“The Last Stand: Part 1”
Writer: Mark Millar
Artist: Terry Dodson (p), Rachel Dodson (i)
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Average Rating: 4.5/10
Bob Agamemnon: 
Craig Johnson: 
Dave Wallace: 
Bob Agamemnon
Plot: Peter Parker meets with Mac Gargan, also known as the Scorpion, who reveals the identity of Aunt May’s kidnapper, as well as the existence of a vast cabal of nefarious businessmen responsible for the existence of supervillans. At the end of the meeting, Parker is given an ultimatum. In the final pages, Gargan has a second, unexpected meeting that further complicates the situation.
Comments: There is a scene in Marvel Knights Spider-Man #1 in which Peter Parker, dressed in civilian clothes, swings across the Queensborough Bridge into Manhattan in full view of hundreds of by-standers. As he races to Aunt May’s aid, he hopes he is “flea-jumping around too fast” to be recognized. Flea-jumping: what an apt image for the nimble figure who soars overhead without flying. Spider-man’s potency as an iconic hero lies in this earth-bound yet light quality. Just as Golden Age Superman leaps rather than flies over tall buildings, Peter Parker defies gravity—without actually escaping it—because of this lightness.
Unfortunately, MK Spider-Man #9, like its predecessors, suffers from a heaviness that drags it to earth when it should be flitting from ledge to ledge.
In Peter Parker’s eleven-page conversation with the Scorpion, the close-ups of the characters’ faces are not so much frozen like ice or crystal, as petrified like fossils. The steam of their breath in the winter air, which could have been used to add a sense of quickness to the scene, instead hangs solid between their lips as if it were some strange alien breathing apparatus. The shadow cast over the Scorpion’s eyes by the brim of his baseball cap looks more like a plastic visor for a lab technician. Even the blue light of the sky seems leaden. Air, shadows, daylight: everything is rendered solid.
This cumbersomeness afflicts the writing as well. A plot possessing the virtue of lightness requires a minimum of force to move from moment to moment. Because each element has been placed in a delicately balanced relation to all of the others, the writer, with the gentlest of touches, propels the plot (and the reader) forward. If Mark Millar had constructed his story with this quality, he would not have needed to fill sandbag after sandbag full of words to make sure the reader understood. Instead, he would have been able simply to cut the lines and let this climactic chapter of the story float into the reader’s view.
This is not to say that the soap-opera nature of the plot is the problem. In the hands of other writers, Millar’s ideas could have been shorn of the dead weight that holds them down. The climactic scenes of the “Gifted” story arc in Joss Whedon’s Astonishing X-Men fall into place with a charged limpidity that belies their melodrama. Nor is wordiness the culprit. In last week’s Powers #7, Brian Michael Bendis deploys fifty-two speech bubbles in two pages. But these bubbles live up to their name, providing a buoyancy that lifts the dialogue out of the panels.
The dark and the tragic have a long history in comic books, and a call to shed weight is not a call for triviality. “Thoughtful lightness can make frivolity seem dull and heavy,” writes Italo Calvino. Marvel Knights Spider-Man #9 doesn’t fail because of its seriousness, or “grittiness,” but because it simply never makes it off the ground.
Craig Johnson
MK Spider-Man #9 finally reveals who is behind the kidnapping of Aunt May, and it’s exactly as called by Rol Hirst on the Comics_Unintentional yahoogroups mailing list the week the first issue was released, Norman Osborn. The kidnapping is one of Osborn’s contingency plans, for when Peter Parker gets him sent down; this particular one involves releasing Spidey’s true identity to the Scorpion, who kidnaps Aunt May and generally causes trouble all around. Of course, in the real world Scorp would probably just use the knowledge of Peter Parker being Spidey to get the $5 million reward from the Bugle, and then skip town. Anyway, the whole reason behind this plan? Free Norman from jail, or Aunt May gets it.
By this stage, I’m long past caring about who kidnapped Aunt May. The “revelation” behind Spidey’s foes seems to contradict JMS’s work in Amazing Spider-Man regarding his foes being totemic as Spidey himself is anyway. This book appears to live in its own little universe, with almost no justification for being under the Marvel Knights banner other than it lets Mark Millar work on Spider-Man.
With both this and his work on Wolverine disappointing, I don’t have high hopes for his upcoming other Marvel U. work (be it Hulk, Thor or whatever). He seems to work better with his own inspired books rather than this work-for-hire, well, hack work. Nothing in this book will be regarded as being one of the classic Spidey stories in years to come. It’s an ephemeral entity; here today to be forgotten tomorrow. With so many other, better, books on the stands, spend your money elsewhere.
Dave Wallace
For 8 months now, Mark Millar has lead readers of this title through a maze of super-villain shenanigans, aping Jeph Loeb’s technique from Batman’s “Hush” to introduce a different super-adversary every issue, and pit Spidey against them in his never-ending quest to find out who has kidnapped his Aunt and why. The results have been mixed: some issues have provided powerful moments of pathos and real drama, stunning and well-drawn action sequences and original takes on old villains; however, others have been painfully contrived and arriving at little in the way of real plot development, instead stringing along the wild goose chase that Peter Parker’s life seems to have become. As of last issue, we were really no closer to finding out who nabbed May than we were at the end of issue #1. This issue, however, we start to get to the real meat of the story.
It makes sense that this would all have something to do with the Green Goblin, the classic Spidey villain par excellence. It makes perfect sense that such an obsessive plotter would have a million-and-one contingency plans ready to spring into action in the event of his capture. More original however, is the reasoning Millar provides as to why Norman might be so keen to escape federal custody. Weaving a tapestry of Spider-Man’s loves and losses, Millar insinuates a sinister conspiratorial plot into the character’s history, producing an emotional and intellectual punch at the same time. I like the theory that the Green Goblin’s super-villainy was more closely tied with his alter-ego’s underhand business deals than we had ever suspected, and such a retcon makes for an interesting comment on the many recent high-profile business scams that have been so popular with the world media.
Of course, some chances that Millar takes are likely to be less than popular with longtime fans. Peter seems to be growing ever more reckless with his secret identity, not recognising former villains and indulging in public street brawls whenever the fancy takes him. Also, the revamped take on the Venom costume continues to play a significant role in proceedings, as no matter how well the excellent, slick art of the Dodsons can render it, I’m wary of such a one-dimensional character becoming such a key player in proceedings, even if Millar has plotted the series as tightly as this issue begins to suggest.
However, I’m inclined to look favourably upon the additions Millar has made to the Spider-Man canon in this issue. At the very least, he has avoided merely rehashing Spider-Man stories of old, instead using continuity in a positive way, remaining reverential to old events and characters but using them to graft on a more structured, conspiratorial view on the endless battle between super-heroes and villains. It’s a neat, original take on an old formula, and with three issues to go of his year-long arc, Millar still has plenty of time to provide surprises and twists. I’m hoping Millar doesn’t take the easy route and make this yet another Goblin versus Spidey epic, as this story holds the potential to mean a lot more.
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