Writer: Christos Gage
Art Team: Mike Hawthorne, Wade von Grawbadger, Victor Olazaba, Jordie Belaire, VC’s Clayton Cowles
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: January 23, 2019

Doc Ock is back in the Superior Spider-Man suit and trying to do good.  There are some interesting elements at play here post Spider-Geddon, so if Superior Spider-Man was something you read while Ock was back in Peter’s body, you’d think this would be right up your alley right?  So lets get right into the issue this week, where we see Ock confronts Terrax, continuing our cliffhanger at the end of issue one.

Terrax starts off his Earth adventure by deciding to be a giant jerk and pick on an old couple in a bad situation. So now that you get the idea Terrax is a terrible character, Superior Spider-Man arrives on the scene to stand up for what’s right, and for most of the remainder of the issue does his best to prove he can hang with the heavyweights.

I wish I was exaggerating when I wrote that last sentence, because we are only two issues into this series so far, I feel like its a little early to dedicate an entire issue to just Terrax, who isn’t the most interesting villain, and Ock slugging it out. We still don’t really know the overall purpose of the series so far, outside Ock proving he’s trying to be a good guy, which isn’t a bad idea but to me, won’t hold water for too long as far as an ongoing series goes.

It’s not bad don’t get me wrong. My favorite moment might be actually where Ock’s sidekicks the Night Shift show up. It’s a pretty fun scene showing just outmatched how everyone here is against Terrax, while providing a brief moment of comedy.  There’s another part where Ock, during the fight, reaches out to Anna Maria, who eventually starts chipping in to lend a hand, getting Ock out of trouble by the end. These scenes work alright but only feel like scenes that serve to contribute to the already ongoing action.  There is nothing that occurs in this issue outside this one individual fight, which to me highlights a problem with the direction of this ‘ongoing’ to start as if it doesn’t quite serve a purpose yet in the greater scheme of Spider-Books.  With so many choices it would do well to better establish itself.

Final Thoughts:

Overall, this issue is filled from start to finish with a knockdown, drag-out fight between Terrax and Superior Spider-Man.  Some of the outside cast introduced so far chips in to contribute a helping hand, but that’s all your really getting in this issue which only serves to set up a cliffhanger. The art is good and nothing about the writing here is bad, but this break in the story for a long fight feels like a strange detour right now, especially when the series has yet to establish itself.

6.0/10