What could have been a mediocre fight issue gets knocked up a notch in the climax, reminding the readers why the Scarlet Spider is not just a copy of Spider-Man. He’s tougher, he’s more badass and he can be excitingly brutal. Writer Christopher Yost uses that to great effect to elevate an already OK story into something more by the end.We’re also, possibly, seeing an expansion of Scarlet Spider’s rogues gallery, which is only going to help. And his supporting cast continues to develop.

Scarlet Spider #4

The only problem is that Scarlet Spider has yet to do anything that really wows me. But the series is still young.

Comic rating: 4/5: Good.

Let me first say that the Assassin’s Guild is an odd choice of antagonist for Kaine, especially in only his fourth issue. They are primarily a Gambit-related group, so I have no clue why someone thought they’d be a good fit for Scarlet Spider. Unless someone at Marvel tried to think of what existing villains could have a reason for being in Houston, Texas. They wanted someone familiar for Kaine to fight. The problem is, I have no clue if any of the Guild members in this issue have ever appeared before, other than their leader, Belladonna. They may all be brand new characters created for just this issue, in which case they are just nameless, pointless opponents for Kaine to fight.

And that doesn’t make for a good rogue’s gallery. Unless they stick around as villains Still, the art is fantastic and the big fight is a lot of fun. And like I said, Yost uses Kaine’s darker nature to add some fun twists to the story.

We open to a flashback set in Detroit sometime in Kaine’s past. We don’t know when, exactly, but he’s definitely the old Kaine. He has the scarred face, the long hair, the beard, and he’s killing people with the ‘Mark of Kaine’. So this probably goes as far back as before the Clone Saga or possibly shortly after the Clone Saga. Kaine has just killed a man at the Antheneum Hotel before he’s immediately surrounded by half a dozen men in black suits and guns. Kaine is unimpressed. One of the men has a little holographic projector/communicator – like from Star Wars – and the head of Belladonna appears with a message: Kaine is taking assassination jobs in the territory of the Assassin’s Guild. That’s a big no-no. She wants Kaine to either pay his tribute to the Guild and join them, or things are going to get ugly.

Kaine’s response is a nice introduction to the character.

Kaine said a swear!

I think we can assume that he promptly killed most of those men in black. Though it’s not shown on panel.

We then cut to present day Houston, where Kaine is engaged in battle with two members of the Assassin’s Guild. One of them is a Hand ninja with a bow and arrow, the other is a guy named The Smithy. Apparently he has the power to make guns appear in his hands from some unseen arsenal. Again, I have no clue if they’re established members of the Guild, or if Yost had free reign to create some new guys. Kaine is pretty badass when it comes to fighting. Check out this sequence:

Art and awesomeness going hand in hand

He flips the one guy, turns to catch the arrow from the other guy, swings away and then attacks. Quite badass. Kaine also helpfully explains what has happened to lead to this fight. If you remember last issue, he saved his doctor friend from an assassin’s bullet then went and fought the assassin. The sniper recognized Kaine, revealing this past history between Kaine and the Assassin’s Guild. Now less than 24 hours later, the Guild has sicced its assassins on him for revenge!

Kaine stabs the Hand ninja with his own sai and throws him off a building. Kaine has no qualms about trying to kill these guys, which is to the book’s benefit. Kaine is the anti-hero Spider-Man, so Yost definitely needs to go all out.

We cut to River Oaks, Texas, a swanky neighborhood where Donald the Doctor and Wally the Cop have tracked down Terrence Mitchell, the man they believe hired the Assassin’s Guild in the first place after Donald was unable to save Mitchell’s wife and daughter following a car accident. They break into the man’s house and find him sitting in the dark, looking rather sickly. He’s still quite angry, and has an assassin hiding in the shadows. He orders the assassin to kill the two men.

Wh then cut to the two other supporting characters, Annabelle the Bartender and Aracley the Mysterious Girl from Mexico. They’re shopping! And Aracely gets a little bit more mysterious than before.

So shopping was the answer to unlocking her mysteries!

But enough with the supporting cast, let’s go back to the fight! Kaine follows the Hand ninja down to the street, realizing that there are now witnesses. People are around, and Kaine wants to keep them out of the fight. He landed on a passing train, then the Smithy shows up and takes some shots at him. Again, more badass fighting.

...and badass getting shot...

