Chasm: Curse Of Kaine #4 Review

 

Writer: Steve Foxe

Artist: Andrea Broccardo

Colorist: Brian Reber

Letterer: Joe Caramagna

Cover Artists: Mark Bagley & Rachelle Rosenberg

Designer: Carlos Lao

Editors: Kaeden McGahey, Kaitlyn Lindtvedt, Nick Lowe & CB Cebulski

Recap Art: Mark Bagley

Publisher: Marvel Comics

Price: $3.99

Release Date: November 20, 2024

 

The Mole Man is bringing the New York Underground to meet their surface-dwelling family. Kaine wants his brother to help him with this Monster Mash, but Chasm wants to exterminate an Eternal. Can the spider-brothers and Hallows' Eve resolve their differences and work together to quell the uprising? Let’s slip on a monster mask, leap into Chasm: Curse Of Kaine #4, and find out!

 

Story

Moloids, Vermin, and monsters are trashing Queens. Kaine wants Chasm and Hallows’ Eve to help him drive them underground. But Ben is tired of people messing with his mind. Druig’s psychic touch left his brain itching. As Ben uses it like a locator beacon, Janine masks up and clears his path. But when the monsters increase in size, Ben heads off to the sewers, leaving Janine to face the music.

 

Druig has lost interest in the chaos he created. As Ben seeks a rematch, the Eternal helps his puppet take down his tormentor. But it's all another mind game in Chasm: Curse of Kaine #4.

 

Kaine wants a heart-to-heart with his clone-brother. After shaking off Druig’s control, Ben isn’t interested in singing Kumbaya with Kaine. Despite Ben’s claim to make a fresh start, he still grasps for anything resembling a win. And while love may conquer all, Janine doesn't encourage Ben’s better instincts. Hallows’ Eve tempts Ben into fun diversions that can't lead to lasting fulfillment. Still, Kaine does his bit for his brother in Chasm: Curse of Kaine #4, even if Madame Web thinks he’s wasting his time.

 

While Chasm emulates his creator and Kaine evokes Jackal’s late brother, Druig is the real Chasm in Steve Foxe’s story. An endless life and superpowers mean Druig doesn’t need to work for anything. Without death hanging over him, events lose significance, and memories fade. At least Druig wants to remind people that shoving their problems out of sight isn’t ideal. Having been around since Humanity’s hunter-gatherer phase, Druig knows it is easier to cast out those who don’t belong or prove difficult to help than solve the problems that lead to crime and mental illness.

 

Art

While Andrea Broccardo evokes an iconic Kirby cover, Kaine adopts Arachnobatix mode as he elbows aside Moloids and somersaults over a raging Freakazoid. Hallows' Eve mauls Vermin and snarls at Humans in her Black Panther mask. Chasm wields a psychoactive goo axe and fwips away monsters while Freakazoid smashes a dumpster like a spoon. But Chasm and Hallows’ Eve don’t look at each other until Ben smiles. Then they kiss while people die in Chasm: Curse Of Kaine #4.

 

Tan Moloids and brown Vermin evoke the ground from which they sprang, while red splashes from Hallows’ Eve’s claws match the color of the Vermin’s eyes. Kaine's red suit, Hallows' Eve's hair, and the Freakazoid's scarlet skin underline their monstrous heritage. Orange fire burns from Druig’s eyes while Chasm’s burn bluish white. Yellow, orange, and red galaxies erupt from the Eternal’s hands as Brian Reber’s bluish-white psychoactive goo springs from Chasm's hands.

 

Amid Andrea Broccardo’s rampaging action and Brian Reber's vibrant coloring, Joe Caramagna thwips black uppercase lettering into white dialogue balloons in Chasm: Curse Of Kaine #4. Words grow bold for emphasis, swell or change color for volume, and rarely shrink, while the Scarlet Spider shares his thoughts as white letters in red narrative boxes. Colorful and transparent sound effects help us hear a Black Panther roar, Chasm hew his axe into Kaine’s chest, and a monster squelch a rampant threat. Thanks to Marvel for providing a copy for review.

