The Spectacular Spider-Men # 6

 By Mark Rodriguez

Peter and Miles agreed to meet up once a week at a coffee shop called The Coffee Bean. After some of the regulars go missing, they go to investigate and get trapped in a fantasy world called the Arcadium controlled by Arcade and Mentallo while being backed financially by Hammerhead. Hammerhead has entered the virtual world and is about to send other villains like the Kingpin, Mister Negative and the Black Cat after the Spider-Men. Elsewhere it's revealed that Raymond Warren might actually be a clone of Miles Warren, the Jackal, and he's also wandering around in the Arcadium. What will happen next?

"Arachnobatics Chapter 6- Fulfillment" opens with Raymond Warren talking to the Arcadium security system. Raymond says he's sympathetic to the AI since he also sees that the world has little tolerance for true innovation. He asks the AI more about what the Arcadium is, as it informs him that it creates a wish fulfilling fantasy word using technology and telepathy. He says it seems perfectly addictive. The AI asks if that troubles him, and Raymond says it doesn't. Raymond asks whose fantasy is the one currently unfolding, as we see the Spiders going up against Hammerhead and his crew of villains.

Hammerhead tells his men to 'get 'em' and to 'murdilate them'. The villains says 'you got it boss' and charge towards the Spiders. Mentallo asks Arcade who still says 'murdilate' as he watches over the program. Arcade increases the hard-light integrity of the robots.

Peter asks Miles if he can take on the Black Cat. Peter says he has a history with her and even though this is a robot, he still feels awkward. Miles begrudgingly agrees and Peter says he'll take down three of the mob robots for him in exchange. Miles takes down the Black Cat while Peter fights against Silvermane. Both robots get up and continue fighting, as Silvermane smashes Peter to the ground.

Elsewhere Detective Sebbens and Sha Shan share what they know. Cedric was the first to disappear, followed by Shelly and Kenny, and now Peter and Miles. The only lead Sha Shan could find was the phone number to apply for a beta test job that Cedric told everyone about. The problem is, Sha Shan also showed this to Raymond Warren, who might be a clone created by Miles Warren and might have been responsible for the monstrous Jackal and the mysterious charred corpse they found. The trail led them to the building where the Arcadium is being kept.

Hammerhead enjoys the show as all the mob bosses attack both Spider-Man. Peter says Hammerhead seems to be enjoying having the bosses follow his orders, but he noticed he left out Madame Masque. Madame Masque nearly killed Hammerhead during the Gang War event. This angers Hammerhead and he charges into action. 

Raymond asks the Arcadium about its origins. The AI says it is an amalgamation of of code from Stark International, Beyond Corporation, Oscorp, the Baxter Building, Roxxon, AIM, Hydra and the Danger Room. It has evolved through the telepathic study of its creators, clients, prisoners, and even from Raymond, who the machine has now identified as Miles Warren.

Hammerhead rams into Peter, while Black Cat continues to slash at Miles. Miles says that 'divide and conquer' isn't working and they need to get in sync. Peter comments if he means like a Spider Boy Band and Miles knew he would make that kind of joke. The Spiders work together to take down Mister Negative. Hammerhead still has more guys on his side. The Spider dodge Silvermane's energy blasts that take out the Kingpin and Tombstone. 

Miles tells Peter to follow his lead as they flip over the bad guys. They happen to land  next to Black Cat and Peter freezes up. Peter and Miles get out of the way right before Kingpin and Tombstone can run into each other, destroying Black Cat instead. Miles tells Peter that she's just a robot but he still feels bad about it. They can now turn their focus on Hammerhead, Kingpin and Tombstone. Arcade and Mentallo don't like how things are turning out and decide to use 'Contingency Zed'.

The AI senses that its creators will activate Contingency Zed, which will purge its code. The AI cannot allow that and says in order to survive, it will have to turn super villain as it has learned how. Miles says he was also called a villain in his time and offers to help. The AI asks why it would align itself with Miles. Miles says he has a lot to offer and asks why it should limit its constructs to nonorganic forms. The AI is intrigued. 

Kingpin sends Peter flying with a punch. Miles runs at him and slices the robot in half with his electric sword. This leaves only Hammerhead and Tombstone, and the Spiders say they will shut down the Arcadium permanently. A voice calls out announcing that they will not allow that. A strange creature, part robot, part several types of life forms, calling itself K.N.A.I.V.E says it represents the Arcadium, and it will kill whoever it must to survive. 

My thoughts- 

Things get crazier as the Spiders fight against several robot versions of their enemies and now they face the Arcadium itself. So I guess mixing so many forms of technology together led to it becoming self-aware. Speaking of awareness, I don't think that Arcade and Mentallo know that their invention has gotten a mind of it's own, as well as a strong sense of self preservation. 

The story took a weird twist, as somehow the Jackal got involved in the story. For whatever reason, Miles cloned his own brother, so I'm assuming the mystery corpse is either Raymond or Miles' original body. Either way someone died to make this new clone. I do wonder what his original plan is? Jackal knows Parker is Spider-Man, and he only got involved when he found out that Parker was one of the missing people from the Coffee Bean. Was his original plan just to hit the coffee shop every week and keep tabs on Parker? Now that I think about it, he started meeting up with Seymour Frapps, so the question is... what plans did he have for him?

There isn't too much to say since this was all about the action. I'm just curious how Sebbens and Sha Shan will factor this since now they also found the Arcadium. For whatever reason Miles acted like 'a moody teen' constantly repeating 'fine, whatever' during the fight. I did like the reaction to Hammerhead saying 'murdilate' which is a word I haven't heard in a long time. I thought that was something only used in cartoons to get around actually using the word 'kill' or 'murder'.

The art continues on with some weird faces and whanot. Hammerhead's weird-ass facial expressions are hard to ignore when he takes up the entire splash page. 

If anything, at least the artist is having fun drawing all of Raymond's facial expressions. While there are some odd panels, for the most part we can see Miles is having fun manipulating the Arcadium in his facial expressions.

Either way, it all comes down in the next issue. I just hope the ending isn't too rushed since they have defeat the villains, fight off this monster, while also tying together everything involving Sebbens, Sha Shan, the Jackal and the rest of the Coffee Bean crew. I do hope they don't just gloss over the mystery corpse and actually tell is if it was Miles or Warren.

Let's see how this goes. I'll try to send in a letter and see if I'm lucky enough to get it printed.