Marvel Comics Review & Spoilers: Spider-Man & The X-Men # 5 By Elliot Kalan, Marco Failla, Ian Herring & VC – Clayton Cowles

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Spider-Man & the X-Men # 5 Review & Spoilers
STORY BY : Elliot Kalan
ART BY : Marco Failla
COLORS BY : Ian Herring
LETTERS BY : VC – Clayton Cowles
COVER BY : Stacey Lee
PUBLISHER : Marvel Comics
COVER PRICE : $3.99
RELEASE DATE : Apr. 15th, 2015

This issue starts off in The Jean Grey School, alien monsters have now bonded with the venom symbiotes and are invading the grounds attacking our heroes. As they fend off the intruders Firestar comes through with the clutch save solidifying our hero’s victory. They have won the battle but still need to win the war, so Spider-man taking control leads a team through the portal the monsters escaped through, to eradicate the problem at the source. Spider-man, Beast, and Glob with the addition of a few more Xmen emerge through the other side of the portal or bamfgate in search for DeathBird who is leading the monster symbiote army.

The new scene now seems to be a dismembered space station. As Spider-man and the rest of the flock go through the debris a surprise emerges. Abigail, Beast’s girlfriend attacks Beast, she has been compromised and bonded with a symbiote and has lost her mind. It is explained how bonding with the symbiote not only gives the host powers but greatly damages any sanity, forcing the person to become psychotic. Beast is hell bent on separating his girlfriend from the symbiote alone, awkwardly commenting for Spider-man to go ahead without him adding ” I can handle this. Frankly, it’s not that different from our lovemaking.” In true Spider-man fashion a wise comment was returned and we continued with the issue. I will say that comment by Beast did have me check the cover for the rating, it was extremely awkward and I laughed in true random fashion.

I feel Spider-man was well written in this issue, he had some of the best 1 liners and reactions as always. He continued to hold up through out the issue as a main force and came up with a genius plan to defeat the boss. DeathBird is giving most of our characters a huge go, add being surrounded by symbiote monsters, its looks like the efforts of Spider-man and his team will be futile. Just when you think all hope is lost Spider-man comes up with the brilliant idea of bonding with one of the symbiotes  for power, but using the telepath Martha’s abilities to guard his mind from the impeding insanity. Personally i thought this was genius  and it made the entire comic for me, we even got a few panels inside Spider-man’s subconscious. As the telepath continues to battle to keep Spider-man’s sanity intact he is having trouble defeating DeathBird, even with the strength of the symbiote, eventually its his comment that DeathBird should think of her child (she is pregnant) that causes her to deject the parasite costume. Once the symbiotic monsters are defeated and Spider-man is separated from his costume, thanks to Beast’s return using a sonic gun, the new challenge is returning home. They end up strapping Glob to the front of a space pod, to absorb most of the heat that will be caused from entering the atmosphere and head back to earth. Once landed everyone is accounted for, and the main surprise is finally revealed. Through out the comic they have referenced that someone on the hero side is a mole, because the villains have found certain locations proving they have inside information. On the final panel it is reveled that Ernst has been the traitor all along appearing with MR. Sinister.

Personally my socks weren’t blown off here but it was a good solid comic. I like the artwork and the story carried though out the issue well. I loved Spider-man in this, his wise cracks and genius problem solving skills really saved the day, and add the random comment from Beast made this comic worth reading. I will say that I wish there was a little more, reading this I don’t have too much of an anticipation for the next issue but I will check it out. I would have liked to see a bit more from the other characters, but with the page count they had they did the best they could action wise.

The build for who the mole has been was also solid, and with the emergence of Mr. Sinister I expect to see a lot next issue. I give this about a 6.5 or 7 out of 10. No need to run to the comic shop in my opinion, but if you see it grab it.

– Grainbelt Jones

Mr. Jones has been a life long nerd, he started collecting vinyl, action figures, and comic books at a very young age. As he grew older his passions evolved into Djing, producing music, writing and traveling. He caught the wrestling bug in 95 after going to the first WCW episode on TNT, at the mall of America, and has been hooked ever since. A new collecting habit of wrestling tapes was born that night where he learned the history of wrestling as well as taping the present weeks during the Monday night wars. Through that process he became a lifer and the habit is not easily broken, and shows today in his mid 20's. His passion for art shows through his music and his obsession with comic books, which has also transformed into a hefty collection. You can expect good articles and reviews on, wrestling, comics, games and figures and anything else Mr. Jones may decide to tackle! Hope you enjoy! Thanks!!