Spider-Man (Vol. 2) #4

Background

Miles and Ganke have a new classmate by the name of Fabio Medina, otherwise known as Goldballs. Black Cat also has a new friend in the form of Hammerhead.

Story Details

During the lunch period of their school day, Ganke is trying to convince Miles to help him talk to Goldballs. Miles is apathetic to Ganke’s excitement, and he fails to see how he can be of any assistance to his friend. Ganke insists that Miles’ superhero status will help them interact with Goldballs, but Miles remains in a state of disbelief. Annoyed by Miles’ refusal to help, Ganke expresses his admiration for the fact that Goldballs is overweight, and admits that he looks up to him as a symbol of inspiration. He also states that Miles is unsympathetic to his own struggles of being “chubby and Asian in America.” Miles is baffled by this, and refutes Ganke’s claims that he has it worse than Miles does.

At that moment, Goldballs accidentally drops a ball on their table, thus forcing them to interact with him. Ganke attempts to play it cool, but he ends up deciding to tell Goldballs that Miles is Spider-Man. Miles attempts to refute the claim, but Ganke insists that Goldballs knowing will be good for the both of them. Infuriated, Miles storms away and goes off swinging as Spider-Man. Before he can blow off much steam however, he is attacked by a set of heat-seeking missiles. Miles manages to redirect the explosives into structures and places without civilian presence, but he ends up being knocked to the ground. As he lies unconscious, Hammerhead arrives to bring Miles to the Black Cat.

General Comments

I will just say it from the start; this is not a strong issue. It features a lot of really poor characterization, and some of the plot points addressed here are simply outlandish and mishandled.

To start, I absolutely do not like what was done with Ganke in this issue, and I think it was extremely out-of-character. Not only does he come across as generally unlikable by the way he treats Miles here, but his revealing of Miles' identity to Goldballs comes off as outlandish and quite frankly a method of betrayal. Ganke knows how important Miles' secret identity is to him, and I would've thought that he would have the decency to respect that. It comes almost out of left-field for me. The only thing about the whole debacle that actually kind of made sense was the way Miles reacted. From Ganke's race remarks (which were also out-of-character for him to make) to his revealing Miles' identity, Miles should've slapped that jerk all the way across the cafeteria. In all honesty, I think Miles actually went a bit too easy on him.

The Spidey/Hammerhead/missiles scene at the end is a fairly strong one, and I also like that Miles is a bit distracted throughout the whole thing. He's off of his normal game because of his fight with Ganke, and he also doesn't know how to maneuver against heat-seeking missiles in the middle of the city. I think it's a solid predicament for the character to be in, and the cliffhanger at the end is pretty intriguing. Next issue should be an interesting one.

Lastly, Pichelli, Carlucci, and Ponsor deliver high-quality artwork once again.

Overall Rating

I apologize for the short review, but there really wasn’t that much to discuss with this book. I will admit that while the issue is almost ruined by an unlikable and out-of-character Ganke, it is saved just at the end by the scene with Miles and the missiles. It's definitely the weakest issue of this run so far, but it's not completely terrible. It’s not good per-se, but it’s not the worst comic ever.