The Amazing Spider-Girl # 18 - My Ally, My Enemy!
is a comic book published by Marvel Publishing & released on 5 / / 2008Plot Summary
Overview
Circumstances compel Spider-Girl to join forces with the most unlikely ally of all--The Hobgoblin!
Spider-Girl is trapped in a "pile of super-goo" courtesy of Hobgoblin. Crimelord threatens Hobgoblin about interfering with his auction. He begins arguing over the fact that the files belong to him since he discovered them. Crimelord signals a sniper to shoot at him. This results in his glider getting blown up. As the bidders begin getting riled up, Hobgoblin tells Mindworm that it's time to move into action. Mindworm surprises Hobgoblin by saying that he's decided to step out of the shadows and make his own play. The Kingpin's files will help ensure that. Through all this, Spider-Girl just wonders what else could go wrong.
At the hospital, Benjy is about to go into surgery. Mary Jane is concerned because May said she'd be there. Peter calls her but she's still trapped. Mindworm informs Crimelord that he already has control over the sniper. He tells Crimelord to simply hand over the file. Hobgoblin gets tired of the bickering and throws a bomb at Spider-Girl, telling them they should act like bad guys and kill the superhero. Mindworm is upset because he had plans for her. He orders everyone to kill Hobgoblin but Spider-Girl springs into action to prevent that. She figured out that Hobgoblin meant to free her so they could team up. Spider-Girl now finds herself working with the last person she thought she'd ever be fighting besides.
At a diner, Wes meets up with Davida. She tells him that things aren't working out. He said it sounds like she's breaking up with him. She tells him you have to be a couple before you can break up. She also notes that they couldn't be a couple since he's so into May. She says everyone knows it, except probably May herself. Davida tells Wes about Benjy's operation and that'd be the best time for him to be there for her. He'd better let her know how he feels since Gene has been trying to patch things up between them.
Back at the old theatre, Peter finally gets a hold of May. He can tell she's in the middle of a fight and contemplates getting his old costume to help her. He then decides that he has to have faith in her. She is the Web-slinger now, not him. Spider-Girl manages to punch Mindworm which loosens his control over the others. The NYPD then arrive and everyone scatters. Spider-Girl tries to follow Crimelord as he escapes out the back.
As Crimelord runs away, "he" is stopped by Charlie Kurkle. He tells Crimelord that the files are his as he holds a gun to him. Crimelord then surprises Charlie by the fact that he knows who he is. Crimelord says he can explain everything but they have to get out of there. Before Charlie can ask why, he is shot from behind. Deadspot the assassin is there to demand the files. Crimelord drops to his knees, rushes to Charlie and removes the mask. Barely clinging to life, Charlie is surprised to see that Crimelord is, in fact, Mona Claro, his girlfriend. Spider-Girl arrives to prevent Deadspot from getting the files. She doesn't feel like going up against Spider-Girl again so she disappears. Using her spider-sense, she manages to spin webs on where the invisible Deadspot is. This causes her suit to short out. They begin fighting and Spider-Girl demands to know who put out the contract against her.
Spider-Girl turns her attention back to Charlie and Mona. She notes that Mona's the only one talking now. Mona says that she never had the files. She was just going to collect the down payment and disappear. The police and Drasco arrive to take Mona away. He tells Spider-Girl that they arrested everyone, although they'll be free as soon as they call their lawyers. Hobgoblin got away and Mindworm disappeared.
Hobgoblin does manage to find Mindworm through his disguise. Grabbing him by the neck, he is angry that he betrayed him. Mindworm says it was a momentary lapse in judgment but Hobgoblin can't get over the fact that he kept yelling "Kill him" over and over. He tells him that he always prepares for things. He put a subcutaneous bomb at the base of Mindworm's neck before. Mindworm pleads to make a deal. He tells him that he knows Spider-Girl's secret identity. Hobgoblin doesn't buy it. He presses a button on a device and Mindworm goes down. Now that the entire underworld probably wants him dead, Hobgoblin figures it's time to head to the Caribbean for a while. He says he will return.
