Reviewer: Matt Morrison
Story Title: Rules of the Game: Part Two
Written by: Zeb Wells
Penciled by: Machael O’Hare.
Inked by: Wayne Faucher
Colored by: Studio F
Lettered by: Randy Gentile
Cover by: Fransisco Herrera
Editor: John Miesegaes
Publisher: Marvel Comics
I reviewed this same book last week. Not this same title. This same book.
Okay, a FEW things have changed. Instead of facing off against lame baddie Boomerang, Spidey faces off against the not-as-lame, but lamely done in recent years Scorpion. And writer Zeb Wells does provide us with wholly original bad jokes as he continues this rather uninspired storyline.
The plot thus far is that a bunch of rich jerks with more money than they’ll ever need decide to make even more money by investing in a reality show/Fight Club concept that will have hired super-villains going after superheroes. And Spidey, having no legal endorsement or team affiliations, is the apparent perfect test subject.
As for the bad jokes, work with me on this one… along with The Scorpion, one of the millionaires (a software magnet by the name of Edwin Hills) complains of the US trying to split up his company and decides to test his new product against Spider-Man. His new product being a robot called the XP 2000…
Gee. A software magnet with too much money, problems with the government and a revamped product, which turns out to be next to useless… I wonder who that is based on.
Sadly, that’s the high-watermark for the humor in the issue. Unless you’re a big fan of big, dumb loud Texan oil baron stereotypes. Then you might enjoy Buck Masterson: The Man Who Has No Neck!
A shame the story doesn’t work, because the artwork is as good as last issue. Nothing special, but the pencils are clean and crisp. I’ve seen better work on Spider-Man, but if I had my way I’d pick O’Hare over cover artist Herrera as the artist taking over the new Spectacular Spider-Man title when this book ends its run.
Overall, I really can’t recommend this book. It’s not that bad, but it really isn’t that good either. It reads like what I think it is: filler until the last issue and the start of the new book. The only thing I can really say with enthusiasm is that I can’t wait for Paul Jenkins to come back.
