About Heroes

Writer: J. Michael Straczynski
Artists: Ron Garney and Tyler Kirkham

“Mr. Parker Goes to Washington” Parts 1 and 2 Hot off the heels of “The Other” storyline Spider-Man is given a brand new armored costume courtesy of Tony Stark. The story starts off with Tony summoning Peter to his lab to check out his new costume. Peter meets up with Stark and Tony tells Peter about all the various new abilities his costume has. Peter asks Tony how MJ’s arm healed so quickly after Morlun broke it in the hospital and Tony explains that he set the bone and injected a solution to mend the bone and heal it.
This is a great explanation of a leftover plot thread of “The Other” and a dead giveaway answer for the fans wondering how this happened.

Later, Peter takes his costume out for a test run. He chases down some guys evading the police and remembers that he can now glide in his new costume. He goes after the crooks and stops them. Spider-Man helps the woman who was the hostage and the police take the crooks away. One crook pulls out a gun and fires at our hero. Peter has no time to evade the bullet and it hits him right in the back. But, the crook is in for a shock. The bullet bounces right off his back, since he is covered in armor after all. The cops and crook are stunned, and one cop leaves the crook freaked out by telling him “some of the guys on the force think that maybe Spider-Man did die and this isn’t really the same man.” Peter’s new suit tells him the crook’s pulse and heart rate raised by this event.

Back at Avengers tower, Peter and MJ have dinner with Tony. Tony is pleased that Peter loves his new suit and its abilities, and Tony admits he didn’t call them to dinner just to talk about costumes. He makes Peter vow that he will stand by and support him in the coming weeks. Peter tells Tony that he respects him and appreciates everything he has done for his family and the two shake hands. Now, Tony presents to Peter a folder containing information on the upcoming Super-Hero Registration Act that congress is about to pass. Tony tells Peter it’s time for them to head to Washington.

Our heroes arrive in Washington and Tony goes over some information about the Bill with Peter. Peter returns to the hotel room and finds out that Tony has already improved the suit some more, now adding a chameliac cloaking ability. Peter can wear the suit and look like Peter Parker, and automatically change into costume (kind of the like the symbiote’sabilities.) The suit can also take on the form of his former costumes if he so wishes to look that way.

Peter meets up with Tony and the two must face off against senators. Tony makes some good points about how the heroes have saved the world over and over, yet the senators don’t seem to keen on his views. Peter asks them if he could say a few things and tells them that heroes are people underneath their masks who have families. He stresses the dangers of some heroes having a public identity, but the senators counteract with a point of that being all the more reason to register. Tony tells Peter that you can’t just tell the truth when it comes to dealing with the Supreme Court.

Just as our heroes are about to go get a good steak, the Titanium Man sets his sights on Tony Stark. Pete’s spider-sense kicks into high gear and he saves Tony from the gunfire. Peter automatically suits up into Spider-Man (I am not going to call him theIron-Spider) and attacks Titanium Man. Tony gets to safety and the police arrive at the scene of the battle. Naturally they blame Spider-Man for being in cahoots with Titanium Man and fire at both of them.
Titanium Man causes damage and endangers lives. Peter webs himself to Titanium Man and follows his foe, stating that this fight is just getting started.

Thoughts/Comments:
Not bad. I’m still not exactly sold on the new costume, but at least the reason for it was story driven and not just a random change. Ron Garney’s artwork isn’t bad and I love Tyler Kirkham’s issue. I really appreciate the fact that Straczynski is tying this book into the Civil War and not ignoring what is about to happen to the Marvel Universe this summer. It was great watching Peter nervously deal with politicians and stating “I’d rather face a room full of super-villains than go back in there.” I don’t know much about the Titanium Man but its nice having our hero face a new opponent. I give these issues a B+ right now. Can’t wait to see what’s in store for this book in the coming months.