The Clone Conspiracy #4 - Marvel Comics

THE CLONE CONSPIRACY No. 4, March 2017

It’s probably a safe bet that the clear majority of this twenty-two-page periodical’s 54,947-strong audience found the second half of its narrative far more to their liking, than the first. For whilst Dan Slott’s opening sequence does somewhat heavily feature both Curt Connors and Doctor Octopus, as well as Otto Octavius’ much-anticipated ‘first meeting’ with his love Anna-Marie, it isn’t until the Jackal clicks his fingers and (finally) orders his murderous gang of duplicate criminals to kill Spider-Man that Issue Four of “The Clone Conspiracy” really takes off.

Indeed, up until the point where Peter Parker’s alter-ego forces his clone “brother” to realise that ‘their’ Uncle Ben would never approve of his “honey trap”, the Berkeley-born writer’s script is somewhat lack-lustre at best and only really piques the interest whenever Marconi is shown working alongside her mechanically-limbed “repugnant” ex-boyfriend. Certainly, it’s hard to take a storyline seriously when it depicts the Lizard cheerfully playing soccer with his long dead infant son and wife amidst an idyllic village scene packed full of happy-go-lucky super-villains like the Green Goblin, the Rhino and the Hobgoblin; “Sspider-Man, pleassse. Leave me alone with my family.”

Fortunately however, once Spidey does become “very disappointed in” Ben Reilly, and starts fighting “the bad guys” alongside the Prowler, the pace to this publication picks up quite significantly. In fact, what with Anna-Marie’s revelation that she knows “how to stop the cellular decay” of Miles Warren’s clones, followed closely by Spider-Gwen’s literally shocking fisticuffs with Electro it’s almost as if a completely different author was penning the book’s plot…

Jim Cheung’s breakdowns also appear to become reinvigorated once the wall-crawler finally decides to oppose the original Scarlet Spider, and genuinely produces some superb pieces of artwork, such as when Doctor Octopus decides that not even the Jackal may “make such an offer to the woman I love” and attacks him, or Otto pipes the amplified harmonic which will destroy all Reilly’s duplicates into the madman’s base and eradicate “everyone in Haven!” It’s just a pity the same can’t be said for some of the British comic book artist’s earlier panels, where perhaps ‘newcomer’ Cory Smith doesn’t ink the penciller anywhere near as well as co-worker and mini-series regular, John Dell?

The variant cover art of "THE CLONE CONSPIRACY" No. 4 by Mark Bagley

Captain America: Steve Rogers #5 - Marvel Comics

CAPTAIN AMERICA: STEVE ROGERS No. 5, November 2016

Purportedly “guest-starring the Invincible Iron Man”, as well as depicting Steve Rogers taking “steps to end the war” as “tragedy strikes”, it’s painfully clear just why Issue Five of “Captain America: Steve Rogers” was only the forty-seventh best-selling title of September 2016, at least according to “Diamond Comic Distributors”. Indeed, it’s not difficult to understand, as Nick Spencer’s illogically piecemeal plot flits from Sokovia to New Attilan and then Alpine in Utah, just how this “Civil War II tie-in” only sold 50,536 copies; even when its titular character was IGN's second-placed "Top 25 Best Marvel superhero" in 2014.

Admittedly, the former politician’s script begins well enough, with a fascinating flashback to infant Steven’s abduction from the side of his dead mother by HYDRA, and subsequent induction into the care of Daniel Whitehall, and his associate Doctor Sebastian Fenhoff. But once this traumatic opening is concluded, the somewhat carefully timed pacing of the American author’s twenty-page periodical goes completely awry and degenerates into a seemingly haphazard summary of events from the “Marvel Worldwide” comic book crossover storyline its supposedly tied-in to.

In fact, in many ways the publication’s bizarre series of disconnected scenes, which shows Captain America planning to kill his fellow Avengers one moment and then inexplicably depicts the World War Two veteran lying dead at the feet of Spider-Man in the next, appears more geared towards encouraging this publication’s audience to purchase the aforementioned mini-series for the fuller story, than actually progressing anything new with the Sentinel of Liberty himself. There arguably can be no other explanation as to why Spencer’s writing frustratingly covers the death of Bruce Banner, Hawkeye’s trial, She-Hulk’s rage, and the feud between Tony Stark and Captain Marvel, rather than Cappy himself. 

