Amazing Spider-Girl #18

Background

Nothing much happening here. Well, except for the mysterious crime lord offering the Kingpin's old files to the highest bidder, and every crime boss in New York wanting a piece of the action, and Spider-Girl getting caught up in the middle of everything before finding herself captured by Hobgoblin and dumped in the middle of the auction, and all this while May's little brother goes into surgery to repair his hearing damage, but why nitpick?

Story 'My Ally, My Enemy'

May is trapped in some sort of substance of the Hobgoblin's that is strong enough to contain her (though porous enough to allow her to breathe.) Hobby, meanwhile, is demanding the Kingpin's files. Crimelord says that she might be willing to turn them over for the right price, which causes the other crime bosses in the building a bit of consternation. Tired of the threats, Crimelord signals a man in the projection booth who blows up Hobby's glider from behind (why not just kill him?) The other crime bosses in the room start to move in on Hobgoblin when one of them reveals himself to be Mindworm. Hobby orders him to control the other bosses but Mindworm tells him that he's through being the Goblin's flunky. "Since I'm the one with the power, I deserve to be in charge." And if things can't get any worse, Spider-Girl's phone rings. It's her dad, checking in from the hospital wondering where she is.

Mindworm tells Crimelord that he'll find his brains scrambled if he doesn't hand over the files. Hobgoblin interrupts by tossing a gas bomb onto Spider-Girl, purportedly killing her. In reality, he freed her from the enclosure and the two reluctantly team up against the army of bad guys surrounding them.

Meanwhile, across town, Davida Kirby meets up with her new beau, Wes, to tell him that the reason she went out with him was to force May's hand. "Admit it, Wes. You're crazy about Mayday." She tells him that May will be at the hospital and could probably use a shoulder to lean on.

Back at the theater, Spider-Girl and Hobgoblin manage to take care of most of the baddies (May even takes the opportunity to answer one of her father's calls) and Spider-Girl ends up dropping Mindworm with one shot. Just then the police enter and Crimelord takes the opportunity to escape. Spider-Girl recognizes the person following Crimelord and takes off after them, leaving Hobby for the policy. In a nearby train yard, Crimelord is confronted by Charlie Kurkle, whom he recognizes. Charlie demands the files, but suddenly screams and collapses to the ground. Deadspot materializes behind him and tells Crimelord to surrender the files. Crimelord rips off his mask to reveal himself... uh, HERSELF as Mona Carlo and drops to Charlie's side. Deadspot is not exactly touched by the show of emotion, but gets touched rather violently in the head by Spider-Girl, who finally arrives on the scene. Deadspot tries to disappear, but Spider-Girl tracks her via spider sense, rips the power pack off the back of her costume, and knocks her unconscious.

Returning to Mona and Charlie, Spider-Girl realizes that Deadspot killed him. Mona confesses that she never had the files, that it was all a trick, and sobs about how she gave up on the two of them. Drasco arrives to tell Spider-Girl that Hobgoblin and Mindworm both escaped. Spider-Girl apologizes for thinking that he was Crimelord, and heads off to the hospital.

In a nearby alley, Mindworm is calmly walking away from the scene disguised as a police officer when Hobgoblin grabs him by the neck. As you can imagine, he's not to happy with his former subordinate's betrayal. He tells Mindworm that he originally planted a small subcutaneous bomb in the back of Mindworm's neck when they first met and takes out a remote. Mindworm begs for his life, offering to give up Spider-Girl's secret identity, but Hobby fries his brain.

At the hospital, a relieved May is happy to learn that she wasn't needed to give a blood transfusion, and the whole family soon learns that Ben's hearing has been restored. May, getting a drink of water, runs into Wes but is even happier to see Gene. The two kiss as Wes walks away, and May--still shaken by Charlie's death--promises to make their relationship work this time.

General Comments

Okay, for somebody who supposedly doesn't trust anybody, the Hobgoblin sure ended up trusting Mindworm too far. I mean, complain all you want, Hobby, but if you were dumb enough to give the dear, departed Mr. Turner that much control over your scheme, you deserved what you got.

Well now we know WHY somebody actually thought "Crimelord" would be an appropriate name for a bad guy: that bad guy was an amateur. Mona actually had a pretty good setup, complete with the sniper in the projection booth (although it still strains credulity that he wouldn't just shoot Hobgoblin in the back rather than merely take out his glider) but in the end this scheme of hers was a disaster waiting to happen. Her grief over her dead boyfriend would seem a bit more appropriate, however, had she not spent time in a battered woman's shelter in the beginning of the series because of him.

The best part of this issue, in my estimation, was that Spider-Girl finally got to kick a little butt. She took out several New York crime bosses, decked Mindworm, and took down Deadspot (and it was the right time to do so, too; this particular character was starting to get annoying.) Too bad she picked Gene Thompson over Wes, but she wouldn't be a Parker if she didn't screw up her social life somehow. That Baby Ben's hearing could be restored was a bit of a cop out, if you ask me. Having May deal with a brother whose hearing she damaged could've made for a good long-running plotline. Not to mention the fact that long-time readers of this site might appreciate seeing the return of the "Lothridge School for the Deaf."

In any event, this was a fun issue, though hardly a classic. Hobgoblin was a major disappointment, though. About the only things he did right were free Spider-Girl and zap Mindworm. But I guess we all have our bad days....

Overall Rating

I'll give it four webs. Time to move away from Hobgoblin, the Kingpin's files, and Detective Drasco for a while. They've served their purpose.