Sensational Spider-Man (Vol. 2) #29

Background

Spider-Man's Peter Parker identity is now public Civil War #2. Teaming with Iron Man on the pro-registration side of the Civil War, Spidey is beginning to think he may have made the wrong choice and is also beginning to worry about how much information his new suit is feeding back to its creator, Tony Stark Amazing Spider-Man #534. Meanwhile, the Green Goblin is back… Civil War Front Line #4.

Story Details

Chameleon is sat on some bleachers at a kids' baseball game talking to Mark Raxton – the Molten Man. He is trying to persuade him to join a plot against Peter Parker. Electro is stood just away from the field and Chameleon tells Raxton that, if he doesn't go along with the plan, Electro will fry every kid on the field – starting with No.11, who Raxton looks after.

Meanwhile, Peter is fighting The Scarecrow (?). He falls through the roof of a building and comes face-to-face with … The Green Goblin. Except that it's not. Ebenezer Laughton – The Scarecrow – has released a pheromone that is making Peter see things that aren't there. His problem is that Peter's new Spidey suit has a purifier in it, though. Spidey whacks him and realises it is just the Scarecrow. Will-o' The Wisp also shows up but Peter uses his suit to escape their attacks. They then disappear.

Meanwhile, MJ is in her dressing room at a theatre. The other cast members listen in while she argues to Peter on the phone, while a guy surrounded by bees (Swarm?) watches from above.

Black Cat is with Thomas Firehart – The Puma – decrying the fact that Peter unmasked on TV and that the stations keep replaying it.

Peter goes to Madame Web to ask if the villains attacking him in broad daylight was part of a bigger plot, or simply a one-off. She says she cannot tell him. Meanwhile at Liz Allan's, Mark Raxton shows up as the Molten Man and tells her he's sorry.

General Comments

OK, let's start with the negatives just to get them out of the way. First up, the non-Green Goblin moment was a little bit of a cop-out – especially as the first few pages had already been released! I also don't really know why a pseudo Batman villain had to be used when there are plenty of bad guys in the Marvel Universe that could have been employed. I'm also not sure why he and Will-o' suddenly disappeared when they seemingly had the upper hand.

My one other gripe isn't necessarily the writer's fault. It's Spidey's new suit. It's pretty much gotten to the stage where you're wondering what the thing CAN'T do, not what it can. The latest revelation is that it has a purifier built in. That's to go alongside the invisibility powers, the ability to fly, the extra arms, the facility to contact other heroes, the built-in toaster, the dvd player with surround sound and anything else I've forgotten. OK – maybe the toaster and dvd player is an exaggeration but things really are getting out of hand.

Aside from that, though, this was a pretty promising start to the Enemies… arc. I like that Chameleon is building himself an army of sorts to take on Peter now that his identity is out. It's much better than just some random villain having a go and rings much truer. His threat to the children comes across as very menacing and much more in the keeping of someone who is a super-villain, not just a whipping boy for the heroes. I do also like the continuity being kept from the previous issues with Black Cat seeing Puma.

Overall Rating

A decent start that's definitely worth sticking with. Angel Medina's art isn't as on-the-money as Clayton Crain's but the team on Sensational is pretty decent, so there are no real complaints.