Web of Spider-Man (Vol. 1) #105

Story 'Soul Gauntlet'

The Goddess makes Spidey hallucinate to remove his self-doubt. We get a split story with both Spider-Man and Peter confronting their demons. Meanwhile, at ESU, Robbie and Betty are using their undercover reporter skills to investigate a government-funded project being run by Marla, Jonah's wife.

The Goddess' tasks finally makes Pete accept that Spider-Man is a part of him and he decides to join in with the other heroes.

General Comments

Each of these books have a second story featuring that Goddamn Nightwatch character. As if Kavanagh's stories weren't bad enough, we also have to put up with him ramming some z-list 'hero' down out throats too. If you buy a Spider- Man book, then surely it's to read about SPIDER-MAN, not somebody different!

The Infinity Crusade is more Kavanagh nonsense. I don't mean to have a permanent downer on the guy but he doesn't seem to have a clue what it means to write a Spider-Man story. Alien planets and the like just don't have a place in Spidey books - that was what always made Spider-Man so different from other heroes.

What I do like, though, is the development of the Betty/Robbie investigating Jonah's wife story. It's the first thing Kavanagh has done since he took over that I've thought had promise. Let's hope he doesn't blow it...

Overall Rating

0.5 because it's the lowest score and an extra 0.5 for the Robbie/Betty idea.