Previously on the ‘Avenging Spider-Man‘, we saw Doc Ock collecting all of the recent members of his ever ongoing criminal organization, The Sinister Six. Once captured, he’d imprison them in one of his old bases. The only member he had yet to include in this little collection was the Chameleon. In the last issue, he started plans to see that changed, and used an AIM cell in order to get him aboard the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier in order to capture his ex-partner.
Things didn’t go so well when a group of covert Russian assassins used his breaking of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s security to infiltrate the base and attempt to kill the very man the Superior Spider-Man was attempting to capture. Things may have gone simpler if he had just let them get their man.
With the Secret Avengers and briefly the Hulk beating down the Russian agents on the Helicarrier it should be an easy issue to track down and catch The Chameleon right? Wrong. They are right on top of him at all times… almost.
The only way this Russian mess works for Otto is when he uses them as a diversion and blames them for kidnapping The Chameleon when actually he transported the man back to his Otto Cave where he has the rest of the Sinister Six stored. He conveniently tracks the Russian craft and S.H.I.E.L.D. blows it out of the sky making a the perfect getaway.
I think one of the best parts about this issue is that when things go wrong, Otto’s ego doesn’t let him blame himself. He blames something embedded into him (even though his memories of Peter are supposed to be gone) he claims that the issue is the infamous Parker Luck. I’m curious if this Parker’s Luck reference means that Peter’s memories are still stepping forward to be assertive or if it was just a writing snafu. Still when things go wrong it’s his own overconfidence causing it to happen in classic Otto fashion.
Honestly aside from a few funny comments, you really feel that the Secret Avengers were more taking up space then actually contributing to the fight at all (aside from the Hulk smashing things and a single arrow from Hawkeye which saved the body of our favorite web head). Black Widow and Nick Fury Jr. mainly were there for background noise.
If it wasn’t for the fact this is a lead in to whatever is going to be happening with his old gang, this is an issue of ‘Avenging Spider-Man’ you could have probably done without. This is unfortunate since I’ve been a huge fan of this series ever since Otto took control of things.
Now that the gang is all back together (even if imprisoned) one still has to wonder – what the hell is Otto really doing collecting all of his old teammates? How is this going to backfire? More importantly, with the pages of ‘Avenging Spider-Man’ coming to a close in the near future, where will we see this play out? I’m more curious on the questions we are getting from the series over what few answers we’ve been teased with from the last few issues. Still it’s about to end and I’ve had so much fun with the read on this one (even over ‘Superior’) that I can’t wait to see how it goes out with a bang. Speaking of a bang… next issue? The Punisher. ’nuff said true believers.
Writer: Christopher Yost
Artist: Marco Checchetto
