This is usually where I ask myself why it took so much time for me to get back to a series that I really enjoy, but you know what? This one had a small disadvantage, something that was supposed to be a surprise to the reader but I already knew because I read other comics by writer Nick Spencer.
Still doesn’t mean this wasn’t a good read.
Issue:  The Superior Foes of Spider-Man #6, December 2013
Writer:Â Â Nick Spencer
Artist:Â Â Steve Lieber
The Plot:  Boomerang seems to have things going his way. He’s the only one of the Sinister Six who can make that claim.
Commentary:  If there’s one consistent characterization in Nick Spencer’s work that I have read so far, it’s this: Boomerang is a jerk. A guy who uses others and doesn’t seem to care what happens to them. A guy who can and will let his associates take a fall for him with a care. Yes, Boomerang is a supervillain. He’s not supposed to be a nice man, but there are degrees of evil as I see it. It’s a big difference to be a megalomaniac with aspirations to world domination or just a feeling of superiority over everyone else and just some jackass who doesn’t much care what happens to his underlings and co-workers.
So, this issue shows Boomerang living it up after steeling, well, not the thing he was supposed to steel while Overdrive, the Beetle, and Speed Demon are being held and tortured by the Owl. Shocker did manage to find what the group was looking for, but Boomerang tried to murder Shocker since Shocker knew too much. Fortunately for Shocker, Boomerang is as inept at murder as he is as leadership, and he sits this issue out while Beetle more or less does what she needs to in order to rescue herself and the other two.
But this issue spends most of its run showing Boomerang enjoying a date at a baseball game (that he possibly is barred from doing due to his supervillainy) and then basking in the glory of what he actually stole when he was supposed to find the cyborg mob boss’s Silvermane head. That said, this issue does make it clear that Boomerang’s problems haven’t exactly gone away, and even if Beetle can rescue herself, Overdrive, and Speed Demon, that doesn’t mean she’s going to save him since he left her group to get caught while he took the (literally easy) path to the prize he wasn’t supposed to take.
Yeah, I’ll get back to this one sooner.
Grade:Â A-
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Noteworthy Issues: The Amazing Spider-Man #52 (September, 1967)