Superior Foes of Spider-Man Omnibus, The

I don’t laugh out loud a lot, I long along embraced my inner emo, but this series had me ejecting coffee out both nostrils. If you want something witty, sharp and funny this is for you.There isn’t a great deal of crossover with those intense, seismic events that shape the Marvel universe, so it’s easy to just jump in and appreciate it without worrying about backstories, everything is kindly laid out there for you, with the snippets of history that’s needed without being patronising and leading you by the hand. The art is wonderfully done, helping to tell the story in a precise, practical way. I particularly enjoyed the humorous thought bubbles, which give a sense of each character’s priorities, like napping instead of listening to the plan.I really can’t praise this enough, I’ve been reading graphic novels a long time, on and off since I was a kid, but this one has just the right level of childish sassiness and witty banter that it just really caught my attention. So yeah… give it a go!…………Spoiler warning!The plot centres around Boomerang’s various schemes within schemes, as he attempts to get rich and make a name for himself in the criminal world. He’s a ruthless backstabber, but somehow you end up routing for him and hoping he doesn’t get a taste of his own medicine. Joining him are a bunch of other oddball characters, my personal favourite being Speed Demon, who is too snarky for his own good and has a love-hate relationship with a puppy he steals from some kid (additional spoiler, if, like me, you also don’t like children, you’ll enjoy several moments in this where kids just keep getting robbed of puppies and generally laughed at). Beetle is also a laugh, she should definitely be in charge, but somehow Boomerang keeps persuading everyone he’s got a handle on things when he clearly doesn’t and Beetle doesn’t really push the issue too much since she’s pretty busy updating social media. Overdrive’s ability to upgrade vehicles with some ‘special nanites’ is hysterical, it’s definitely not up there in the top 100 most-wanted powers, but he makes the perfect getaway driver… when he’s not fleeing to save his own skin anyway. Finally, Shocker… the poor guy gets a chunk bitten out of his nose, tied up in the boot of a car and buried alive in a coffin, this isn’t the one for Shocker fans (those exist, right?).

One of the best recent series from Marvel. Why this series was cancelled was beyond me (poor sales apparently) but this series deserved to have more attention.Great story, very funny villains, perfect art and much more. The moment for the neglected villains to shine in the Marvel universe. Virtually all the series of Marvel could have a similar type of book especially if you dig deep into the early tales from the 60s, and this was a perfect set of oddballs from the Spidey universe.Definitely recommended especially as it is at a great price.This is one of those 'classics' that deserve to be a classic (and doesn't require the entire Marvel universe to be a crossover etc or super long impenetrable arc)