Sadly, just as disconcerting as this comic’s penmanship, is its inconsistent pencilling. Javier Pina illustrates Elisa’s unsettling grooming of young Rogers well enough, especially when his panels are so wonderfully coloured in blue-greys and reds by Rachelle Rosenberg. Yet the Spanish artist seems to genuinely struggle when it comes to simply drawing people’s faces, as can plainly be seen in a panel of Steve watching Jennifer Walters and Jane Foster's Thor arm-wrestling. 

Writer: Nick Spencer, Penciler: Javier Pina, and Color Artist: Rachelle Rosenberg

Moon Knight [2016] #11 - Marvel Comics

MOON KNIGHT No. 11, April 2017

If Jeff Lemire's choppy, ‘flashback-obsessed’ plot to Issue Eleven of “Moon Knight” is anything to go by then it's kind of hard to believe Editor Jake Thomas' boast at the end of the twenty-page periodical that this title was "getting a lot of love” in the New York City-based publisher’s ‘Best of 2016’ lists. In fact, considering just how arguably bad the Canadian cartoonist's illogical ramblings for this second instalment of the “Death And Birth” story-arc are, it’s difficult to understand just why even a single reader would consider the ‘Fist of Khonshu’ as being their “favourite ongoing series.” 

For starters, there simply appears to be absolutely no rhyme nor reason as to just why the Ontario-born writer wantonly flits from Marc Spector attending his father’s funeral, to him standing naked in an Iraqi minefield, and then finishing up fist-fighting in Africa. True, the “Marvel Worldwide” strap-line for this particular edition is that the titular character’s “survival depends on answers in his past!” But at no point do any of the ‘retconned’ “events that brought him to this moment” actually do anything more than simply suggest that Doug Moench’s co-creation was guided by Khonshu from his earliest days; “Yes, my son. Come… come to me. You are the one who would do anything to be cured. You are the one who will give his soul to me.”

Indeed, considering that the comic’s main narrative focuses upon Mister Knight battling giant insects, fending off ancient Egyptian warriors and rescuing the dog-headed goddess Anput in the Overvoid, Lemire’s decision to persistently interrupt these enthralling exploits with senseless recollections, really proves frustrating. It certainly can’t have helped anyone “like this new take” on “Marvel’s Batman” when such intrusions persistently occur just as the costumed crime-fighter is in the thick of things and jousting upon huge locusts up in the night’s sky… 

Fortunately, Greg Smallwood somehow manages to make even the most sedentary scenes within this comic look mouth-wateringly good. So whether it be a decidedly mild-looking Spector saying goodbye to Doctor Emmet as he departs the Putnam Psychiatric Hospital in Illinois, or a rather tiringly tedious conversation within the confines of a U.S. Marine Corps tent, each and every panel, at least momentarily, demands attention.

Writer: Jeff Lemire, Artist: Greg Smallwood, and Color Artist: Jordie Bellaire

The Amazing Spider-Man [2015] #22 - Marvel Comics

THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN No. 22, February 2017

Selling an arguably disappointing 63,359 copies, considering it was a close tie-in to its Berkeley-born writer’s 2016 “Spider-Man event of the year” mini-series, “The Clone Conspiracy”, this twenty-page periodical’s audience probably weren’t anywhere near as “excited to get my copies… each and every month” as Associate Editor Devin Lewis. For whilst this publication certainly provides plenty of detail as to just how Ben Reilly is once again alive and well within the ‘Marvel Universe’ following his disintegration at the hands of the “original Green Goblin” twenty years earlier, Dan Slott’s explanation is so pedantically-paced that many readers surely felt that they too were being repeatedly experimented upon by Miles Warren with every passing panel; “I knew they that soon there’d be nothing left. Just a nonstop existence of pain and suffering.”  