 

Final Thoughts

Druig spurs the disenfranchised to insurrection, Chasm gets kissy and corny, Kaine tries to be his brother's keeper, and Hallows' Eve goes killer kaiju in Chasm: Curse Of Kaine #4.

 

Rating 9.6/10

 

To preview interior art see my review at Comic Book Dispatch.

Chasm: Curse Of Kaine #3 Review

 

Writer: Steve Foxe

Artist: Andrea Broccardo

Colorist: Brian Reber

Letterer: Joe Caramagna

Cover Artists: Mark Bagley & Dean White; Alessandro Cappuccio & Rachelle Rosenberg

Designer: Carlos Lao

Editors: Kaeden McGahey, Kaitlyn Lindtvedt, Nick Lowe & CB Cebulski

Recap Art: Mark Bagley

Publisher: Marvel Comics

Price: $3.99

Release Date: October 30, 2024

 

Kaine heard his clone-brother was walking a darker path. Perhaps he is the Scarlet Spider now, and Ben is Chasm. Still, Kaine wants to help imbue Ben’s life with more meaning than robbing rich kids and frightening the criminally insane. Then Kaine learns Ben is making monsters out of dead people. Worse, his brother isn’t making quips or puns as he emulates Victor Frankenstein. What would Gene Wilder think? More to the point: can Kaine free Ben from Druig's influence and arrest his downward spiral into villainy? Let’s refill our psychoactive goo guns, leap into Chasm: Curse Of Kaine #3, and find out!

 

Story

After Druig halts Janine's psychic ramble through Ben's mind, Mole Man's Moloids carry the unconscious lovers away. Janine awakens in the sewers, and Druig doesn't want to relinquish another prize. So the Eternal sends Ben to reclaim another plaything, but Janine evades his grasp with a ghost mask. When Kaine finds her, Janine assumes the Scarlet Spider is involved with whoever was messing with Ben's mind. Then Ben finds them and launches another psychoactive goofest.

 

Chasm: Curse Of Kaine #3 ponders who is best qualified to help Ben. Both the Goblin Queen and the Queen Goblin promised to ease his troubled mind. Janine can offer Ben nothing more than diversions from his angst. Ben's actions have isolated him from many of the superhero community who could help him. Could a conventional therapist without the words Goblin or Queen in their name help Ben? Or should Chasm be imprisoned in the cell next to Doppelganger?

 

While Kaine ponders if his connection to Ben can help his brother, the Mole Man is grabbing his opportunity to become more than an Eternal's footstool. As Druig plays games with Ben's mind, he inspires Mole Man to rise above his subterranean existence and overthrow the world above. Druig enjoys watching people like the Mole Man pursue their pathetic schemes as much as Rocket Raccoon enjoys seeing Taserface depose Yondu and declare he will help the Ravagers rise again to glory. But in Steve Foxe's story, all these diversions leave Druig as unfulfilled as a life of crime with Janine would leave Ben. Like frightening Doppelganger with a werewolf mask, all this activity is just meaningless fun and doesn't address the fact that Druig has all the time in the world and nothing to fill it with.

 

 

 

Art

As Chasm pursues Hallows' Eve through the sewers, her eyes glow yellow, and Ben's eyes burn white. Hallows' Eve slips on a mask and fades away like Miles Morales. Then she phases through brickwork like Kitty Pryde. As Ben rips off his mask, tears stream down his face, and the building blocks of reality swirl around Druig’s glowing red eyes. Then Druig descends a revolving staircase and walks through an array of spider people like a Psi Corps officer walking through Commander Jeffrey Sinclair's mind. While Taskmaster projects imagery to make Deadpool smile in Deadpool #4, Druig does so to make Ben more miserable in Chasm: Curse Of Kaine #3.

