You’ve got to Have Friends (of Humanity?)
Credits: Howard Mackie (writer), John Romita, Jr. (penciler), Scott Hanna (inks), Gregory Wright (colors), Comicraft (letters)
The Plot:
Aspiring Friends of Humanity leader Donovan Zane recruits Paul Stacy.
As the FoH grows in popularity, a riot breaks out between pro and
anti-mutant students. Spider-Man tries to stop the violence but
discovers campus police are better suited for the job. Zane knows of a
mutant on ESU’s campus, Robin Vega, and sends Paul to harass her. As
Peter Parker, Spider-Man discovers that Robin is going to lethally
retaliate against the FoH. He meets Paul on a rooftop and tries to talk
him into leaving Robin alone. Paul angrily walks away, just as
Spider-Man’s vertigo returns. He falls off the building and desperately
clings to the side.
The Subplots:
MJ reminds Peter that they have a counseling session that night. In
the shadows, a mystery man with long hair watches Spider-Man. When he
sees Spider-Man clinging for his life, he thinks to himself that it’s a
perfect opportunity for them to talk about “old times.”
How Did This Get Published?:
When Robin suggests a stuck door is locked, Paul responds: “Don’t be
absurd! This is my office as Dr. Lanning’s senior student assistant.
It has never had a lock!” That’s just one example of a character this
issue suddenly rejecting the use of contractions.
Review:
There’s nothing wrong with introducing a Friends of Humanity chapter
on the ESU campus. It helps to move Spider-Man’s world closer to the
wider Marvel Universe, and opens the door for new stories involving
Peter’s campus life. Trying to use the FoH as the main villains in a
story, however, is much trickier. It’s one thing for the FoH to be
stirring up trouble as an ongoing subplot, but a group of bigots with
placards is not going to be a credible threat for Spider-Man. Mackie
does throw in the accusation from Donovan Zane that Spider-Man is also a
mutant, which has potential (and was actually used years later by
Marvel as an April Fool’s Day prank), but not surprisingly it’s
squandered here.
Ignoring
the fact that Spider-Man vs. students is visually dull, the story also
fails to make the reader care about any of the people involved in the
FoH’s schemes. Robin Vega is a cipher, a character obviously created
simply to be “The Mutant” for this story with no real personality
traits. She goes from declaring that she’s never even tried to use her
powers before to announcing she’s going to literally kill anyone who
harasses her in the course of one page. She’s also the second random
mutant introduced in the Spider-books in recent months, since Sensational Spider-Man
has already revealed that Ben Reilly’s love interest Desiree is a mutant.
Desiree could’ve just as easily filled the role needed for the story,
paid off a dangling plotline, and not come across as a too-convenient new character brought in just to play the victim.
Mackie’s
dialogue has the tendency to steer towards…well, “robotic” is the best
way I can put it, and it’s unfortunately in full display this issue.
Donovan Zane is supposed to be the FoH’s charismatic new leader, but he
can’t seem to muster a coherent argument against mutants, even though
the public at the time thinks mutants killed the Avengers and Fantastic
Four. Instead, he attempts to recruit Paul by going on a villainous
diatribe against an unwanted hybrid in his garden. Yes, we get the
metaphor, but it’s so clumsily delivered it makes the entire scene
laughable. And Paul is so poorly written it’s hard to discern why he
abruptly wants to join a hate group, aside from a few lines about him
blaming everyone with superpowers for his uncle and cousin’s deaths.
Paul’s suddenly obsessed with his uncle, who he claims was his
best friend, even though they lived on different continents and he died
when Paul was probably still in high school. We’re also supposed to
believe the Jill is now MJ’s best friend, simply because she uses those
exact words to describe Jill this issue. That’s the height of lazy
writing. Jill has yet to exhibit a single personality trait since being
introduced, we don’t even know what her major is supposed to be even
though she’s been defined solely as “college student,” and suddenly
she’s best friends with the lead character’s wife. How could they
possibly expect the audience to buy this? And, again I ask, why was the
task of fleshing out the Stacy family left to the writer with the
weakest characterization skills?
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