Indeed, for those bibliophiles who either inadvertently overlooked purchasing Issue Twenty Two of “The Amazing Spider-Man”, or rather perceptively deduced that the best thing about the comic was its haunting Alex Ross cover illustration and gave the magazine a miss, they can be reassured that absolutely nothing of any real importance occurs within “Seeing Red”, apart from perhaps the book’s final act which depicts Parker being contrivingly enticed to work with “Peter’s own clone” in order to receive “the ultimate gift… bringing back Uncle Ben!” Certainly any followers of the “Dead No More” story-arc could readily 'skip' this particular instalment and thereby save themselves the trauma of endlessly reading about the Jackal cold-bloodily murdering his captive clone “twenty-seven times” using such nauseating methods as electrocution, drowning, freezing, toxic gas, acid, and immolation… 

Perhaps aghast at such a strung out script, Giuseppe Camuncoli seemingly provides some remarkably unexceptional breakdowns for this particular publication, with the Italian’s drawings of Reilly being firmly held within Warren’s secret laboratory appearing particularly angular, sedentary and unremarkable. In fact, despite being “best known for his work on the Marvel Comics title… The Superior Spider-Man”, this magazine’s most memorable moment must be the penciller’s attempt to imitate Steve Ditko’s incredibly youthful incarceration of the web-spinner “growing up in Forest Hills, with Aunt May and Uncle Ben” and then later fighting Mysterio during “those early days as Spider-Man”, rather than his own attempt to deliver something new to the artistic aesthetics of the titular character.

Writers: Dan Slott & Christos Gage, Artist: Giuseppe Camuncoli, and Inker: Cam Smith

The Clone Conspiracy #3 - Marvel Comics

THE CLONE CONSPIRACY No. 3, February 2017

It’s hard to imagine that many “True Believers” agreed with Associate Editor Devin Lewis that Dan Slott’s script for Issue Three of “The Clone Conspiracy” is “one of the biggest payoffs” for the American author’s “blood, sweat, and tears” over the course of the last few years. In fact, considering that this arguably deplorable twenty-page periodical heralds the return of Peter Parker’s “blue-hoodie-wearin’” “brother from another blood cell”, Ben Reilly, and ultimately threatens to “bring back Uncle Ben”, it is probably far more likely that this book’s 56,117 strong audience became increasingly despondent as the Berkeley-born writer’s plot progressed. It’s certainly hard not to blanche at Lewis’ final sign-off at the bottom of the publication’s ‘Letters Page’ when he pens “trust me when I say – things will get crazier.”

Quite possibly top of this title’s many flaws, besides a distinct irreverence towards many of Spider-Man’s most popular deceased cast, is its mishandling of two of the wall-crawler’s most recognisable supporting characters. “In 2009, the Lizard was named IGN's 62nd Greatest Comic Villain of All Time” and yet in this mini-series the usually violent monster is portrayed as a weak-willed simpering ‘pet’ who poses such little threat to his arch-nemesis and Spider-Gwen, that neither super-heroes' spider-sense even tingles when Curt Connors’ alter-ego traps them within a dark, gloomy pipe. That hardly seems the sort of reaction one would expect towards a savage, sharp-toothed criminal well-known for envisioning “a world where all humans had been transformed into (or replaced by) super-reptiles like himself.”

Similarly disserved by Slott’s script is "Parker 3.0", or rather the ‘new’ Scarlet Spider. Supposedly possessing “a slight amplification of the powers he ‘inherited’ from Peter”, this clone was actually thought worthy enough by the Eisner Award-winner to carry an entire issue of “The Amazing Spider-Man” single-handedly as part of the title's tie-in to this “Dead No More” story-event. Disconcertingly in this comic however, Kaine is simply depicted as “no contest” fodder for the Rhino to easily overcome with a single charge, and so having previously been seen as a major contributor to this narrative’s far-reaching consequences, courtesy of several treks across a ‘zombie-infested’ Multiverse, he is suddenly reduced to a body nonchalantly slumped over Aleksei Sytsevich’s broad shoulders; “We get what the master wants, and we get out.”

The 'XCI' variant cover art of "THE CLONE CONSPIRACY" No. 3

Kong Of Skull Island #5 - BOOM! Studios

KONG OF SKULL ISLAND No. 5, November 2016

There’s quite a noticeable change to the feel and pace of James Asmus’ narrative for Issue Five of “Kong Of Skull Island”. One which starts with Ewata and her people’s untrustworthy monarchy heading out on a rather foolhardy expedition to track their new home’s most formidable “monster back to its lair”, and ends with the party, reeking of “the scents associated with these larger devils”, facing a double-headed creature of titanic proportions in a trap which seems destined to end in all their bloody deaths.