 

Brian Reber lavishes a loaded palette on Andrea Broccardo’s art, coloring sewer scenes in green, purple, and blue. Red dominates Druig’s mental landscape. Yet he wears green, like the Mole Man and the Vermin he views as beneath him. Janine’s red hair and Kane’s red suit link those most concerned with Ben’s mental health, while red drops falling from Kaine’s right arm reveal the lengths he will endure to be his brother’s keeper.

 

Joe Caramagna thwips black uppercase lettering into white dialogue balloons in Chasm: Curse Of Kaine #3. Words grow bold for emphasis, swell or change color for volume, and rarely shrink. The font emulates hand printing, and the balloons get cloudy when Janine decides to change tactics. Colorful and transparent sound effects help us hear Chasm attack, the brothers deploy their webs, and a monstrous attack on the surface world. Thanks to Marvel for providing a copy for review.

 

Final Thoughts

As Kaine attempts to help his brother, Druig empowers people to pursue their greatest desires. Despite his claims about others, the Eternal reveals that he is the pathetic one in Chasm: Curse Of Kaine #3. Not only because Druig lacks fulfillment but also because he attacks people with lesser power instead of pursuing his grievances with his fellow Eternals.

 

Rating 9.6/10

 

To preview interior art see my review at Comic Book Dispatch.

Chasm: Curse Of Kaine #2 Review

 

Writer: Steve Foxe

Artist: Andrea Broccardo

Colorist: Brian Reber

Letterer: Joe Caramagna

Cover Artists: Leinil Francis Yu & Dean White; Chris Campana; Craig Yeung & Rachelle Rosenberg

Designer: Carlos Lao

Editors: Kaeden McGahey, Nick Lowe & CB Cebulski

Recap Art: Mark Bagley

Publisher: Marvel Comics

Price: $3.99

Release Date: September 25, 2024

 

While Peter Parker, Miles Morales, and Shift have been playing nice with the Vermin, Gwen Stacy and Chameleon gave one of New York’s humanoid rats a roast. But Ben Reilly is a changed man. With his scrambled memories, the former Scarlet Spider enters the fray and kills Jackal’s creations before he wonders, “Gee, might they be sentient?” Ben might not have much to spare, but Druig wants a piece of his mind anyway. What chaos will Chasm unleash when an Eternal messes with his muddled mind? And can his clone brother Kaine help Ben recover what he has lost? Let’s refill our psychoactive goo guns, leap into Chasm: Curse Of Kaine #2, and find out!

 

Story

Ben Reilly spent so long trying to be Spider-Man that he doesn't know who he is. The situation worsened when Maxine Danger messed with his memories. Now Druig is influencing him. When Ben realizes he has been sleepwalking, he wonders what else he can try to regain control. His girlfriend offers him fun and diversion in Steve Foxe's story. But Ben's love for Janine is coupled with need. Ben relies on her to retain his sanity in Chasm: Curse Of Kaine #2. Where would he be without Janine?

 

Like Ben, Janine doesn’t view sleepwalking as a step toward mental recovery. She tries to distract him from his dark thoughts, but her bright ideas leave a trail of destruction in their wake. Still, she has one more card to play. Or should I say a mask? After using her Frankenstein's Monster and Werewolf masks, she pulls out another to help Ben. Using it exposes Janine to danger but demonstrates her commitment to him.

 

Kaine Parker has been following Ben and Janine’s trail of destruction. In the hospital morgue, Kaine doesn’t realize that Druig helped Ben reconstruct Freak. Using the dead Vermin and his psychoactive goo instead of lightning, Ben cobbled together a Super Freak. The monster pursues Kaine through the hospital. Kaine's plan doesn't include bringing the Super Freak home to his mother. (If he had a mother, that is). Kaine wants to get it away from people before the Super Freak brings someone's spirit down. 

