The Lizard is loose. Curt Connors’ son was kidnapped by the Electros, but he managed to escape and now is nowhere to be found. Believing Miles and Peter to be somehow responsible, the Lizard is going berserk. It’s up to the spectacular Spider-Men to put a stop him and find young Billy Connors before someone gets hurt.
At this stage, Spectacular Spider-Men is feeling a little like a misnomer. Putting aside that there is nothing especially spectacular about this book, it also isn’t even really about the Spider-Men in question. How many more issues will we have to endure where these characters don’t remove their masks and have a human conversation?
I feel like it’s not controversial to say that the appeal of Spider-Man—and, indeed, Spider-Men—is in the contrast of their super-heroics with the plights of their ordinary civilian lives. Web-slinging and wall-crawling is fun, of course, but when that’s all there is—when nothing that’s happening is backed by strong character motivation from either Peter or Miles—then things start to feel a little hollow.
Marvel
This is, unfortunately, the biggest problem bringing down Spectacular Spider-Men #14. It’s not that there isn’t some fun action to be had—primarily in the opening showdown with the Lizard—but there’s just no sense that Peter or Miles care particularly strongly about the stakes.
And in long-running superhero comics, it’s all about the stakes. We know that the Lizard isn’t going to kill the Spider-Men, but the fate of young Billy Conners is completely up for grabs. It would’ve been nice to see some character beats emphasizing how this is affecting Peter or Miles, or, at the very least, have the threat to Billy feel more immediate and dangerous.
Without this, the whole issue feels like filler. Adding to this is the emphasis Spectacular Spider-Men #14 places on a relationship between two tertiary supporting characters. Elementary is a new superhero who’s been a regular presence in this series, and while I can come to terms with her stealing the spotlight from Peter and Miles sometimes, it’s a real stretch to make us care about Anna—the girl Elementary has a crush on—and Rickie—Anna’ girlfriend.
Marvel
At this stage, we are simply too many characters removed from the reason anyone would want to read this issue. Breaking up the main action set piece to deliver a scene centred around Anna and Rickie’s relationship—a scene in which even Elementary is nowhere to be seen—is a baffling choice. To quote the popular parlance: “What are we even doing here?”
Curt Connors is the only character to be given a semi-decent arc here, as this issue finally closes out the plot involving his kidnapped son. There is, at the very least, some catharsis to found here. There’s also something compelling about the found family that the Connors have made in the sewers (just go with it), but the idea is more of an afterthought than anything close to the main focus of the book.
There’s very little to recommend about Spectacular Spider-Men #14. If you’ve been reading along with the series, it does at least tie a neat bow around the Lizard plotline in a way that offers a sliver of satisfaction, but there’s very little of substance here. Burdened by an overwhelming number of supporting characters and a complete lack of an interesting dynamic between Peter and Miles, this one’s best left for the completists.
