“Superior Spider-Month” kicks off with a brand new ongoing series from ‘Secret Avengers’ scribe Nick Spencer that takes a look at some of Spider-Man’s biggest… well… strongest? No… Well, it takes a look at some of the webslinger’s villains when they’re not having their butts handed to them.
As revealed in the preview earlier this week, ‘The Superior Foes of Spider-Man’ follows Boomerang as he assembles his very own version of the Sinister Six that consists of Shocker, Overdrive, Speed Demon, and the new Beetle to try to take out their common enemy and finally land that big score that they’ve always been hoping for. But in between, we get to see how these far from A-list villains operate and find a twisted sort of camaraderie connecting them to each other.
Just as I anticipated from the first look at this book, I loved it. The whole thing has an intriguing premise and greatly exceeded my expectations. It reminds me a lot of Matt Fraction’s ‘Hawkeye’, except it takes a look at this group of bumbling bad guys. There are even some similarities in the art style. For instance, while Boomerang is laying out the dynamic of the group, instead of dialogue, artist Steve Lieber uses symbols to show what each character is thinking. From this particular scene, I love that Beetle is tweeting while Shocker is lovingly admiring her from across the table.
As fun as the artwork is, the writing is even more fun. I could talk about the scene where Speed Demon and Shocker rob a pet store just to feed Boomerang’s bird while he’s in jail or the one where Beetle and Overdrive are robbing a comic book store, but then that would just lead me to talking in detail about the whole comic because the whole thing just had me cracking up the entire time. It’s interesting to see this side of Spencer’s writing considering how serious he gets with Nick Fury, Agent Coulson, and company in his other book.
But with all that fun, there’s a serious story building here too. Boomerang has something sinister up his sleeve and he’s getting his friends involved under some pretty big false pretenses. Based on this first issue, I have a feeling that it’s going to be worth it to see what happens next.
When ‘Hawkeye’ first came out, I said that it would make a great TV show. Well, if for some reason Jeph Loeb decided to expand the live action slate of programming at Marvel TV, then this series seems like it should make it onto the list of comic series to be considered. A sitcom about a group of failed (or failing) villains could be big money. Maybe not as much as Fraction’s version of the Avenging Archer, but there will be a fan base for sure. But seeing as that scenario probably won’t play out any time soon, I’m predicting this comic book series to be pretty popular. I know that it’s found a fan in this writer right here.
Final Score:
THE SUPERIOR FOES OF SPIDER-MAN #1
Written by Nick Spencer
Art by Steve Lieber & Rachelle Rosenberg
