Written by Geoffrey Thorne
Drawn by Khary Randolph
Published by Marvel Comics

PREVIOUSLY: MOSAIC #3

SPIDER-MAN!

In the cliffhanger of the last issue, Morris jumped into SPIDER-MAN!

Yeah, that in and of itself is a major spoiler. So if you’ve waiting for the trade on this series and are reading these reviews first, sorry, but that’s your fault. You need to go back and start buying these single issues.

Now, as we’ve seen before, when Morris jumps into a new body, he starts gets flashes and images of that person’s memories and thoughts, slowly learning whatever they know. But this is no regular person’s brain, this is effin’ Spider-Man, one of the major scientific genius’ of the Marvel Universe. And Morris, while shown to be an excellent and focused athlete, is otherwise just an average Jor. Initially we see Spider-Man’s body completely immobile as Morris struggles to adapt to Spidey’s mind.

What follows is honestly one of the best sequences I’ve read in a comic-book in my lifetime (and I’m ain’t exactly a young kid, folks). We see Morris taking trip through Spidey’s brain, struggling to keep up with all the images and thoughts that are bombarding him at once. Basically, Spider-Man brain is constantly working. He’s always thinking of scientific equations and theories and things like that. Even when facing supervillains or teaming up with other superheroes, his subconscious brain is theorizing how that person’s powers work. Basically he’s got a mind like a computer, and Morris is trying to make sense of all the disparate rapid-fire thoughts that are flowing in his head. Or, as he so eloquently puts it: “Spider-Man is smart as #$%&!!!”

Indeed he is.

It’s also noted that Spider-Man has had his body and mind taken over before, most recently in the multi-title SUPERIOR SPIDER-MAN storyarc. And has such he had developed various mental blocks to fight against future attempts at mind control, so Morris finds himself fighting an avatar of Spider-Man in his mind. This Avatar is at least able to keep certain info, like Spidey’s secret identity, from being accessed by Morris, but eventually Morris is able to utilized Spider-Man’s intelligence to theorize how his own powers work. That, in particular, was a very clever piece of development.

So after getting a better handle on how his powers works, Morris realizes that it’s time to go confront Pops. Unfortunately for him, it turns out that the people who run the Brand Corp. know a lot more than they let on about the Terrigen Mists and, having captured and questioned Kenny, C.C., and Fife, have also figured out Morris’ new status. And now they’ve prepared to set a trap for him…

Dang. Best-written issue yet. And, as awesome as it’s been seeing Khary Randolph drawing Mosaic, his version of Spider-Man is unbelievable. I can’t wait to see what happens next! A+

MOSAIC #4