Scarlet Spider #25

After two years Kaine's adventures in Houston as the Scarlet Spider end in the title's final issue. Picking up some time after the events that ended Kaine's super-hero career which are shown in a series of flashbacks which demonstrate the former killer's heroics and the face of his monstrous nature (and why he can never return to Houston) we find Kaine and Aracely working their way down the Mexican coast in an attempt to begin a new life and forget their old one.

Although the entire issue has a somber mood, writer Christopher Yost still manages to infuse it with the spirit of the title's more upbeat issues. I'm glad to see Kaine and Aracely together at the end of the series which suggests (hopefully) that she'll be joining him in Marvel's New Warriors title early next year. The idea I'm going to have to read a New Warriors comic to get more of Scarlet Spider isn't great news, but Aracely's involvement would soften the blow.

I'll miss this title which leaves me no monthly Spidey comics (at least none I care to read). And I'll miss Yost's rehabilitative take on a character who ends the series far more interesting than when it began. Worth a look.

[Marvel, $3.99]