THE BASICS
Spider-Man is beaten nearly to death by the Sandman before DeWolfe comes to his aid. Not deterred by the event, Spidey continues pursuing The Crime Master and Octavious.
MY COMPLIMENTS TO THE CHEF
- I'm enjoying the main story. Yes, it may be cliche to have Nazis as the main threat, but the story's well told and enjoyable. There's definitely room for improvement, but I like it.
FEEL THE STING OF MY DISCONTENT!
- I was really excited to finally see the Sandman in action, but I was pretty let down by the "fight". This re-imagining of the character takes away all his interesting powers. He's just a guy with really tough skin here. That's about it. And his fight with Spider-Man is pretty much a one sided beat down with no flair or excitement. I associate the Sandman with imaginative battles and art, but none of that is present here. Instead, his character gets a major downgrade.
- A couple attempts are made at conveying tragic loss in this issue, but they fall flat. Hine's given us no reason to truly care about the events. They're certainly bad, but only because of their nature, not because we care about those who've been afflicted. I suppose I can't speak for everyone in this regard, but more effort on the part of Hine to get us to really care about these characters would have done a lot to carry this issue.
- This series has done something remarkable in making me dislike Felicia Hardy. It's not even the whole "re-imagined" bit either, because I liked her in the first volume, but here she's been turned into a selfish coward and that doesn't sit well with me. Granted, she does try to redeem herself in this issue, but it feels forced.
WHEN ALL IS SAID AND DONE
This series is really losing steam. Perhaps the novelty of the idea has faded with me and I just don't appreciate it the same way I did the first volume. Even if that is true though, there's a significant dip in quality either way.