Fortunately however, such a seemingly ‘stand-alone plot’ does little to belittle the grandiose vision of the playwright’s much broader storyline about an entire relocated people surviving upon a truly hostile island, and instead actually brings into sharper focus both the murderous politics and gorily violent religion of the race’s two competing tribes. Indeed, despite the twenty-two page periodical’s plot predominantly focusing upon the exploits of a handful of characters, as opposed to its usually sweeping, and oft-times confusing, cast, this tale of giant apes battling ferocious dinosaurs contains just as much brutal butchery as the title’s preceding instalments… if not actually more so, and never lets its audience forget that Bolti and his brothers are fighting for the survival of all the Tagu and Atu left behind in their defended shelters.

In addition it is rather hard to imagine anyone turning away in boredom from a script which contains the Kong Valla, bludgeoning to death a giant Tyrannosaurus with the huge skull of a Triceratops, Ewata knifing a scuttling spider the size of a sheep just before it pounces upon her treacherous queen Usana, or later the native warriors savagely spearing an errant Velociraptor, who unwisely decides to attack the war-party single-handedly. For whilst this publication’s plot is admittedly, intermittently punctuated by some exceptionally over-crowded speech bubbles and lengthy dialogue, such as Gret risking “his Shaman’s ire to stand with a Tagu”, these word-laden discussions are soon forgotten once the isle's bloodthirsty inhabitants start to tear at one another once again...

Carlos Magno’s breakdowns for this comic are equally as pleasing to eye with the artist’s renderings of all manner of large-toothed fauna and leafy flora proving phenomenally well-detailed. Indeed, if not for the Brazilian penciller's disconcerting ability to make it occasionally unclear as to which figure is which within certain panels, his extraordinarily dynamic depictions of heavily-muscled great gorillas battering prehistoric monsters would be very hard to beat.

Writer: James Asmus, Illustrator: Carlos Magno, and Colors: Brad Simpson

The Amazing Spider-Man [2015] #21 - Marvel Comics

THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN No. 21, January 2017

Considering that this book’s principle protagonist “is usually ranked as one of the greatest comic book characters of all time alongside DC Comics characters such as Batman and Superman”, it may have been hard for some to believe that Issue Twenty-One of “The Amazing Spider-Man” was only the twenty-third best-selling title in November 2016. For whilst Dan Slott’s script for “Live Another Day” arguably contains more than its fair share of lengthy flashback sequences and the occasional unfollowable piece of ‘timey wimey’ explanation, “The Clone Conspiracy” tie-in does feature “an alternate San Francisco” which has become overrun with decaying ‘New U Technologies’ zombies, an autopsy scene that is “pretty gnarly stuff”, and the prominent return of Karn, the “protector and prisoner of the Web of Life and Destiny”.

Unfortunately for this twenty-page publication’s 63,052 readers however, what the Berkeley-born writer’s narrative doesn’t surprisingly contain, is neither hide nor hair of its titular character. In fact, even the wall-crawler’s alter-ego, Peter Parker, only makes the briefest of appearances, and that’s just so the different universe’s version can be ‘degenerated’ by a mindless hordes of Carrions when his world’s generators are breached; “It’s too late for them. But maybe their work can still save other worlds. Come on, let’s get out of here.”

As a result, the Eisner Award-Winner’s narrative instead exclusively follows the exploits of the Jackal’s first clone of “the crime-fighting super-hero”, Kaine, and “the second greatest alternate version of Spider-Man”, Spider-Gwen. This remarkable coupling does admittedly prove to be a somewhat interesting team-up once the pair identify that the epicentre of the master geneticist’s plague “always starts in a city with a major Parker Industries” research center, and battle “the most advanced Carrion-state” the Scarlet Spider has ever seen. But even the dynamic action just such a punch-up portrays was surely never going to be enough to satisfy an audience presumably purchasing a comic in order to enjoy an adventure featuring Stan Lee and Steve Ditko’s “flawed superhero with everyday problems".

Judging by his inconsistent pencilling, such a dialogue-heavy story-line certainly seems to have caused Giuseppe Camuncoli a few problems, particularly when the artist is drawing the “near-irreparably mutated” Scarlet Spider. Indeed, despite seemingly being perfectly capable of imbuing Gwendolyne Maxine Stacy with plenty of dynamic life, the Italian visibly struggles to do the same for Kaine’s costumed alternative personality.

The variant cover art of "THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN" No. 21 by Paolo Rivera