 

 

 

Art

On his hands and knees, Moleman looks up at Druig. With a spider crawling over his hand, the Eternal looks down upon another cowering mortal in Chasm: Curse Of Kaine #2. Kaine somersaults over Super Freak while a portable exam table crashes into the wall and ceiling. One of Jane Foster’s associates hangs from glowing webs alongside a security guard. The supersized Freak pursues Kaine down a corridor that evokes Jackal’s horrors chasing Peter Parker through a nightmare train. Andrea Broccardo’s Super Freak design suggests that HR Giger's Alien art diverted Druig. Kaine's solution to his Freakazoid dilemma evokes how Daniels and Tennessee banish unwanted guests from the Covenant's terraforming bay in Alien: Covenant.

 

Black and red Kaine battles a brown and red Super Freak as a suspended medical examiner’s blue scrubs pair with the blue-tinged white floor and wall tiles. A gray villain who liked Anna Watson stares through a transparent barrier and across a hallway grounded with black and grey flooring and illuminated by a glowing glass ceiling. Chasm’s lavender and black pairs with Hallows Eve’s mauve and black as yellow windows in distant buildings shine against a gray sky. The lovers regain their usual vibrant purple, green, orange, and black in their holy abode. But when Hallows Eve slips on another mask, she explores Brian Reber's purple and lavender world in orange, gray, red, yellow, and white finery.

 

Joe Caramagna thwips black uppercase lettering into white dialogue balloons and Kaine's white thoughts into red narrative boxes. Words grow bold for emphasis, swell or change color for volume, and rarely shrink. Colorful and transparent sound effects help us hear Super Freak’s rampage and Janine's world shatter, while a yellow and orange growl suggests the rise of another spider villain in Chasm: Curse Of Kaine #2. Thanks to Marvel for providing a copy for review.

 

Final Thoughts

As an Eternal, Druig has too much time on his hands. Instead of taking night classes at Empire State University or volunteering at FEAST, Druig seeks diversion by manipulating others, including those with all eight eyes open in Chasm: Curse Of Kaine #2.

 

Rating 9.8/10

 

To preview interior art see my review at Comic Book Dispatch.

Chasm: Curse Of Kaine #1 Review

 

Writer: Steve Foxe

Artist: Andrea Broccardo

Colorist: Brian Reber

Letterer: Joe Caramagna

Cover Artists: Leinil Francis Yu & Dean White; Elena Casagrande & Annalisa Leoni; Martín Cóccolo & Dean White; Salvador Larroca & Edgar Delgado

Designer: Carlos Lao

Editors: Kaeden McGahey, Nick Lowe & CB Cebulski

Recap Art: Mark Bagley

Publisher: Marvel Comics

Price: $4.99

Release Date: August 28, 2024

 

Three teenagers from New Jersey receive an invitation to an underground rave. But when they break the police tape and descend into the closed Long Island subway station, monsters attack them. As they back away, two costumed people block their retreat. Is this an underground masquerade? Did someone lure the teens to their deaths? Let’s grab our Halloween masks, leap into Chasm: Curse Of Kaine #1, and find out!

 

Story

Ben Reilly and Janine Godbe are putting the past behind them. Their idea of making a fresh start is luring teens into confined spaces and robbing them. Freak and the vermin surprise the two antiheroes-turned-villains. Janine dons a mask of Frankenstein’s monster and battles the sewer denizens, while Ben argues that citizens should pay for protection. Freak and the vermin press Janine hard. So, after taking the teens’ money, Ben defends his girlfriend. But then Druig gets into his mind and wonders what he can make of it.

 

The Beyond Corporation corrupted Ben’s memories. Society imprisoned Janine for protecting herself against her abusive father. So, Ben and Janine reject society's laws, customs, and morality. They take what they want and live for today. As usual, someone gets in the way of their happiness in Chasm: Curse Of Kaine #1.

