What Am I? An Animal?
Being the huge spider-man that I am, I was extremely fond of Scarlet Spider series, which featured non other than Peter Parkers more savage twin. While the quality of the art fluctuated at times, It nonetheless had great a great plot, characterization, and action. So you can imagine how heartbroken I was when a genuinely great series with an interesting main protagonist whom almost everyone loved was canceled. Kaine's story wasn't over, and the level of disappointment I was feeling was ridiculous. Still, Marvel realized the potential behind the character and decided to move him to another series, which featured a bunch of heroes. Long story short, I wasn't a fan. That's not to say that the New Warriors series was bad or anything, but as someone who was only a fan of two characters from the whole roster, it was impossible to read a series where the protagonists I was interested had minimal screen time. Then came a plethora of horrible (for me, at least) decisions on marvels part, and eventually I lost hope that Kaine would ever get another chance, but then came the Spider-verse event, and here we are. ( Yes, I'm aware that it's a limited series, but it's better than nothing, right?)
Now right from the start my primary concern was the characterization. Most of these days some of the writers tend to ignore canon history and do whatever they please with the character, so truthfully I was very afraid. That being said,I'm happy to say that the characterization for the most part is pretty great. The writer, Mike Costa, picked a specific tone for the story and managed to flesh each personalities out. The banter between the character was fantastic, especially between Ben and Jess. Kaine is his usual grumpy and silent self; get doesn't talk much for now, but he gets the job done.
I'd love to make some comments about the story, but so far it just continues the plot from the Spider-verse event, which you should get aquatinted with if you plan on reading the series, since you won't be able to understand what the hell is going on. It's not anything special as of yet, but it's fun and the characters keep you captivated, so there isn't much to complain about. Though a personal gripe is that the universe our heroes venture into doesn't really match the characteristics of the inheritors, who, if you don't already know, are the main villains of the story. These powerhouses usually have a very classy and gothic aura around them, so entering such a technologically oriented world didn't really match and/or reflect the grotesque nature of these monsters.
Moreover, I'm not particularly found of the constant narrating. I understand that many may not share my stance on the situation, but personally I feel that this style of comic book writing is sort of outdated. It's much more interesting to see the main heroes reflect on the situation they reside in, which I feel adds more layers to their personalities.
That being said, while the story may have a couple of bumps, the art is absolutely fantastic. It captures the light-hearted tone Mike Costa is trying to depict and it also has some great action illustrations. Seriously, the action scenes, while slightly short lived, where really cool.
In conclusion, despite my negative comments, most of which I guess were personal, I did enjoy this issue immensely. If you're a Kaine fan or a spider-man fan in general, you've probably already picked this up. Also, lets hope that this mini-series slaps marvel over the head hard enough to make them realize that they need another Kaine series. (It probably won't happen, but a man can dream, can't he?)
