with it.
- I really like the art in this issue. Being that the story centers around a bunch of escaped convicts on the run and in hiding, the dark colors and thick lines are a perfect fit for the mood. It's not Noir style art, but it's very... what's the word? "Shady", perhaps? Yeah, that works. Shady like a guy wearing dark glasses and a trench coat going into a bank on a 110 degree day.
FEEL THE STING OF MY DISCONTENT!
- This issue struggles a bit when it comes to transitions. Most are handled well enough, but there are a few different occasions where the scene switches from a tense, but otherwise uneventful, discussion between characters to a scene featuring an all out brawl between Spider-Man and a bunch of convicts with no indication of how we got to that point. Even worse is that the comic then jumps to another scene as quickly as it did from the first, hardly even acknowledging the existence of the middle scene. It's rather jarring and annoying.
WHEN ALL IS SAID AND DONE
A great start to what I expected to simply be one giant slugfest. Not that there's anything wrong with slugfests, but the "street level" escape story was a nice and pleasant surprise.