May arrives at the hospital just as Benjy's surgery ends. The doctor comes out and tell them it was a success. Benjy's hearing may have been completely restored. May is relieved beyond words. Wes arrives to take her down to the cafeteria. As they embrace, she notices Gene has arrived. She leaves Wes and runs over to Gene. She tells Gene she shouldn't have given up on him and wants to do whatever it'll take to make things work. Poor Wes walks off alone.
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not very good comic book!!!
Reviewed by thenightwing on May 25, 2008. thenightwing has written 8 reviews. His/her last review was for With Iron Hands, Part 1 of 4. |
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For a book about youth and impulsiveness, Spider-Girl sure is a lesson in longevity and wisdom. Limited runs drive the market these days — not just miniseries in an industry where boundaries have to be set for short attention spans and fickle finances, but also at-most yearlong turns by any one creative team on books that go forever, so as to give packagability to graphic novels and rotate the market magic of successful teams to other titles. This can give a satisfying artistic completeness to the timespan; rather than suspending a good thing before it starts, it can make storytellers tighten their structure, deepen their characters and concentrate their ideas. But Spider-Girl is a study in how well-shaped and surprising an ongoing series can be.
It may be because the several-times cancellation-bound (but always-rescued) book’s creators don’t take forever for granted, but even if they had 100 issues contractually guaranteed, this would be the way to make a comic worth reading; DeFalco, Frenz and Buscema use the time to build a novelistic texture to their characters’ personalities and the bumpy arc of their true-to-life experiences. At this point (counting a title-change and renumbering) Tom DeFalco has written 117 of the last 118 regular issues, longer than Stan Lee spent on Spider-Man (and longer than any other female-headlined title has lasted at the Marvel Men’s Club), with, like Stan, two defining art teams (first Pat Oliffe & Al Williamson, and currently Ron Frenz & Sal Buscema). The unheard-of sales of the digest collections through Scholastic, and the activist fanbase that has saved the regular comic several times, show that this creative braintrust may be classic, but is in no way unfashionable.
In any case freshness is a given in this back-to-the-future book, since it extends the anything-can-happen ethic of Marvel in its first two decades, with a mature and retired Peter Parker, a settled-down yet still-dynamic Mary Jane (remember her?), and their burdened yet optimistic daughter in a world of many changes but wide-open possibility (“Brand New Day”’s pop-art positivity owes a big debt to this book). May “Mayday” Parker, popular and well-adjusted in a way her dad never was, is not just a refreshing change from the dourness that defined the old book, but an interesting metaphor for the nervous-breakdown generation of success-obsessed kids; Peter & MJ may not have had her doctoral college picked out since she was in nursery school like many yuppie couples, but May’s puberty-triggered powers multiply her turmoil about how to please her parents and peers, do the right thing and be herself.
This issue is not any particular landmark, and that’s the point; crack open a Spider-Girl of almost any number and you’ll find, as here, ingeniously entwined plotlines and parallel situations, unexpected switches in incident and behavior, and affecting characterization. In this case, we have the nuanced (if irredeemable) Ditko-costumed stealth-tech assassin Deadspot, trading gallows repartee with Spider-Girl while sensibly sticking to her job-description to kill someone else; the fearsomely portrayed Hobgoblin, allying with our heroine in a betrayal of convenience against various assembled mob rivals; a ticking clock as May’s little brother undergoes an operation she can’t show up for due to a detour for the family business; and some high-school courtship soap opera with a skillfully staged missed connection among two romantic rivals for her when May finally makes it to the hospital. Every 15 issues or so a plot-point may not add up or a finale will fall flat, but that’s a better ratio than the longrunning weekly TV shows that Spider-Girl most resembles in structure and longevity. Tune in, and you’ll find the book matches many of those in enduring appeal and importance too.
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| Added by: | G-Man |
| Date Added: | June 6, 2008 |
