Hot damn! A rip-roaringly fun adventure was had by all as Scarlet Spider and the Rangers teamed up to take down a giant, rampaging electricity demon! It had character growth, it had interesting villains, and it had teases towards future adventures. I’d say that makes for a pretty stellar superhero story, don’t you? Not much in the way of personal stuff for Kaine, but that’s more than made up for with his in-costume craziness as the Scarlet Spider.

Scarlet Spider #9

I daresay our favorite hued hero is turning out to be a pretty good superhero.

Comic rating: 4/5: Good!

It’s times like these that I wish I graded with decimals or fractions. This is definitely one of the best issues of Scarlet Spider so far, but it doesn’t quite reach the levels of greatness that I try and save the perfect score for. There’s nothing so amazing as to warrant such a score, but there is a lot of great stuff in this issue. Plus writer Christopher Yost is doing a pretty good job of setting up future characters and villains. That’s a good sign, though it doesn’t necessarily guarantee a book’s longevity. Still, it’s good to know the man is planning ahead.

This issue is almost entirely fight, with a couple short epilogues at the end. Scarlet Spider and the Rangers work well together, it would seem, and the electricity monster provides a solid adversary considering the storyline. So everything comes together quite nicely in a darn good superhero story.

Join me after the jump for a full synopsis and more review.

We open with Scarlet Spider, the Rangers, and Zoe watching in scared awe as the electricity monster appears and starts destroying stuff. Kaine tells himself that he’s going to kill Peter Parker. In fact, he’s going to kill everyone and anyone who ever tried to push him into being a hero or a better person.

He’s in it for the babes, not the electricity monsters

Scarlet recaps the adventure so far, how it started with him saving Zoe after she tried to sabotage her dad’s company, Roxxon. Now he and the Rangers – a group of superheroes who operate in the American Southwest – have tracked down this secret Roxxon experiment to an oil rig off the coast of Galveston, Texas. While some of the heroes fight the monster, Scarlet and Shooting Star grab one of the scientists, who explains the whole situation. A few months ago, as we saw in the various flashbacks in the previous issues, the Roxxon drilling operation discovered some kind of mysterious, sentient energy source down beneath the Earth. Roxxon CEO Walsh wanted to keep drilling, so they did, and let this source free.

Called Mammon, the energy source possessed one of the workers, but burned through him pretty quickly. So Walsh kept bringing more bodies, using some of the Mexican cartel members, but Mammon just kept burning through them.

Scarlet and the Rangers are pretty horrified and digusted.

She’s got quite the mouth on her

Walsh then bursts in with an army of armed and armored guards, ordering them to kill all the superheroes. So the fight gets kicked up a notch, with everyone seemingly fighting everyone else. Scarlet spends a little time helping and bonding with the Rangers before getting a bright idea: Mammon is supported by his host body. So Scarlet launches himself at the big blue monster and tackles the body out of him.

But that doesn’t stop Mammon, it just starts to make him grow bigger. The Rangers try to deal with the monster, but it’s no use. Not even the alien Fifty-One can communicate with Mammon.

Then it picks a new host, launching itself at Zoe and her father. Walsh actually does something decent and pushes his daughter out of the way, with Mammon claiming Walsh. Of course, that just restrengthens the monster, and the heroes are still at a loss as to what they can do. Fortunately, Scarlet Spider has an idea! And he’ll need Texas Twister’s and the Rangers’ help!

‘Tornado-Man’, I love it!

The Rangers cut loose on Mammon with everything they’ve got, providing the distraction. Scarlet swings in close and smacks Walsh, getting the creature’s attention and getting it to follow him out of the building and away from the other people. Everybody’s pretty impressed by that.

High praise from Tornado-Man

Scarlet’s big plan is to lead Mammon to one of the big oil tanks on the refinery. He draws Mammon to it, wondering if perhaps he’s the devil come to take Scarlet to Hell. But Scarlet isn’t ready to die yet, and he webs Walsh free of the energy monster just as it falls into the big silo full of oil. Just as the energy source had been trapped beneath the Earth’s surface, Scarlet once again traps it in oil. There’s a huge explosion, and the Rangers arrive just in time to make sure the flames don’t spread and Mammon stays contained. They’re all in awe at Scarlet’s heroics, saddened by his heroic sacrifice.

Until Scarlet walks out with Walsh safe and sound, telling them they should have at least tried to look for him before starting the eulogy.

Scarlet Spider then spends a page recapping what happens next. Mammon is secure, and the Rangers will turn it over to SHIELD or the Avengers. Walsh is alive, but he’s comatose, possibly with a little bit of Mammon still inside of him. Zoe has been glued to his side ever since. As for the damage, Roxxon is already in spin mode covering it up. Walsh has been written off as mentally ill, and some new corporate hack has already been flown out as “Acting CEO”. He thanks the superheroes for all their help, and Kaine feels like punching him in the face.

Elsewhere, on a rooftop, the Rangers thank Scarlet Spider for his help, and say they will be watching Roxxon from now on. Scarlet angrily asks where they’ve been all the previous times Roxxon has done evil, and Texas Twister points out that it’s just them protecting the entire Southwest. The Avengers and Fantastic Four never leave New York City, they do it all themselves. And now with Scarlet Spider’s help…

What do the five Scarlet fingers say to the face?

That scene would have worked so much better if it didn’t have that “You are high” line. That doesn’t seem like something Kaine would say. Plus it just falls flat as a sentence. The word ‘high’ is just not as strong as that moment required, not to mention how stupid it is to suggest Texas Twister is high on drugs for asking Scarlet Spider to join the Rangers. Considering everything they just went through, using a juvenile, immature line like “You are high” just rings totally false.

Still, ignore that line and it’s a great moment. Here are some legitimate heroes doing good and helping people, but our disruptive anti-hero is not a team player.

The final epilogue is Zoe seated at her father’s hospital bed. He’s still out of it, and now she’s completely devoted to him. She blames the heroes for what happened, especially Scarlet Spider. She doesn’t know who he is or his name, but she did sleep with him that one time, and she remembers exactly what she looks like. Zoe swears she will make the Scarlet Spider pay. All she has to do is find him.

See what I mean? Pretty cool issue. The action is great, though the art is still nowhere near as good as original artist Ryan Stegman. He would have drawn the hell out of this issue. And just look at that panel of Scarlet Spider punching Texas Twister. Yeah, not Khoi Pham’s best work. Still, this comic was pretty good. The heroes were all heroic, especially Kaine. The Rangers weren’t just set dressing, and they added a fun new dynamic to the series. I hope to see them again, hopefully even as solo characters around for the occasional cameo or guest star. They don’t always have to appear as a team. Maybe just expand on Scarlet’s friendship with a few individual members. Could be fun!

Plus now we have Zoe Walsh as a potential villain/love interest! I still think it was a great idea to have Kaine sleep with her. He needed some real drama to shake up his already sort of stale personal life. He’s got a very selective group of friends, and they’ll get boring fast. Zoe spiced things up, and she’ll be cool to see again down the road.

I’m definitely still enjoying the Scarlet Spider series. It’s not ground-breaking or mind-blowing in terms of comics, but it’s a really solid adventure so far.

And we’ll see what happens next issue as he dives into his very own crossover! Scarlet Spider and Venom are going to battle Minimum Carnage! Though what Kaine has to do with Carnage is anyone’s guess…