Smithy just gloats about his hidden arsenal, and that he can use his hands to call forth any weapons he wants. So Kaine just breaks the guy’s hand in a brutal move and tosses Smithy off the train – only to be sliced by an assassin with a sword! Kaine falls off the train and lands in a decorative pool. There’s a little girl in a nightie standing at the edge of the pool holding a teddy bear. He tells the girl to run, and she simply repeats what he says, telling Kaine to run. Kind of creepy actually, but then that’s the point.

Then Kaine gets slashed by sword guy again. I’m not sure of his name.

Skullswordonicus?

Your guess is as good as mine.

We cut back to Donald and Wally in a Mexican stand-off with the assassin. Wally wants to shoot the assassin, but the assassin only wants to shoot Donald, since that was the contract. Donald, meanwhile, makes a heartfelt plea to Mitchell that it wasn’t his fault. Donald always feels the loss when he loses a patient, so he also felt bad at the deaths of Mitchell’s wife and daughter. Will Mitchell back off?

We don’t know yet, because we cut back to Kaine. Skullswordonicus mocks Kaine for dressing up like Spider-Man, and then introduces the little girl as Flower. She seems innocent enough, but then she freaks out! She told Kaine he should have run, because he’s ruining her fun by just standing there in front of her.

Little girls are the most dangerous creatures on the planet

Kaine recovers, but now he’s surrounded by all four assassins. They’re ready to gang up on him and finish Kaine off. They mock him for a bit, and oh yeah, the skull guy’s name is Harvester. Before they can kill him, Kaine uses the cloaking feature in his costume to get away for the moment. And this is where the issue turns the badassery and brutality up to 11.

HE PUNCHED THE NINJA THROUGH THE HEAD!!

Booyah! Kaine is hardcore, and it’s awesome. He then takes out Flower and faces down Smithy, who tries to pull out some new guns, but can’t pull the trigger with his broken fingers. Kaine just walks up to Smithy,while the villain tells him that Belladonna won’t stop. She’ll send hundreds of assassins after Kaine. This he knows, so Kaine demands Smithy’s phone and calls Belladonna.

Kaine makes her a deal: He’ll do one job for her, just one, and then she has to call off the hits on both Kaine and Donald. Otherwise, he’ll just go ahead and kill every single member of the Assassin’s Guild.

Belladonna accepts.

The assassins disappear, as does the one at the Mitchell residence. Donald and Wally are safe, and Mitchell collapses into tears for what he’d done.

Back at Kaine’s apartment, Annabelle and Aracley are just hanging out and eating ice cream while watching TV. Aracley can speak a lot of different languages, it seems. She also notes that Kaine has returned, and he’s slumped off to the bathroom. Kaine looks in the mirror and has a moment of self doubt over all the people he’s killed.

Or maybe he's surrounded by zombies...

Then he vomits in the toilet. His body may have healed, but the blood will never wash off his hands.

Back in the other room, Annabelle knocks on the bathroom door to see if Kaine’s OK. Aracley is watching the news, which shows footage taken last issue when Kaine stopped that mugger. Remember the guy in the other building filming? Of course you do. Anyway, that video coupled with the day’s fight have turned Kaine into a hero! The reporter is pro-superhero, reporting that Kaine saved people and the hospital. Then we finally get someone using the name ‘Scarlet Spider’.

Way to spill the beans, Aracley

And Aracley uses that moment to reveal to Annabelle that Kaine is a superhero! Nice going, Aracley.

Still, I like the idea that all of Kaine’s supporting cast know that he’s the hero. It’s a new twist. He’s got no reason to keep a secret identity, no reason to hide the truth. It’s kind of neat.

And yeah, this was a good comic. The fight was good, especially under the pen of artist Ryan Stegman. Though I will say that I thought his work seemed rushed this issue compared to the previous issues. The fights were still great. I don’t find myself very interested in Donald and Wally yet, so their little cutaways were kind of boring and took away from the main story, but maybe they’ll grow on me. Aracley is definitely getting more interesting. And Annabelle is…suitable. It’s nice that Kaine doesn’t have a single, obvious love interest. Both women fit the bill.

Kaine is given a healthy dose of angst in this issue, and it’ll help in the long run. I like that he’s willing to kill. It separates him from Spider-Man. Though now he’s having doubts about his murderous ways. That’s probably for the best. He can be a killer, but not a heartless killer. He’s not the Punisher.

He’s the Scarlet Spider!