Comic Review -- Scarlet Spider #3: Scarlet Fury! / Christopher Yost, Ryan Stegman, Mike Babinski, Marte Gracia, and Wade von Grawbadger

I have to say, I'm really liking the covers for this series so far.  It's like a parade of poster shots for Kaine's new persona, and they all look pretty bad-ass so far.  This one is particularly menacing, with the angry Scarlet Spider glaring at you with the full moon directly behind him.  Excellent posing, excellent composition, and wonderful execution.  This one's a win.

Kaine starts off foiling a mugging of one of Houston's citizens, scaring the hell out of the mugger and telling him to leave town before continuing his quest to take care of Aracely, the young woman he saved last issue.  He asks a local bartender, Annabelle Adams, for help watching over her, which she reluctantly provides after Aracely at first attacks her.  With a little help from Donald Meland, the doctor he spoke to who was treating Aracely, Kaine sneaks into the ruins of the hospital where he fought the Salamander to get medical supplies.

When an assassin tries to kill Meland, Kaine defends him and ambushes the killer.  In the ensuing fight, Kaine is gassed by the assassin, forcing him to remove his mask.  The assassin, who reveals himself to be a member of the Assassins Guild, recognizes Kaine, and escapes before Kaine can recover, leaving Kaine certain that the Guild will be coming for him, in force, very soon.  Apparently, our boy has really ticked off its leader, Belladonna.

This issue, even more than the last one, is establishing Kaine's supporting cast and major players.  Doctor Meland is given both a name and a basic personality; Wally Layton, his husband, is similarly established; Annabelle Adams is introduced; and, of course, there's Aracely, who's been Kaine's focus since things started. More interestingly, we get a glimpse of who his main nemeses are: the Assassins Guild.

Yeah.  The New Orleans-based, take-no-prisoners group of baddies that's given Wolverine, the X-Men, and even the Hand a run for their money.  Those guys.

Even though there are two action scenes in this issue, it still feels more like a breather for Kaine and company while the bigger pieces of the arc are maneuvered into place.  And that's fine by me; cover-to-cover action gets pretty exhausting pretty quickly, and good storytelling develops other areas as well.  One rather serendipitous moment from this issue that confused me was why the hell Kaine asked Annabelle for help.  What was his reason for picking some random, red-headed bartender hottie to ask for help?  All I can think is that, as Peter Parker's genetic clone, maybe he has a predisposition for redheads?  I dunno, it just seemed really random, as he didn't really know her and had no good reason to trust her.

I'm personally very curious to know just what Kaine did to piss off Belladonna to the point that he now knows the Assassins Guild will be coming after him instead of Meland.  I'm sure it'll be mentioned next issue, but I can only imagine it was something both vicious and vulgar, and perhaps a touch hilarious.  In any case, I'll be sticking around to see what it is.

Artistically, this series continues to delight.  Stegman has been really good at including at least one poster-worthy pose for Kaine when he's in costume, and he does both action and dramatic scenes very well.  I'm a little confused about how Kaine looks in a couple of panels, where it looks like his costume is... I dunno... cloaking and un-cloaking?  Is there some tech in that thing that makes him look like that?  Or is the heat in Houston just making the air sweat and swelter that much around him?

Overall, I like this issue and this story arc.  I'm sure it'll get intense as the Guild brings more assassins to town looking for him, and I'm eager to see how he handles it.  If we know one thing by now about Kaine, it's this: he won't handle it anything like Spider-Man would.  Highly recommended.

Comic Review -- Scarlet Spider #2: After Life / Christopher Yost, Ryan Stegman, Mike Babinski, and Marte Gracia

It took me forever to get a copy of Scarlet Spider #2--I hadn't started a pull list by that point.  While I've since corrected that mistake, I still had to wait over a month for a second printing.  Once I got it, I finally allowed myself to read the issues in sequence.  Now, I can finally start reviewing them for you.

There doesn't seem to be as much detail in the second printing variant cover--and explosion seems to have been replaced with simple orange space--but it's still a decent picture.  Kaine is still obviously escaping from a crumbling pile of something, and looking pretty cool doing it.  I'd prefer the full picture for a poster or t-shirt, but this one's not bad for denoting a second printing.

Kaine has done his one good deed, saved a young immigrant girl from a horrible fate, and is ready to leave her in the hospital, washing his hands clean of any further involvement.  He's denied the need to help others, and this isn't his problem.  But when he sees an explosion coming from the direction of the building in which he left her, he flies right back into action, finally donning the Scarlet Spider costume--which looks cool as hell, I might add--and gets into a fight with someone called Salamander, who's hunting the girl down.  Kaine wins the fight, showing during the fight that he's not Spider-Man, pulling a gun and webbing up Salamander after beating him viciously.

When he goes to check on the girl, Aracely, he is asked by her doctor and a local cop to stay in Houston, where a superhero is needed.  They tell him that everyone saw what he did today, and that he'd be a welcome guardian for Houston.  Kaine initially refuses, but then decides otherwise, using some of the money he's come across to take Aracely and keep her in his luxury hotel suite, where he can keep an eye on her.  He finds himself unable to leave Houston yet, seeing a second chance at life and the opportunity to do some good and make amends for his violent past.

It was nice to see Kaine finally put on the costume and throw down with a supervillain.  We can see that, while he's not Peter Parker, he's definitely cut from the same cloth, deep down: he can't abide the suffering of innocent people, no matter what he says.  Despite a much more brutal fighting style and brusque manner, he still has a need to be the good guy, to do the right thing.  It's been his habit to do the opposite up until recently, but he's showing a gradual migration to the side of angels.  We'll have to see how far he gets.

We can also start to see the formation of a supporting cast of characters for Kaine as he starts putting down roots.  People are getting names--Aracely, for instance--and characters like her doctor are getting more exposure than they normally would if they were simply throw-away background characters.  Sure, it feels a bit formulaic, but it does make a certain amount of sense.  Kaine, for all his curtness, is not the Punisher, and will need the help of others, both for superheroing and to help him find and explore his humanity.  I'll be interested to see how this turns out.

Artistically, I very much enjoyed this issue.  The action sequences were intense and fluid, and I just loved the full-page shot of Kaine in the Scarlet Spider costume.  The black and red really works.  Salamander's flames, explosions, and super-heated air made for a visually interesting fight.  Stegman's people look realistic, distinct, and expressive, and his backgrounds nicely complement the main action.

Overall, I'm impressed.  I like the fact that my city, Houston, now has its own "superhero," even if Kaine despises the term.  I'll be interested to see how things progress, and whether the narrative will be able to maintain a compelling story in this new locale.  I like the look and feel of things so far.  Highly recommended.