Hobie Brown is the anarchic Spider-Punk, set to protect Earth-138 with his ax in hand and a chaotic band of punk rockin’ heroes backing him. Norman Osborn is dead, but will the chaos he’s created be too much for Spider-Punk to handle? Find out in Spider-Punk: Arms Race #1, written by Cody Ziglar, drawn by Justin Mason, colored by Morry Hollowell and lettered by Travis Lanham.
Previously, Hobie Brown, aka Spider-Punk, smashed his guitar into the skull of the villainously Venomized Norman Osborn, but when he returned, Hobie and his band of superheroes blew him away with the power of rock. With Osborn and his crew ousted, the people rose up to clean up their streets. Some time passed, and the Spider-Band has gotten help from an unexpected ally.
Taking place some time after the events of the 2022 miniseries Spider-Punk: Battle of the Banned, this book features Hobie and his Spider-Band trying to clean up New York City. The band consists of Spider-Punk, Mz. Marvel (aka Kamala Khan), Daredevil (aka Mattea Murdock, Drummer of Philly), Riotheart (Riri Williams) and Captain Anarchy (Karl Morningdew).
The issue begins years ago, right before Hobie got his powers. He is shown as a homeless Black teen on the run from the police, until a chase causes him to fall into a river of toxic waste, where he is bitten by a radioactive spider. He is then shown punching a cop before becoming Spider-Punk.
In a couple of pages, artist Justin Mason, writer Cody Ziglar, colorist Morry Hollowell and letterer Travis Lanham give a brief look at Hobie’s origin story. Lanham’s black text boxes and red and white letters add emotional heft to Ziglar’s internal monologue, with the red putting emphasis on certain words. “No money. No power. No responsibility. Until a river full of toxic waste saw fit to change everything… and all it took was a bite.”
My favorite little detail in these pages is the bit of webbing that underlines the panels of the first page and connects to the next page, which shows Hobie in his Spider-Punk suit. Through their use of heavy inks and light and dark colors, Mason and Hollowell provide a great contrast between the hopelessness of pre-Spider-Punk Hobie and Spider-Punk in the present day. The webs show that Hobie’s memory of that time might be gritty and dark, but he managed to stand in the light of his newfound power.
The comic then moves forward to the present, where the Spider-Band is taking on a crew of scaly lizard men working for the Vulture. I love the team banter going on throughout this fight between the lizard men and the Spider-Band, because it’s fun. One lizard tells Riotheart to “Get out of that armor and fight me like man,” and Riri responds “Naw, Sauron” as she blasts him with her arm lasers.
Post fight, the Spider-Band lightly chastises Hobie for causing property damage while fighting the lizard men, especially since “T” might find out. The “T” is soon revealed to be T’Challa and his sister Shuri, who arrive by Wakandan ship. Although T’Challa is in hologram form, it is cool to see him and Shuri in casual Wakandan clothing.
Since T’Challa is busy leading Wakanda, Shuri is sent as his proxy due to her positions as the head of Wakandan-International Outreach and the Wakanda Design Group. Between the two siblings, Wakanda can provide technological aid to Hobie and New York. However, T’Challa starts to gently reprimand Hobie about his lack of results as far as community improvement goes.
Just then, the comic cuts to a shady meeting between a bunch of investors and the villain known as Hammer. Hammer is trying to get the investors to buy a new invention cobbled together from old, experimental Osborn tech. The tech in question is called the Sentinel Slayer, which aims to be a new threat to the Spider-Band.
Despite pitching the project to investors for months, Hammer can’t get any cash investments due to a lack of results, i.e. a working prototype. Hammer is soon revealed to be working with the Spider-Man villain Doc Ock, who is the brains guy to Hammer’s ideas guy. As he punches a picture of Spider-Punk with a tentacle, Ock says they could be doing more with Hammer’s ideas than peddling the investors.
Despite having different goals for their tech, the contrast between Hobie’s and Hammer’s situations is striking. Hobie wants to improve his community but lacks the ability to take the initiative as a leader, while Ock wants to fill the hole left by Osborn and destroy the only major threat to him.
Meanwhile, back at the newly renovated Spider-Base, the Spider-Band and the Wakandian siblings are passing out supplies to various civilians who have shown up. The Spider-Base seems more like a community shelter for the neighborhood rather than just a place for the Spider-Band, which is nice to see. As mentioned earlier, Hobie isn’t fully ready to step into the role he needs to in order to enact real change. For the moment, he would rather try to convince Riri to make him a new Spider-Van.
For the most part, I believe Hobie is still mentally trying to regroup after fighting Osborn again. Before he managed to work with the Spider-Band to defeat him for good, he was beaten pretty badly. It makes me wish that Hobie could get some form of superhero counseling like Cindy Moon does in Marvel’s Silk.
On an unrelated note, Hobie looks great unmasked. He has a bit of dreadlock mohawk that’s a fiery orange. Not only is it punk AF, but it’s Black AF, too. It’s not often that I see comic book artists who can draw the different textures and styles of Black hair.
Going back to the story, Hobie and Riri have a little heart to heart in the Spider Base’s design lab. Hobie tells Riri he is scared of the responsibility of leading a whole “Spider-Nation” rather than just a Spider-Band, but Riri wisely says, “Having fear of something new but still doing it is exactly why you’re perfect for this.”
Briefly, the comic cuts back to Otto and Hammer as Otto puts the finishing touches on the newest threat to Spider-Punk before hitting a big red button to launch it. Otto aims to show why he is the superior leader with a big show of force that soon catches the attention of the Spider-Base. An alarm goes off and disrupts the Spider-Band’s jam session, which is a shame because it looked like they were making good music.
Although the Spider-Band tries to intercept the threat via a Wakandan airship, it is soon blown out of the sky, with Spider-Punk’s spider sense going off the moment they are fired on. Thankfully, Riotheart’s force field saves their lives.
It is here that we fully see Doc Ock’s threat for the first time, a giant robot that looks like a fusion of the sentinels seen in the X-Men comics and Ock’s own technology. The tentacles are where its mouth would be, which looks gross. Regardless, the robot is a tough cookie and its powers are further demonstrated when it blasts Riotheart into a car after she lets down her shield.
However, the Spider-Band manages to fight back due to the robot being a bit glitchy once Spider-Punk hits it with some reinforced steel. Captain Anarchy also manages to use his shield to bounce the robot’s laser back at it and make a dent in its chest, with Daredevil landing a follow-up hit. With a fastball special via Mz. Marvel and Spider-Punk, the two manage to land a finishing blow to the bot. I find it cool that Shuri gave Spider-Punk vibranium heel boots that let Spider-Punk pierce the bot with a flying kick.
The story in this issue ends as the Spider-Band tries to speculate who is behind the bot while licking their wounds and Doc Ock aims to use the data from the fight to create an even worse robot.
Yet, this isn’t the end of the comic because there’s a short backup featuring Mz. Marvel and Daredevil. The two of them are hanging out in Mattea Murdock’s apartment when a playing card slices through Kamala’s bag of popcorn. It’s the villain Bullseye attacking and Mz. Marvel and Daredevil must fend him off. It’s a fun mix of relaxation and superheroics that showcases Kamala and Daredevil’s friendship.
Buy Spider-Punk: Arms Race #1 here. (Disclaimer: As an Amazon Associate, ComicsXF may earn from qualifying purchases.)
Latonya Pennington
Latonya Pennington is a freelance contributor whose comics criticism can be found at Women Write About Comics, Comic Book Herald, Newsarama and Shelfdust, among others.
