Miles Morales: Spider-Man #7 // Review
The Taskmaster has a way of making some money on the job. He’s got a little parlay that says that he and the Cape Killers can take Carnage out by sunrise. Before they can do that, they’re going to need to learn to get along and work as a team. This is a marginal headache for a seasoned, young web-slinger in Miles Morales: Spider-Man #7. Writer Cody Ziglar reaches the penultimate chapter of his “Carnage Reigns” storyline. Artist Federico Vicentini swiftly modulates the action between a range of heroes and villains with the aid of colorist Bryan Valenza.
The Taskmaster is dropped several stories up by the electro girl Frye. “Every prisoner for herself,” she says. All’s fair in work and combat for a group of villains. Miles is forced to work alongside a whole lot of people he’d rather not ally himself with, but Carnage is some kind of major symbiote demon, and there’s not much hope without some help. Thankfully, Frye’s got a little bit of juice left in her, and Miles has a plan that just might bring victory within reach...and earn the Taskmaster a little bit of extra money in the process.
Ziglar is moving around a lot on the page. The central focus on Carnage helps keep the momentum of the action moving in a single coherent direction. The Cape Killers may seem kind of chaotic as they work with a battle-addled Miles Morales, but the crazy energy that Ziglar’s pointing at Carnage ends up being a lot of fun as the conflict progresses methodically from cover to cover. There’s no solid center to the heroic end of the equation--no focus on any one heroic element, but there doesn’t really need to be. The lack of heroic focus amplifies the monstrous nature of Carnage and amps up the menace.
Vicentini shoots the action across the page in impressive arcs that are framed from really interesting angles. He seems very, very aware that the heart of the issue is a combat taking place at night, so he’s strategically allowing the radiant elements of the battle plenty of room to assert themselves in some truly beautiful coloring work by Bryan Valenza. The emotionally resonant elements of the action might be a bit distant, but that emotional distance DOES suit the life-or-death nature of the conflict.
Ziglar has the panels framed on the right combination of characters. Miles looks good when squaring off against Carnage. The additional focus on Taskmaster and Frye and company adds a bit of accent around the edges of the action for a really striking visual punch. The constant beat of the action throughout the issue feels like a solid progression of tension, which should meet a hopefully satisfying resolution next issue. Ziglar isn’t trying anything that hasn’t been tried on some level before a million times. (Carnage and other symbiotes have been inciting chaos for decades now.) Ziglar has, nevertheless, found a way to breathe life into the fallout from Spider-Man’s alien costume one more time.
