Spider-Man #16 Review and *SPOILERS* - Marvel Monday

Bar Fight

Written By: Brian Michael Bendis
Art By: Oscar Bazaldua, Justin Ponsor
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: May 3, 2017
Publisher: Marvel

*Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*

Last month, Miles’ mother found out that her husband was working for S.H.I.E.L.D. and that Miles was the new Spider-Man. She felt beyond betrayed that she was kept in the dark for so long. Needless to say, the Morales family has been on thin ice ever since. However, we are finally out of the Sitting in a Tree storyline and anything could be better than whatever cocktease that was. I’m honestly kind of sick of these small crossovers between two books that never ends up having any lasting effect. The only thing from this crossover that has stuck around so far has been that Miles’ dad was missing for a little while and that led to the discovery of him working for S.H.I.E.L.D. Anyway, lets just jump right into this issue.

We begin with four men at a table discussing the Avengers when the wall is destroyed next to them and Hammerhead walks through the hole. He introduces the Black Cat who tells the men there that she knows who they work for and tells them to give them a message for her. In not so many words, the message is “Don’t fuck with me”. She lets them go to send the message and then ransacks the place and ultimately burns it to the ground. In doing so, Felicia has declared war on the unseen party. We cut away to Miles who is sitting on a park bench to meet his mother. She shows up and it is obviously awkward between the two. She asks him how he got his powers and he explains it. He tells her how Uncle Aaron had stolen a genetically altered spider. Miles apologizes to his mom but she is clearly still hurting. She feels like her entire life has been something of a lie and she ends up leaving.

Back at his school dorm, Ganke is trying to convince Goldballs to go back into the field. Fabio tells him that he’s going to but he’s taking it slow. Miles is quiet though and he ends up suiting up and going out into the night. He comes across a man stealing a woman’s purse. Miles easily deals with him and returns the woman’s belongings. However, when he turns around, the man is gone. He used a knife to free himself and Miles takes off after him. He turns to a local bar and grill and it seems that many criminals are inside. They immediately begin fighting and despite getting a few good shots in, Miles is able to easily overpower them all. Spider-Man realizes that he has beaten up the entire bar and he clearly realizes he’s in some sort of trouble. Meanwhile, Ganke is meeting up with the vlogger girl once again. They are sharing information and things suddenly turn flirty and she leans in to kiss him. He doesn’t realize it at first and them moment turns awkward for a moment but she brings it back. This is where the issue leaves us.

This is a set up issue mostly. We just got out of a big storyline with Sitting in a Tree and this issue is mostly about setting up a new story. Miles’ mother is now aware of who he is and he’s clearly struggling with his now broken family so much that he goes on a fighting spree and takes on a whole bar. Black Cat has begun a war with an unseen rival and Ganke has begun to get close to the new vlogger girl. The art in this book continues to be really special. I love looking a this book but the rest of it was a bit bland. What little did happen will most likely have effects on the future of this book but as for this issue, nothing really happens. Even the big fight scene is between nameless criminals. I’m beginning to wonder if this book needs new direction.

Bits and Pieces

This book is far from bad. Hell, the art in this book is good enough to entertain any reader. However, this is a set up issue and those are rarely very exciting. However, this issue will hopefully pay off in the next few issues. However, I have begun to wonder whether the many crossovers that this book has been involved in have finally taken a huge toll on this book. This is the 16^th issue of this series and only 8 of those issues haven’t been involved in a crossover.

6.5/10