Superior Spider-Man: No Escape

The Spider-Slayer is locked up in an island prison off the coast of New York City awaiting execution for a brutal murder.  Despite overwhelming danger, Mayor J. Jonah Jameson insists on being present.  I’d like to say everything goes smoothly, but there wouldn’t be much of a story then would there?

Just before he’s set to meet his maker, The Slayer unleashes his plan for escape as several of Spidey’s foes are being given free reign over the prison.  Can the Superior Spider-Man keep the civilians safe, take down his foes and re-capture the Spider Slayer?

I grabbed this one from the local library thinking that I had already read volume two.  It wasn’t until I was about a quarter of the way in that I realized I couldn’t remember anything from the prior instalment.  Turns out I didn’t read it after all.  However, as Stan Lee famously said, “every comic book is someone’s first”, I wasn’t lost for long as series writer Dan Slott – in sticking with Lee’s credo – did a great job bringing me up to speed.

This series continues to impress me.  You would think the idea of doing a “body-switching storyline” would come off as desperate, but Slott has managed to breathe new life into the wall-crawler.  Spider-Man has always been known as a trash-talking comedian, but with Otto Octavius’ straight man routine applied to the web-slinger, it works just as well, if not better.

Now, to go back and get volume two.