In the last issue of ‘Superior Spider-Man’, our hero did his duty on the superhuman prison known as The Raft when he dealt with Alistair Smythe by any means necessary. Of course, that wasn’t before he revealed his true identity to the villain before he perished. Afterwards, with the Spider-Slayer slain, the former Doctor Octopus had a different sort of thank you in mind from Mayor J. Jonah Jameson. Since it’s occupants had been cleared out, The Raft became Spider-Island II, the new base for Spider-Man and his new army of Spider-bots and soldiers.

Now, in issue fourteen, we see the first mission of Spider-Man and his new legion of Arach-Naughts and Spiderlings. And who better to target than the biggest dog in the yard? That’s why the bold Mr. Parker heads straight to Shadowland to take out the Kingpin and his lackey, the Hobgoblin, once and for all to keep the citizens of Hell’s Kitchen safe. (I wonder why Daredevil didn’t get involved in this one?)

The awesome Humberto Ramos returns to the book after a short absence and he’s brought an all-new costume for Spidey. Previously seen in a few issues of ‘Avengers’, the new suit features a mostly black design with the classic red covering the head and chest. It looks to be a more high tech outfit as well as the logo on his back is a backpack with spider legs hidden inside. The wall-crawler also has a new ride and it definitely is no Spider-Mobile. There’s so many cool new gadgets that there’s a chance that I missed some during my first read.

This was a great issue to debut the new attire in because we really got to see it in action. With all of the Kingpin’s henchmen and the whole headquarters to take down, we got to see these new toys get played with. There’s a particular splash page where Spider-Man is facing ninjas and it leads to the unveiling of the extra legs for the first time. This scene is very cool to look upon, especially because Wilson Fisk has no idea what to do. He knows that Spider-Man has unleashed a more aggressive side and he’s not sure how to handle that at the moment.

Finally, without giving the ending away, it’s interesting to see how the Goblins in this series are just waiting for the right moment to strike. Hopefully we won’t have to wait too much longer before their plans are revealed and we see the Superior Spider-Man take on one of Peter Parker’s greatest adversaries ever.

Overall, this issue was a good way to showcase the new status quo for Spider-Man. His whole operation has expanded and he’s like a one-man Avengers unit. I wonder if the actual Avengers will have something to say about that in the future. Oh well! Until then, I enjoy seeing everything that Spider-Man can get away with now that he has Jameson in his back pocket.

Final Score:

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SUPERIOR SPIDER-MAN #14
Written by Dan Slott
Art by Humberto Ramos, Victor Olazaba, & Edgar Delgado