Writer: Peter David
Art Team: Greg Land, Jay Leisten, Frank D’Armata, VC’s Joe Sabino Release Date: May 8, 2019
Cover Price: $3.99

The first issue of Symbiote Spider-Man completely took me by surprise and provided a very well rounded story telling experience with excellent art.  Needless to say the hype for issue two was real, in my mind at least, and it was one of the first books I jumped into this week as a result. Tired of the constant Marvel event cycle at the moment, this book was a breath of fresh air at the right moment, so lets discuss issue two here and see some more of Spider-Man’s untold past with the black suit.

The issue begins with some narration of Mysterio reiterating how much he hates Spider-Man, even throwing a callback in there in the form of an editors note, to show what Mysterio is so upset about, and how that relates to present day.  From there its off to setup Alan Jennings, who is fired from a movie set for playing too rough during a fight scene, then recruited by Mysterio as HardRock to take down Spider-Man for cash.  Although Jennings villain name leaves a lot to be desired, it’s more used as a reason to quickly and classically spell out what the characters power set is, in my mind anyway.  Regardless the beginning of the issue is pretty good setup for whats to come and the art remains very strong on the book overall from start to finish.

Getting back to our hero, Spider-Man is swinging through the city, waiting for something to happen, when he spots Mysterio … or at least a hologram of him in a few different spots. The entire hologram situation ends up being a ploy setup to lure Spider-Man into a fight with HardRock.  As it turns out this newly discovered ex-stuntman, turned villain, packs a mean punch. He quickly ends up getting the upper hand on our off guard hero, then as HardRock is holding a gun to Spidey’s head, and about to pull the trigger, we get a huge surprise moment in the issue I’m not going to outright spoil right here, but is certainly something stunning.

The issue closes with Mysterio once again holding his head in his hands, feeling sorry for himself, as his plans have been foiled by Spider-Man once again. However we see glimpses of Mysertio reaching out for the help of Wilson Fisk as his desperation to deal with Spider-Man continues to grow.  This is a good self contained issue as well as something that adds to the whole of the story, something I wish I found surprisingly in more issues I picked up on a weekly basis.

Overall, Symbiote Spider-Man continues to impress with a great combination of writing and art. So far this throwback tale to Spider-Man’s past has been something I find as a worthwhile addition to the Symbiote suits lore.  There is some good character work featuring Mysterio at play here as well, as we continue to see him become more desperate to succeed, he remains an interesting villain to dig into. This is a series I highly recommended to any Spider-Man fan or even someone interested in discovering more about Mysterio for the upcoming movie.

8.2/10