Web of Spider-Man #5 Review
Web of Spider-Man #5
“Gauntlet Origins: Vulture”
Writer: Fred Van Lente
Penciler: Francis Portela
Inker: Francis Portela
Colorist: Chris Sotomayor
“Choosing Sides”
Writer: Tom DeFalco
Penciler: Ron Frenz
Inker: Sal Buscema
Colorist: Bruno Hang
“Nobody”
Writer: J.M. DeMatteis
Penciler: Chad Hardin
Inker: Wayne Faucher and Rob Campanella
Colorist: Jeromy Cox
Reviewed by Gerard Delatour II
As always, this review contains SPOILERS. Consider yourself WARNED!
Plot Overview
As always, this issue has three stories. I’ll glance over the first one because of the lack of ties to the Clone Saga.
In “Gauntlet Origins: Vulture,” we get a story showing what Adrian Toomes has been up to in prison. When a group of White Supremacists threatens him into helping their leader escape, Toomes cooks up a plan of his own. Needless to say, the ruthlessness of the old man shines through.
In “Choosing Sides,” the next chapter of the Spectacular Spider-Girl (soon to graduate into her own book again), May finds herself at a crossroads concerning her involvement in the ongoing gang war. Should she choose a side, or should she stay out of it? Meanwhile, April is eager to get involved, eventually embroiling herself in the conflict. May learns that Wes believes he has discovered Spider-Girl’s identity. April chooses a side in the gang war when she accepts a job offer from one of the leaders, and May decides to offer her assistance to Captain Ruiz – who quickly turns a gun on her and threatens to arrest her!
In “Nobody,” we find Ben Reilly working as a janitor at a Portland Middle School. This story takes place during his “Lost Years,” somewhere between Spider-Man: The Lost Years and Spider-Man: Redemption. He believes his girlfriend Janine to be dead, and is wallowing in self-pity. Ben is harassed by the head janitor, and barely holds himself back from knocking his block off. On the way home that night, his spider-sense warns him of danger in a nearby house, but he ignores it and passes. Inside, three armed thugs threaten a family for money. The father is down with a wound to the head, but the family only has $50. Promising the possibility of more money, the mother takes the lead thug upstairs, but there is barely over $100 more. The thug tosses her onto the bed to rape her, but Ben emerges from the shadows and kills the thug. Moving downstairs, he takes out the remaining thugs and saves the family. The next day at work, Ben is harassed by his superior once more, but this time he gives the man his comeuppance and rides off.
The Good
The Vulture story – though it barely qualifies as an “origin,” since it ends where it begins – is a good display of why Adrian Toomes is a great character. His ruthless cunning is on display, culminating in a twist ending that shows he’s not someone to be messed with.
The Spider-Girl story is a nice change of pace, focusing more on the characters than the action. DeFalco and Frenz are masters of comic book storytelling, and they realize that action-packed storylines need the occasional break to allow the reader to catch his or her breath. This isn’t done in the all-too-typical decompressed way, with characters sitting around and talking for page after page (I’m looking at you, Bendis), but in a way that advances several character arcs. This gang was continues to bubble beneath the surface, ready to boil over.
The Ben Reilly story is well-executed all around. It’s crisply written, surprisingly edgy, and well-illustrated (for the most part … more on that later). It’s always nice to see Ben Reilly’s time outside of New York explored.
The Bad
I was really looking forward to this issue for a few reasons. I like the Vulture (unlike most people, apparently), Spider-Girl, and Ben Reilly. Where could it go wrong?
For starters, the Toomes story was completely unnecessary. While it shows his merciless nature, we’ve seen that executed much better than here. This story takes place entirely in the prison, and it loops around – in other words, it ends in pretty much the same spot in which it began. In that case, what was the point? The art is also surprisingly bad. Barry Kitson was named as the artist in the solicitation, but with the story bumped up a month (this issue was originally solicited as #6), perhaps Francis Portela was brought in to do a quick fill-in. Either way, it doesn’t work.
My one and only complaint about the Spider-Girl story is that DeFalco seems to have tipped his hand a little too far with regards to Wes. Obviously, they want us to believe that he has discovered May’s secret, but it seems obvious to me that he believes April to be Spider-Girl. Maybe I’m wrong, but that’s how I read the issue.
The Ben Reilly story was a missed opportunity. With so few pages, and without a promise of more installments to come, DeMatteis had a limited amount of time to tell a story. While it was serviceable, it wasn’t what we were all waiting for, and that’s a shame. If he had an ongoing feature, perhaps we could have gotten something meatier.
The Ugly
The Ben Reilly feature was clearly a done-in-one. We were still holding out hope for an ongoing feature, but this sure doesn’t seem like the beginning of one.
Also, what was up with that freakish goatee on Ben?
Final Thoughts
I didn’t care much for the Vulture story, and the Ben Reilly installment was a disappointment, though a solidly-executed one. However, I really liked the Spider-Girl adventure, which saved the issue.
Grade
I would give “Gauntlet Origins: Vulture” a D+, “Choosing Sides” an A, and “Nobody” a B-. For the math whizzes reading this, that’s an overall B-.