 

After recent setbacks, Druig hid beneath the surface and usurped another ruler's throne. Like Hammerhead, Druig needs a victory to rebuild his brand. As an Eternal, he craves diversion. Druig decides to make the spider heroes his playthings. Then Ben Reilly walks into his hands. Stripped of his memories, Ben seems an ideal instrument for his amusement. So Druig attaches strings and prepares for his puppet show.

 

Ben's descent into villainy bothers Kaine. Peter Parker's clones share a dark past. Kaine assumes the moral center of Steve Foxe's story about clones gone wrong, humans playing god, and gods manipulating their creations. Kaine discovers he has his work cut out for him. He watches the police remove vermin and Freak in body bags. Kaine had intended to help Ben embrace heroism again. However, the murders remind Kaine of how he once punished a society that rejected him. Even now, after he has embraced heroism, society has yet to welcome Kaine with open arms. 

 

 

 

Art

Andrea Broccardo imbues Hallows Eve and Chasm with attitude and swagger in Chasm: Curse Of Kaine #1. As Hallows Eve wades into the vermin crush, Chasm’s body language suggests he owns the world. As Chasm kills Freak and the vermin, perhaps they remind him of his demonic captors in Limbo. But then the background breaks into blocks, and unseen hands insert an ornate key into his head. The top of his skull hinges open, and webbing thwips out. When Ben and Janine relax in their new home, they look relieved of the burden of recovering Ben’s memories. Yet their boarded-up residence evokes the fake Church with a hidden Beyond laboratory that Peter, Misty, and Lizard sheltered in during Bloodhunt.

 

Brian Reber fills the air surrounding Chasm with glowing green light. Hallows Eve projects yellow and orange light as she fights the red Freak and brown vermin. Druig appears as a red mist before taking Human form. Then, red makes way for a flesh-covered face and green fabric. Kaine thwips through the greenish-brown subway in his red and black suit. He finds the teens hanging from glowing green webs. Blue light tinges the stone throne as Druig kicks away his cringing servant. Like him, the man groveling at his feet wears green.

 

Joe Caramagna thwips black uppercase lettering into white dialogue balloons and Kaine's white thoughts into red narrative boxes. Words embolden for emphasis and swell or change color for volume. Expressive sound effects relate vermin hisses, Freak's rage, and a grate being pulled away so a Spider-Pinocchio can take the stage in Chasm: Curse Of Kaine #1. Thanks to Marvel for providing a copy for review.

 

 

 

Final Thoughts

Like Victor Frankenstein, the Jackal sought to improve on nature’s work by creating Kaine and Ben Reilly. Like Frankenstein’s ultimate man, the Jackal’s creations have killed others. Now, as Hallow’s Eve dons the likeness of Frankenstein's feared creation, another person follows in the two creators’ footsteps in Chasm: Curse Of Kaine #1.

 

Rating 9.8/10

 

To preview interior art see my review at Comic Book Dispatch.

Web Of Spider-Man #1 Review Part 2

 

Writers: Zeb Wells, Cody Ziglar, Steve Foxe, Stephanie Phillips, Greg Weisman & Alex Segura

Artists: Eleonora Carlini, Ig Guara, Eric Gapstur, Joey Vazquez & Salvador Larroca

Pencilers: John Romita Jr., Ed McGuinness & Greg Land

Inkers: Scott Hanna, Mark Farmer & Jay Leisten

Colorists: Marcio Menyz, Arthur Hesli, Arif Prianto, Matt Milla, Frank D’Armata, Edgar Delgado & GURU-eFX

Letterer: Travis Lanham

Publisher: Marvel Comics

Price: $7.99

Release Date: March 20, 2024

 

Peter Parker's unhappy with Tombstone. A happy Hightail worries Miles. Spider-Woman moves house to escape her troubled past. Norman Osborn's heroism provides little satisfaction. With the goblins menacing and spider heroes embracing evil, might the Web Of Life and Destiny unravel? Let’s leap into Web Of Spider-Man #1 and find out!

