#something something naked back reveal with Mysterion

[candyunicornsateme]

Even though I'm in camp "Kenny doesn't have scars from his deaths or fatal injuries", I think he'd probably have a few pretty "cool" scars. Like at least one or two is a fun story like "sliding down rocky hill" or "racing Cartman with plastic cups strapped to their feet".

[hellzyeahthewebwieldingavenger]

Symbiote Spider-Man #3 Thoughts

PAD is back on form baby!

After a lackbuster issue #2, this issue gets back to what made issue #1 so great!

Like issue #1 the beauty and appeal of this story lies in how is ‘dances between the raindrops’ of the original Alien Costume Saga and how well PAD researched it to do that. Like i said back in issue #1 it is what that awful ASM 2018 annual should have been, even Felicia’s costume is correct.

It isn’t just that the issue works so well (mostly) in established continuity but sans the artwork and to a much lesser extent the dialogue (both of which are modern, the art moreso) this issue could’ve easily been part of the original Alien Costume Saga or indeed any 1980s Marvel comic.

The fun of the issue is how it toys with the power of hindsight. Whilst Deadpool: Back in Black or other flashback stories to this time period use the power of hindsight in such a way that, you can only really get an enjoyable read out of them when you’ve read the era they’re flashbacking to, this story does a lot to really feel like it is part of that time period.

The moments it plays with the power of hindsight are few and subtle, in fact being more relevant to pop culture jabs than anything else, such as referencing Cats and Disney.

Just about the only things that I spotted that were a little wonky continuitywise were

a)      Felicia claiming she wishes she had someone like Aunt May in her life. But she does, her mother. Admittedly you can easily No. Prize this as Felicia making a jab and playing loose with the truth. And in fairness back then the exact nature of Felicia’s relationship with her mother wasn’t pinned down. I’m not even sure if it is now because that BND era Black Cat mini-series presented it as strained IIRC (I only skimmed it)

b)      Felicia stealing a piece of the black costume. I just feel if she really did do something like that, betray Spidey like that, it’d be something that’d stick in her mind and would come up. You’d think it’d especially come up when she encountered Venom. Now in fairness maybe this will be resolved in the next issue. Again I guess you could maybe No. Prize why this was never brought up before but it is a little iffy

Speaking of iffy I have seen a criticism regarding the issue of consent in this comic, specifically because Felicia shows up at Peter’s place (I think it’s Peter’s place) and comes onto him, which he’s onboard with and then we cut to Peter talking in his sleep undressed, presumably naked, with Felicia commenting that she used knockout chemicals in her lipstick (has she ever had that before? Why hasn’t she used that since? Another little problem, maybe Mysterion gave it to her).

Obviously this is a betrayal of trust on her part no two ways about that but as far as consent is concerned,  we get into the topic of ‘Van Lente logic’ as I call it. We don’t see what happens just the before and after so what happened, in spite of implications, is up in the air.

For all we know Felicia got Peter undressed then kissed him/let him kiss her/they kissed each other and then WHAM he was unconscious. Then, unless they were already in bed, she could’ve put him in bed and gotten down to business with the suit.

Again, absolutely a betrayal, but if that’s what happened then no sex would’ve occurred.

I think that’s logically the most likely scenario here, I don’t think Felicia drugged him during or after sex.

There is one other tiny little problem regarding Felicia though...her narration. In one scene she narrates out loud to herself. Now this would be a nitpick usually because characters shouldn’t be written as speaking out loud dialogue that obviously should be internal narration *glares at Bendis*. However what upgrades it from a nitpick to a problem (albeit not a gamebreaking one) is that her speaking out loud to herself factors into the plot as it almost reveals Peter’s identity to Mysterio and also gives him some leverage to use against her.

Apart from that the only other problem is Land’s obviously traced artwork (which otherwise would look so nice) and it’s obvious referencing of...adult material...

Everything else in the issue was great.

The Electro fight, though superfluous for the most part, was a fun injection of action into the issue, with a clever little twist on the usual way Electro gets defeated. It’s not revolutionary but it’s something I can’t recall happening before (though maybe it has).

Felicia was very much in character here and PAD makes great use of her (as he often has done) and in particular this unique time period where she was in a vulnerable position. He balances out her betrayal and her disinterest in Peter Parker’s life with a sincere respect for Aunt May and a desire for her and Peter to reconcile. Felicia as always is at her best, when not strictly good nor bad but a bit of both and something in between.

Mysterio is also great in this story. PAD has expressed a fondness for a the character in the past, you can tell this from his Mysterio trifecta story from his FNSM days, but here being allowed to write the OG Mysterio who is definitely alive and not at all associated with demonic powers he’s enjoying it alot.

I’d go so far as to say this is starting to stack up as one of the best rendition of Mysterio ever. He’s clever, manipulative, powerful in his own way, but clearly has limits and isn’t all bad either.

Last issue I was wondering how Ohmm and Kingpin were going to factor into the story as they were rather useless last issue but now I see where it was going I love it. it validates issue #2 for me.

Some final little points:

·         The recap page was cool, how it was a Bugle front page but one that felt like Jameson actually wrote it back in the 1980s, complete with contemporary references to Hulk and the Punisher

·         The cover title has some Carnage red bleeding into it. It’s a cool effect and I hope it keeps up into the next issues as the title transitions into Absolute Carnage

·         I don’t know what that backup story was about at all, mybe set up for Absolute Carnage?

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