The Stop Button

And then Bendis does it again. He makes up for all his crappy pacing and decompressed storytelling with this absurd issue featuring Peter trying to get back home from Brazil (by traveling in luggage compartments) and finishing with an homage to Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.

It’s all so perfectly executed, down to Doc Ock barely having any role in the comic even though it opens with him (and Peter beating the crap out of him). Even Bendis including the sassy female Brazilian federal agent works. Bendis toys with the reader, probably even abuses him or her (certainly their money to pay for the issue), and still makes it pay off in the end.

The hard cliffhanger, which comes as something of a surprise because Bendis does such a phenomenal job distracting the reader with Peter’s misadventures, even works.

I resent how much I enjoyed this issue; it’s cheap and yummy.

CREDITS

Hollywood: Part Five; writer, Brian Michael Bendis; penciller, Mark Bagley; inker, Scott Hanna; colorist, Jonathan D. Smith; letterer, Chris Eliopoulos; editors, Nick Lowe and Ralph Macchio; publisher, Marvel Comics.