The mystery deepens while She-Hulk is out of the office.
Creative Staff:
Story: Dennis Hopeless
Art: Javier Rodriguez, Alvaro Lopez
What They Say:
Someone is kidnapping the loved ones of super villains and because of their connections, no one cares. No one except Jessica Drew, Spider-Woman and Ben Urich. They continue their investigation into a problem that’s going to put the whole Marvel Universe in danger!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
With Jessica now down in the street level side of things, it’s one of those areas where it’s a prime opportunity to revitalize certain areas of the Marvel world. Since there’s so many low level thugs out there that have been created over the years, the potential to work with them and make them something more is certainly worthwhile. But what we get here is mostly reinforcement that these are the kind of loser villains that exist, albeit ones that are caring about their families. There’s a touch of nuance that comes into it from time to time about how money makes the world go round and these guys will do what they can, but mostly it just fits into the whole punks with costumes and gimmicks arena, which doesn’t make them compelling nor does it make you rally behind them for potential change.
That said, there is some fun in watching how Jessica deals with them, especially since she does kind of play it superior in a way and bordering on condescending, since it’s not the typical approach in a deadpan kind of manner that it comes across as. Her dealing with Porcupine gets her a little information about what’s going on, but most of these two-bit villains have no real clue themselves and are just puppets on strings being manipulated by someone else. So she’s trying to get any clue she can to get a little further with it and really figure it all out. Of course, that takes her to Senor Suerte first, which is amusing with his whole costume and design that feels decades old before it was created, and we get a little time with Big Wheel as well as we see the kind of job he pulls to make some cash to keep his family safe. Simple, petty stuff overall, and while it makes a certain amount of sense, it just feels a little too mocking.
A lot of what we get here is the investigating side of things, and that plays well in showing how Jessica operates in and out of costume to get what she needs. The flow of it works well as she interrogates her prisoner before moving on to others, and it’s fun to watch her in costume dealing with things. We do see that she’s certainly smart in her approach to things throughout as she nudges information along and that makes her play in the final pages to get closer to the truth ring realistic, even though it’s using one of the oldest tricks in the book. Her time with Ulrich is also pretty nicely done because it helps to create a better bond between them without going too far, and it shows just what kinds of things he’s picked up over the years in being a reporter and how that length of knowledge can make an impact in the present.
In Summary:
Yeah, still not digging the goggles. That’s probably the worst part of the book, which means theres’ not much to complain about here at all. While it moves a bit on the slow side, it’s doing the detective thing and doing it well. The humor is definitely finding the right balance with her dry wit and deadpan approach to things, especially when dealing with these low level villains, and there’s a couple of interesting class/money based nods given here that helps to soften things with the villains a bit, though not enough to make you sympathize with them in any real well. Overall, it’s a lot of fun and definitely flows well, but I do wish that the opportunity had been taken to try and reinvent or modernize some of the characters while keeping their core there. But then again, when you have a villain like Kangaroo, can it really be done?
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Marvel Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: April 8th, 2015
MSRP: $3.99
