Writer: Jed MacKay
Artist: Eleonora Carlini
Colorist: Federico Blee
Cover Artists: Leinil Yu and Sunny Gho
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Reviewer: StoryBabbler
Peter Parker is out of commission, but New York is not undefended. There is still a Spider-Man who will protect the people – Ben Reilly! Not only that, Ben is being backed by the mysterious up and coming Beyond Corporation who are getting into the superhero business with him leading the charge. But not everyone’s buying what they’re selling, like Misty Knight and her partner Colleen Wing in Amazing Spider-Man #78.1.
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Review:
So, like Kelly Thompson did in her couple of issues in the main series, Jed MacKay keeps up the quirky tone from Thompson’s writing here and blows it up to 100 with Misty Knight and Colleen Wing. Fair warning: if you’re not a fan of the wacky and zany nature of Thompson’s “quirky” writing style with the characters and book, then you should skip this comic.
Honestly, the comic itself doesn’t feel essential to the overall Beyond storyline in Amazing Spider-Man series. All it shows is a “quirky” misadventure of Misty and Colleen, aka the Daughters of the Dragon, doing a side mission for Maxine Danger, head of the superhero development in Beyond Corporation. She sends them on a quick task to take down the new villain called “Obsidian Star”.
Don’t let the synopsis fool you, there’s not much to this new “villain”, if you can even call it that. It’s a threat and not a lot is given on its background or abilities other than it started terrorizing New York. Overall, neither the heroines or readers are given much about the new threat other than it’s a threat they need to take down. Like I said, it’s intended as a fun side-mission for Misty and Colleen, and it’s non-essential reading for fans of either the characters or the main Beyond storyline in Amazing Spider-Man.
Plus, this comic takes quite the time to have the dynamic duo use a lot of weapons from the Beyond Corporation. It almost felt like a promotion ad for the many weird tools and products the company makes, but I believe that’s intentional. If nothing else, it feels like MacKay and the artist Eleonora were just having fun making the comic.
There are only two real takeaways from this comic. The first is that Misty and Colleen are good friends and tight superhero partners, even if they don’t consider themselves superheroes. The second is a spoiler.
Spoilers:
Second, Misty and Colleen are secretly working with Monica Rambeau, aka Spectrum. They give the power source behind Obsidian Star to Monica instead of Maxine and Beyond. It is not explained why but it’s likely due to their involvement shown in the main series. But we’ll see if this particular event actually leads to anything significant in the next few issues of the main Amazing Spider-Man series.
Final Thoughts:
Amazing Spider-Man #78.1 is a fun little tie-in to the main series but doesn’t really add much to the main Beyond storyline. It feels like non-essential reading and is more of a fun misadventure starring Misty Knight and Colleen Wing on a side-mission for Maxine Danger and the Beyond Corporation. The quirky tone is in overdrive with Misty and Colleen as they face the new “villain” in the comic, who is unimpressive yet functional to get the plot going.