AMAZING #92.Beyond Review and Spoilers: Benextwaving Goodbye to Subplots

[Pav]

Hello to every BenFriend and Benemy alike! Let's walk through the new issue in the Beyond arc, shall we?

1) Nothing much to say about the cover, except that I've definitely been curious about the Blackstar thingy.

2) I was pleasantly surprised to see the Slingers mentioned on the recap page!

3) BACK TO THE CLIFFHANGER BECAUSE OH NO COLLEEN IS ABOUT TO GET EATEN---- no, she's fine. She's got help from Morbius, who leaps into action!

4) And his plan is to jump into the monster's mouth...?! Colleen looks on, very not okay with what just happened. But Morbius seems not the least bit perturbed by his being chomped on -- especially because he figures his blood will mess with the equilibrium of vampire/lizard in the monster. AND HE'S A SCIENTIST, FOLKS. HE KNOWS WHAT HE'S TALKING ABOUT.

5) *splortch*

6) Morbius says he never wants to see the Daughters of the Dragon again, but I'm all about a new Nextwave book, Marvel! Put these misfits on a team and have them fight weird stuff!

7) Meanwhile, Monica Rambeau is at another Beyond facility, ready to take it apart. We get an interesting monologue regarding how she views her past that also serves to explain her current situation: "Be angry. Be crazy. Be dangerous. Be unlikable. Treat yourself. You've earned it. This is the third time I've taken beyond down. I've used any number of Spider-Men and Daughters of the Dragon to do it."

8) OMG IT'S NEXTWAVE MACHINE MAN

9) Pretty hilarious conversation regarding Aaron's go at supervillainy, and I liked the rundown on where the other Nextwave members are. I'd still love to know what's up with The Captain, though!

10) "Draczilla" isn't bad. But he's also splortched now, so, little late for a proper name.

11) I know some people probably don't like having an issue of Spider-Man focus so much energy on characters that generally have nothing to do with Spider-Man, but I will say that I like watching Monica and Machine Man fighting and bantering, regardless of what the name on the cover is.

12) Having taken down all the weird monsters and sight gags, Monica and Aaron now have the pleasure of talking with Hologram Maxine Danger. Monica wants Maxine to understand that she has been thoroughly defeated, and Maxine is as angry as I think we've ever seen her. Totally loses her cool, which is fun to see and fuels that desire to see the stories of Ben and Maxine continue in some new version of Nextwave. Not holding my breath, of course, but you never know!

13) With the building coming down around them due to Machine Man self-destructing the place, Monica makes a joke about leaving him there -- but don't worry! She's got the Heartstar! And it's going to... teleport them away? Is that all it can do? Huh.

14) Similarly -- okay, I get not liking the segue about Doug, sure -- but I did think it was pretty funny. His dialogue reminded me of the way some of my middle schoolers do be choosing to speak, so I had quite the chuckle. I know writers have their pet characters, and I don't begrudge them that -- after all, I'm still waiting for the return of Billy Walters! So yeah, Doug was pretty funny and I'd welcome cameos from him in the future. And, sure, this might be crazy, but -- what if the promotion Doug gave himself puts him in the position to help Ben and Peter out in the finale? What a payoff that could be in an arc that has indulged in some wackiness.

15) Anyway! Now we're with Maxine, physical non-holographic version, and she's giving her "You're heroes yes but you work for Beyond so get out there and do what I want" speech to OMG YES IT'S THE SLINGERS APPEARING ONCE AGAIN AND THEY'RE HUNGRY TO DO SOME GOOD.

16) They look so good. The art here is *muah*

17) "Someone's hurting very badly. Very deeply." ---okay. It's canon that Dusk has supernatural senses regarding the other Slingers because of their bond. Are we to suspect that this is a general power that she can use on anyone, or is it possible that she can sense Ben's current state because of their time together in PAD's series? I'll be curious to see if either Dusk or Ricochet realize that Ben is Spidey, as both had team-ups with him in Las Vegas.

18) Maxine leads the Slingers to her a problem and-- oh dang! She disappeared! She was a hologram after all?! She sure got me that time, and the Slingers too! Because now they're face to face with a very Angry Neighborhood Spider-Man! And man his costume looks great on that final page!

19) But wait, there's more! Epilogue 1 shows us that Ashley Kafka is still out there as Queen Goblin, but she's aware that she's been infected with insanity: she cannot stop laughing, and she plans on taking it out on the man whose sins have poisoned her: Norman Osborn! As much as I feel bad for what happened to her, I gotta say: her turn as Queen Goblin has been pretty great (despite the bad name). Her dialogue and inner monologue stuff has been consistently good, and I feel like she has a good shtick as psychiatrist-turned-villain, with motivation that makes sense despite not being villainous at all originally.

20) Then, in Epilogue 2, we get more Morbius! He's back at the Beyond site, this time without the Daughters of the Dragon. Having seen what Beyond produced in Draczilla, he's interesting in seeing what he can do side-by-side with the other "parent" of the monster -- Dr. Curt Connors / the Lizard, who is in chains.

21) And that's that folks! And what I find most interesting is this: while you'd think this issue would serve to tie up the loose ends, many of the stories were actually open-ended! One would assume we'll see the Slingers in the final issue considering their cliffhanger, but the subplots involving Monica and Morbius respectively indicated that more might come from their actions. I guess we'll have to wait and see where and when these subplots are picked up, and by whom.

Here are some questions I'm considering now:

Will we get a proper fight between Ben and the Slingers? Will they realize he's the same Spider they know from Vegas? Will they end up helping Ben? Or will the issue open with the fight over and Ben moving onto whatever is left in his way?

Will we get some kind of Nextwave/Beyond-related follow-up? While whatever happens next with Morbius and the Lizard could easily happen in a Spidey comic, I would assume we aren't getting more regarding Monica and Aaron, the Heartstar, or anything else regarding their subplot -- and frankly, I'd like more!

How long will we have to wait until Queen Goblin shows up again? Will Zeb Wells be using her eventually in his run? I'd hate for poor Ashley to suffer in the background for an extended period of time! But I WOULD love to see her create havoc for Norman, even if Peter will be a goody-goody and save "the reformed" Osborn.

And of course, WHAT WILL HAPPEN TO BEN NEXT ISSUE?!

Until then, friends, it's been a pleasure.

-Pav, who wonders if Maxine will be promoted if she successfully turns Ben from hero to villain...

[Huntsman Spider]

Depends on how the higher powers behind Beyond react to her failure(s) with Ben. That aside, I'd generally cosign your thoughts on this issue. Good insights into Monica's character there at the beginning, and I'm looking forward to Queen Goblin forcing Norman Osborn's own sins back into him, as well as the Spider-Men facing off against each other for what I hope will be the last time. Also hoping the Slingers' last team-up with Ben Reilly gets referenced, too, and that their confrontation with Ben as Spider-Man actually gets depicted in the next (and final) issue of the Beyond saga, as opposed to them just lying beaten (and broken) when we next see them while Ben takes on Peter.

[Sr. Bungle]

I really liked teh Doug vignette.

We won't see more of the Slingers in Beyond according to the last page

[Huntsman Spider]

I really liked teh Doug vignette.

We won't see more of the Slingers in Beyond according to the last page

Shame, though I do agree the Doug vignette was amusing.

[Lunala]

I enjoy your reviews, thank you.

[protege]

I’d like to see more of the slingers, but what the heck happened to Monica rambeau?