I was looking forward to Kevin “Clerks” Smith writing Spider-Man. I enjoyed his Daredevil and his Green Arrow, so when it was accounced he would be writing Spider-Man / Black Cat: The Evil that Men do all was good. The final product however wasn’t really very good. The basic story is what seems to be a gritty crime drama…last time I checked that wasn’t Spider-Man teritory, and it doesn’t work. Daredevil yeah I could see this working for DD but not for Spider-Man. Given the high standards on the other Spider-Man titles (JMS on Amazing, Bendis on Ultimate and Paul Jenkins on the under appreciated Peter Parker) I expected more. I’ll stick with it for another but we’ll have to see again then.
I was however very impressed with Bruce Wayne: Murderer, the first collection of the recent series running through the Bat titles. I’ve always liked Batman and in particular the darker side where Bruce Wayne is a cover and just a cover. The Batman is the only person who matters. That pretty much was where the entire story lead to and it worked. It flowed pretty well in most places for something that is 8 titles or so combined together and left me wanting a lot more at the end.