They Need To Talk: Reviewing ‘Uncanny Spider-Man’ #4

Masking one’s issues with displays of swashbuckling, heroics, and horniness cannot last. Eventually, they must actually confront those issues head-on. No matter how painful it might be for themselves or others.

Such confrontations are central to Uncanny Spider-Man #4 from Simon Spurrier, Lee Garbett, Matt Milla, and Joe Caramagna.

I have plenty to say about this issue. Off the bat, it’s not a favorite. So let’s start with some positives.

Garbett would find a prominent place if I were to ever compile a list of favorite comic book artists. He employs an art style that is dynamic, expressive, slick, detailed, and amazing in motion. Everything and everyone feels like they have actual weight and exist in a realistic sort of space. Yet, there’s the right amount of whimsical and fantastical energy, befitting books taking place in a superhero and fantasy-style world.

The way that the panels flow and move is really solid and creative. In many ways, they kind of bounce around just like Kurt himself. White and negative space are heavily incorporated into how the pages work, as solid borders and even backgrounds. This allows the panels to stack and bleed into one another at times.

The color palette choices in effect are just as solid. Plenty of really vibrant popping colors sprinkled throughout that keep things heroic where needed. Milla also uses plenty of softer tones with plenty of shadows at work in order to balance things out. It creates its own level of weight and depth and gives some grounded feelings to the overall setting. Even the more colorful stuff has darker aspects brought into play, fitting the darker tone of Fall Of X.

Also dancing around the page in a solid flow are the choices for lettering. Caramagna always does a great job at capturing voices and making sure things work on the page. We can feel the angst, joy, or horror along with the actual personalities of the characters. In this case, the fonts are pulled back a bit to smaller levels to fit things on the page better since there is so much being said about these issues. Just like the other art, we get variety here as the bubbles shift and change, colors are brought into play, and other fonts or SFX choices bring in some fun energy.

Okay, now to the actual story and plot elements.

I’ve said before that I’m a fan of the more swashbuckling heroic Nightcrawler aspect. While I question the timing of some of it, I do like the pairing of Sable and Kurt. Other than that, I have some issues.

First of all, the Kurt/Raven parts of this series are just not great. Mystique is just a shell of herself, running around hysterically screaming for her baby. It’s a massive disservice to an amazing character, all in service of pushing a one-shot that clearly is going to be one of those out of nowhere historical retcons. Speaking of which, what the hell was that fade-to-black page? This whole mother-son plot is pushed in this book and then just when we get to the emotional crux moment, we get a “go read this other book” page.

Pushing a story and then telling the audience to go elsewhere for the climax before just moving on is some bizarre stuff. Everything about this plotline feels so rushed. Truthfully, everything about Fall Of X feels extremely rushed.

It’s like the X-Office was headed this way, but had to speed things up because of the upcoming massive editorial changes. We’ll never know (probably), but I firmly believe these stories were pushed together to hurry up to the Fall Of The House Of X/Rise Of The Powers Of X books sooner than the creators and editorial had planned. It would explain the tonal chaos across the event,  why so many of the books feel disjointed, and the speedrun on plotlines.

Also, this marks two big X-issues in a two-week period where big conversational and plot moments are played out as data pages, rather than actually allowing us to experience the moments as the characters go through them. Data pages are a great addition to books (one that surely will be erased with the upcoming line overhaul), but sometimes their usage is lacking. Using them as a shortcut rather than putting stuff on the actual pages leaves a lot to be desired.

Unfortunately, the Raven/Kurt stuff wasn’t the only thing that threw me out of this issue. We open with an angry mob essentially carrying an innocent man off in a lynching-style affair. Spider-Man (Peter Parker) is confronting them and making the most ill-timed quips, as a man’s life is in danger from an increasingly erratic hateful mob. That is fully out of character for Peter, who for sure would have saved the man before being all light quippy about this stuff.

Overall, everything to do with Fall Of X feels like the looming danger we saw in the Hellfire Gala issue has been blunted. A few of the books seem to keep that thread going, focusing on the pain and danger of what Orchis is doing. Others are trying but their tonal shifts are making it hard. This is the first time in this series where it feels properly dangerous but the response from the characters blunts it so much.

I will say that the moments with Kurt and Sable where he is made to confront his issues and why he’s trying to hide things were good. If that was at the core of the series and we lost the Raven stuff (or it was done better), this would have been a much stronger series as a whole.

Uncanny Spider-Man #4 is now available from Marvel Comics.