Avengers: The Initiative #7 (Marvel – Slott / Caselli / Rudoni) – Once again, one of Marvel’s most underrated book scores big. This type of book is exactly what fans are looking for… if Civil War or World War Hulk was put together like the Initiative is, there wouldn’t any of this “Cup O’ Joe Doubt” that’s out there. In this issue, the Scarlet Spiders are prematurely released into the public eye as they track down secret Gamma files stolen by “The Vulturians” (nope, not making it up). These are d-list Spider-man villains that have stolen the Vulture’s technology and made a team. Wouldn’t you think if you were going to steal some bad guy’s technology, you might start a littler further up the ladder? What’s next… the Stilt-men? Anyway, there is a classically written first meeting of the Scarlet Spiders and Peter Parker himself… that ends with a growth of trust between Peter and these henchmen of Tony Stark’s… or are they? Dan Slott, once again, give s superb story and gives us great back story to the overall Initiative plot… with a huge reveal at end involving the true origin of the Scarlet Spiders. To quote J. Jonah Jameson “I hate clones!”. 🙂 Stefano Caselli’s pencils are fantastically understated, giving a unique face to the body of this great story.
Issue Grade: A
Series Grade: A
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