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Is It Good? Superior Spider-Man #26 Review

Comic Books

Is It Good? Superior Spider-Man #26 Review

Superior Spider-Man has been the most consistently interesting comic over the last year and that’s largely because it’s delivering a new story. OK, so it’s not all new; we still have bad guys fighting good guys and all, not to mention the body switch plot, but heck, it’s a wild ride worth reading. It seems to be all coming to a head though and issue #26 brings us one step closer. Is it good?


Superior Spider-Man #26 (Marvel Comics)


Is It Good? Superior Spider-Man #26 Review

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Dan Slott has himself the opportunity to deliver a “Goblin War” in this issue, with Green Goblin taking on the original Hobgoblin. I was a huge fan of the goblin villains when growing up, so color me tickled this is happening at all. The title designates this as a prelude to “Goblin Nation” so we’ve got bigger goblin stories coming, but at the same time Spider-Man has a bevy of issues of his own to tackle. First of which is the Avengers confronting him on some shady actions he took a few issues ago to hide his true Doc Ock identity. On top of that, semi-spoiler alert, Peter Parker is still inside his mind! That was the big reveal last issue, and while Slott doesn’t have too much page real estate to allow Peter time to develop we do get some and it’s good.

Slott balances Peter’s call to action (to take his body back) nicely with the Goblin battles. The actual battle is rather short on action, but is more about the verbal sparring between Hobgoblin and Green Goblin. We’re also told who is under the Green Goblin mask, so pick this issue up if you’ve been dying to know. The battle is made a little pointless when a twist in the end pops in, but generally speaking we get a good sense of Green Goblin’s villainy. As far as Spider-Man’s interaction with the Avengers we get just about what you’d expect when SpOck is confronted. Nothing new there, and it reads more like a necessity to erase that part of Spider-Man’s life. At this point if you haven’t realized Slott is bringing Spider-Man back to the beginning, probably to align with the new films, well news flash, this series is basically one long retcon! We should be thankful that this retcon came in an interesting story.

Is It Good? Superior Spider-Man #26 Review
Love the posing.

The art is divided up between Humberto Ramos, who gets Goblin duty, Javier Rodriguez on the Avengers portion, and Marcos Martin on Peter Parker in the mindscape. At least that’s my best guess, because Martin and Rodriguez are pretty similar in styles. This breaking up of the artists works rather well and isn’t too shocking of a transition. Sure Ramos has the bombastic panels that’s heavy on the ink, but it fits considering the other pieces are more subdued scenes by more subdued artists. In fact I’d say the use of multiple artists strengthens the read by giving us more bang for our 20 page buck.

Is It Good? Superior Spider-Man #26 Review
What a baby.

Frankly I’m surprised how unimportant Slott has made the Green Goblin reveal in this issue. We’ve got about a 100% confirmation on the identity, but it’s revealed in such a way that’s made unimportant since other characters aren’t there to witness it. Of course, this could be entirely the point, so as to have him be revealed again and again in more dramatic ways.

Is It Good? Superior Spider-Man #26 Review
Green Goblin is a Breaking Bad fan?

Is It Good?

Yet another good issue indeed and in fact a bit above average. The balancing between artists strengthens the read and there’s plenty of story elements to chew on. Oh and Peter gets a character strengthening moment!

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