Web of Spider-Man (Vol. 1) #123

Background

This follows straight on from Spider-Man 56.

Story 'True Lies'

Scarlet is battling the dragon, Spidey wants answers from Kaine and the third Peter is in a town somewhere unsure of who he is. Scarlet gets the better of the monster, then whacks Jackal.

Elsewhere, May wakes from her coma. Scarlet has captured Jackal and he is being led off by tight security to go to Ravencroft. Jackal isn't too upset because he wanted to get into Ravencroft and find out what Traveller did back in Power And Responsibility (Web 117). The Jackal's minion, Jack, gives Scarlet a disk with files on it he says will prove Ben is the original Peter. Jackal clicks his fingers and Jack disintegrates.

Kaine doesn't want to talk to Spider-Man and beats him up before disappearing. At the hospital May is awake but weak and wants to see Peter. On to of the infamous smoke stack, Ben is there with the disc Jack gave him. He throws the disc into the water, though, confident that he is not the real Spidey.

At the police office, Det Trevane and Raven are told the warrant hasn't come through yet. Elsewhere the third Peter wakes up. Muggers try to get him but he acts on instinct and batters them.

General Comments

This two-parter along with the last three (Smoke And Mirrors) have just made things a lot, lot more complicated. There's supposed evidence that both Peter and Ben are genuine and a third Peter on the loose too. We also still no idea who Kaine / Traveller / Scrier and Seward are. It seems that instead of dealing with plot-lines, the collective writers seem content to pile more and more story on top of it leading to an endless amount of open-ended strands.

This makes reading very frustrating because instead of getting the pay-off, you instead get more and more build-up. There's also just too many characters involved to stay on top of things.

Overall Rating

Too convoluted.