Spider-Man: With Great Power #5

Background

With the Daily Bugle ruining Spider-Man's reputation with negative press, Spidey reluctantly goes into the hero business and he's about to find out firsthand just how difficult it can be.

Story 'With Great Power'

Spidey is perched on the wall of a police station where an elderly man is about to commit suicide. In trying to prevent the guy from jumping, Spidey says the wrong thing and he takes the leap. Luckily, Spidey catches him before he hits the ground.

Later on at Tiffany's Spidey tells her that he doesn't feel he's cut out for the hero business. She says Angel knows of a bank heist that's going down the tomorrow and Spidey questions just where Angel gets his info and wonders why he doesn't call the cops. If he did, Angle would be in danger. Spidey feels like his life is no longer his own.

The next day, just as Tiffany said, the bank job is going down. Spidey drops down and spooks the robbers, causing the driver to floor it injuring a few of the other crooks in the process. He crashes into a fire hydrant and Spidey feels like a total chump.

Angle sees the next edition o the Daily Bugle, which slams Spider-Man for endangering lives out in public. Angle thinks he should pay a visit to Jameson but Tiffany suggests otherwise, stating that Spidey isn't ready for this type of life and he's about to snap. Angel gets rough with her and tellers her that it's her job to make sure he is ready.

When Spidey stops by Tiffany's that night, she's got a black eye in addition to being wasted. Spidey finally decides to come clean and pulls of his mask but Tiffany is so hammered she says she'll be lucky if she can even remember her was here. Tiffany tells Peter that Angel is on his way to shut Jameson up for good. Just as Jameson faints from Angel's thug getting rough with him, Spidey crashes through the window. After saving Jonah's life, Spidey takes a look at the editorial he was typing and makes several alterations.

The next day, Jameson sees the Bugle headline which praises Spider-Man's crime fighting. Jameson is not pleased. Swinging off, Spidey admits what he did was childish, but he is a kid and he thinks its time he started to act like one. Stopping by Tiffany's he sees all her things are cleared out. He knows he'll never see her again and he's fine with it.

Peter's on his way home when he sees the two police cars parked in front of his house. Running inside, Peter finds aunt May crying. Peter asks where uncle Ben is. Uncle Ben is... alive? He walks in shortly after Peter. He was looking all over for Peter because he was gone for a whole week. Thankful that uncle Ben is OK, he gives him a big hug. On the TV, the news reports of an armed robber on the loose...

General Comments

Peter's apprehensiveness about being a hero was good and his mistakes didn't feel forced. He's only being a hero to fix his damaged reputation caused by the negative Bugle editorials. He doesn't feel like a kid anymore and it seems like his life has snowball out of control. Good stuff.

Uncle Ben stayed alive through all five issues? Something I didn't expect, but its an interesting change. We all know how the story goes. Spidey's origin has been done to death and even if uncle Ben wasn't killed within the actual book, the way the story ends, you already know what would happen next. On the flip side of this, we don't actually get to see Peter lose his uncle and learn what Ben taught him the hard way.

Everything wraps up here, but I still couldn't help but feel a sense of disappoint after reading this issue. I can't really explain it, but after what happened in the previous issues, I guess I was expecting more. The art in this issue isn't nearly as polished as it was in the first four issues and this is probably because Tony Harris wasn't around for the art duties. No offense to David Lapham, but he should stick to the writing chores. In his defense, it could have been the inker, Stefano Gaudiano's fault for making the art look so rough around the edges.

Overall Rating

A nice ending to a good mini series, albeit, a somewhat disappointing ending.