Marvel Knights: Spider-Man (Vol. 2) #3

Background

Peter Parker as Spider-man has faced villains in a haunted house and in an abandoned airliner the last few issues. Tearing his way into the plane's cockpit last issue and finding it unmanned, he's tore his way out and plunged into the sea.

Story Details

Plunging into a deep dark sea, Spider-man catches a ride on a passing submarine. He runs into the Queen, who tells him he will die there down in the watery depths, but that's no reason not to “leave a legacy. Children..” She says her “pet has already retrieved your essence” and makes her exit. So much for that.

Behind another door, Spider-man next finds Venom and Carnage. After tangling with them for a bit, he continues, going past Scarecrow and Tombstone, neither of whom want to offer up much of a fight. Moving on, next he finds Nitro, who's strung up in the heart of the ship. Nitro says he's beyond fixing himself, but he can fix Spider-man, and explodes.

General Comments

It's starting to seem like this is a series that doesn't lend itself well to reviewing. It's meant to be seen, read, and experienced. Kindt writes this story in a very stream-of-consciousness way. Some of the monologues he gives the villains here, like Tombstone telling Spider-man he always saw himself as the hero of his own story, until he met Spider-man---it reads nice but I'm not sure what it's supposed to add to this narrative.

Rudy's art continues to impress. It's still a bit hard to figure out what's going in some of the scenes, particularly the fight between Spider-man, Venom and Carnage here--but still looking forward to his take on the rest of the villains. They haven't got to a Goblin yet.

Overall Rating

I'm enjoying this, there aren't many other Spider-man stories out there like it, but it's not without its flaws. Though this is probably the weakest issue yet, it's still a pretty interesting read.

Footnote

With this issue, we're up to 17 villains Spider-man has faced in this series so far.