Ever wonder what B-list villains get up to when they’re not robbing banks or getting webbed upside down to light poles? Well, how about C-list villains?? Superior Foes of Spider-Man #11 has your answer! Superior Foes takes a break from the doings of intriguing B-listers like Boomerang and Shocker and shifts to C-list Spidey villains of the past. Don’t let this turn you off; it’s actually a somewhat amusing read.

This issue’s backbone is supported by a story about a super villain support group. These guys are the sort of villains like Hippo and Porcupine who make you do a double take – ‘wait! I think I have SEEN that dude before!’ The first half of the issue is humorous and you actually find yourself sympathizing with Grizzly. These villains (are they really “super”?) range from those who have been around for decades but have fallen by the way side (Porcupine) to those who are run of the mill, “filler” foes (like Hippo), who have only popped up in a few comic panels over the years. Again, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Not every comic can revolve around Doc Ock or Green Goblin so it is interesting to see these ‘lesser’ foes. To get the story from their perspective is valuable because, unlike Ock or Gobby, these guys are not all evil. Some have even teamed up with heroes over the years. Their stories are much more complicated and can lead to wonderful stories…or just good ones.

The writing is good and adeptly shifts gear midway. The concept of a man in an enhanced grizzly bear exoskeleton who terrorizes drunks is a novel one and the dialog between Grizzly and his “prey” is entertaining. A seemingly funny look at villains struggling with their increasingly violent encounters with Spider-Man takes a dark turn with the story of the Looter. Norman G. Fester’s true nature really comes out during his monolog and his advice to his fellow villains is well written.

Carnero and Plati’s artwork is excellent and carries it during some of the weirder turns the story takes. The juxtaposition of an incredibly fierce looking Grizzly dropping from on high with the musical notes of “Teddy Bear’s Picnic” is just the right touch of weird.

Spider-Ock also makes an appearance in this issue and he is drawn appropriately sinister. This series obviously gives us the view of the world from the eyes of Spidey’s foes and seeing Spider-Ock lay big-time beatdowns on clearly overmatched foes really gets the reader to consider things from the criminal’s point of view. Heck, you might even root for them, especially after the artists show us poor Grizzly with tears streaming down his face.

The absolute thrashing that Spidey-Ock puts on Grizzly and Looter leaves you with a bad taste in your mouth. As we have seen in the Superior Spider-Man title, Spidey’s heavy-handed tactics did not have the effect that Otto had in mind.  Especially with the case of the Looter beating, you start to get a feeling that there is going to be major blowback for Peter Parker to face in the coming months.

The Looter’s address of the villain support group might be simply giving us a view of the damage done by Superior Spidey…or could Looter’s address be something else? The room of mentally and physically broken men is told by Looter to stop complaining about this “new” Spider-man and he warns that their true foe is the ultra-violent spider-man lurking within them all.

It seems like Looter might be finished, relegated to months of physical rehab and a dead-end office job, but Looter himself says that he feels compelled to prove himself better than everyone else. Can we really believe that this megalomaniacal sociopath will hang up his helmet for good? He attempted a takeover of New York’s criminal underworld with a team of ne’er-do-wells, but he vastly underestimated Spider-Ock. He won’t make that mistake twice (and good ol’ friendly neighborhood Spidey won’t have the advantage of Ock’s surveillance network). Superior Spidey’s violent ways might also prove to be a catalyst for villains like Grizzly who have often been in the gray area between good and evil. Spider Ock’s black-and-white, every-criminal-gets-a-thrashing-no-matter-the-severity-of-the-crime worldview lumps the Grizzlys of the world with the Norman Osborns. Will Grizzly (and Hippo, Porcupine, etc.) embrace this image? If so, there will be an army of potentially deadly Spider-foes ready to be led into battle. And unlike many villain teams of the past, they won’t fall victim to petty squabbles over money or individual motives; they will all be driven by a common motivating factor: revenge.

While it is unfortunate that the series has gotten away from what made it so interesting in the past (a look at the personal lives of more famous B-list villains), a (hopefully brief) diversion into seemingly random villains is still amusing and certainly reinforces our appreciation for what Nick Spencer and Steve Lieber provided in the first nine issues.