 

Amazing Spider-Man Part 2

Story

Madelyne Pryor rules Limbo. Rek-Rap and Re-Po hunted down the Insidious Six. So why is Norman Osborn, the Golden Goblin, apprehending the Grave Goblin in Web Of Spider-Man #1? The interplay between the two goblins reveals Norman's uncertainty over who he is and where he belongs. Zeb Wells' story also hints that Madelyne Pryor’s relationship with New York City has changed.

 

Art

Ed McGuinness and Mark Farmer bring us a brief, high-octane battle. A punch sends one goblin spiraling out of control, his glider belching smoke and fire. Colorist Marcio Menyz contrasts Norman's gold and white with his adversary's purple and lavender. Yet the Grave Goblin's orange and yellow glider exhaust and the Golden Goblin's purple headlamp and purple projectiles emphasize Norman's final words to his skeletal foe. 

 

 

 

Spider-Gwen: The Ghost-Spider

Stephanie Phillips introduces Spider-Gwen's upcoming series. Crows or ravens lend a gothic tone, while these harbingers of danger remind Gwen of bonding with her father over an Alfred Hitchcock classic. While Madame Web studies the Web Of Life And Destiny, another observer risks his job to enlist Gwen's aid. Did his actions create these horrific events? Or do they signal a growing cancer?

 

Art

As Gwen sits in a diner reading a hardcover book, life outside the windows on Earth-65 harkens back to an earlier era on Earth 616. Smoke rises from Gwen's coffee like a twisting paper streamer. Like a symbiote, the coffee leaps out of her mug. The liquid forms a hand and dives toward her, only to splatter on the floor. When Gwen leaves the diner, night has fallen, and lightning from Gwen’s head fills the darkness. Then Eric Gapstur shows her city in ruins. Gwen walks rubble-filled streets and thwips through the air, pursued by Poe's favorite birds.

 

Matt Milla lavishes soft pastels on the daytime diner scenes and infuses the apocalyptic night with pink, purple, red, and orange, while the observer's office-bound scenes are awash with light. The pink walls and upholstery of the diner speak to the apocalyptic sky, while the green coffee mug and floor link with the observer who acts on behalf of the Web Of Life And Destiny. 

 

 

Chasm

Story

Steve Foxe’s story picks up where Zeb Wells’ second Amazing Spider-Man story ended, with Gold Goblin delivering Grave Goblin to Limbo. Madeline Pryor accepts him, yet she's tired of being Limbo's warden. She identifies with those placed in her care, remembering how others hurt her and vowing never to let others hurt her again.

 

Like Madelyne, Chasm isn't embracing gratitude as his superpower. He also concentrates on what he has lost. After a year trapped in Limbo, his resentment has become an inferno.

Steve Foxe's meditation on how power isolates people from others burns with the promise of a Goblin Queen indifferent to the concerns of humanity and a raging Chasm intent on destroying anyone and anything that ever hurt him.

 

Art

Greg Land and Jay Leisten imbue Madelyne with glamor and poise. Her beloved Havoc looks uneasy in her presence. Chasm crouches and prepares to strike. With smoke wisping off him, Chasm attacks his guards. The artists imbue the demons with personality. Some show more humanity than Madelyne and Chasm.   

 

Colorist Frank D’Armata makes life outside the Limbo Embassy seem cold and lifeless in Web Of Spider-Man #1. With the gates, Madelyne’s hair radiates a red glow. Torches blaze yellow behind the gold-and-silver armored guards. Chasm summons power that reflects his blue, purple, and green costume. Chasm whips a green serrated power-whip through the air like a web-slinging Indiana Jones when more red demons arrive. 

 

Thanks to Marvel for providing this issue for review.

 

Final Thoughts

As crimelords, vampires, HYDRA, goblins, and Eternals threaten our world, Limbo’s borders weaken, and heroes from across the spider-verse unite to combat threats to the Web Of Life And Destiny in Web Of Spider-Man #1.

 

Rating 9.8/10

 

To preview interior art see my review at Comic Book Dispatch.