Revolution # [Science] Five!
Writer: Tom Taylor
Art: Ken Lashley, Todd Nauck, IG Guara, Dike Ruan, Rachelle Rosenberg
Letters: VC’s Travis Lanham
Release Date: October 20th, 2019
$3.99USD
Waaaay back in issue #4, Spidey helped one of his neighbours (Leilani) escape the abduction by her Father, the tyrannical ruler of a nation-state buried under Manhattan since last century. You’d think it was something straight out of a Tom Waits song, but Under York is a thing! Spidey rounds up some of his fantastic friends to put a stop to his wanting to murder, abduct and terrorise people. Spidey gets a little more than he hoped for from four of his fantastic friends, as we go downtown…
Spidey and Fantastic Four (FF for brevity here on out) meet up with Leilani and her little rugrats Jasper and Tierra, who get to meet their FAVOURITE Super-Hero: The Human Torch? Isn’t this Spidey’s book? At any rate, we get caught up on why Hale Carrick, tyrant and dictator or Under York, has such a beef with Spidey, and why Its so important to keep Jasper out of Carrick’s hands. Spidey and the FF take an elevator (yes, an elevator) down to Under York, where Spidey is a tiny bit chagrined to learn that he and the FF are going to help overthrow the dictator.
After a Science Five, Reed and Pete remotely disable all the guns, and from there its a short trip to revolution! Leilani inspires all the residents to stand up to Hale, and after Hale tries (and fails) to self destruct the entire city, thanks to Johnny disabling the nukes and a hearty, if not entirely non-consensual science five, it looks like Leilani and her kids can now go back to living in Under York.
Thoughts: I seem to be repeating myself a lot with this book, but Tom Taylor continues to show it is possible to write a Superhero story that’s good, without every issue needing to be BIGGER than the last, and that every issue doesn’t have to fall into the hyperbole trap that every single arc WILL CHANGE EVERYTHING FOREVER!… He just writes a nice, largely self contained story that’s easy to pick up and read. I didn’t read issue #4 where the prelude to this story happened, but I didn’t need to. I was able to piece everything together I needed to from one or two recap panels and context- that in itself is becoming a lost art in comics these days! It’s fun to see Spidey and Reed using brains instead of fists to get the job done. This issue leaves a few unanswered questions: Namely, What exactly happened to Hale after they disarmed the nuke? How exactly do the residents of Under York look so tan without Vitamin D? Hopefully this isn’t the last we see of Under York!
Score: 7.8/10