10 Best Comic Storylines Featuring The Amazing Spider-Man 2 Villains
2. Flowers For Rhino (Spider-Mans Tangled Web #5-6)
Joe Kellys character makeover for Rhino (see entry No. 3) is only outdone by this two part Peter Milligan/Duncan Fegredo storyline that appeared in the short-lived Spider-Mans Tangled Web series in 2001. Flowers for Rhino thematically echoes the classic science fiction story, Flowers for Algernon, depicting what happens when a brutish, dimwitted villain like Rhino suddenly becomes stunningly brilliant. What makes Flowers for Rhino so effective is how it simultaneously plays for laughs and drama. Rhino, as one of the worlds smartest men, is a ridiculous premise, and Milligan crafts a number of uproarious scenarios, such as the villain rewriting Hamlet and creating a formulate that can deduce the secret identities of the entire Marvel Universe. But the character eventually finds himself bored by his brilliance, and even contemplates suicide before getting a surgery to return him to his oafish former self. The end result is a storyline that isnt as emotionally tumultuous as Kellys two-parter in Amazing Spider-Man, but is ultimately more cerebral and tightly plotted.
Mark is a professional writer living in Brooklyn and is the founder of the Chasing Amazing Blog, which documents his quest to collect every issue of Amazing Spider-Man, and the Superior Spider-Talk podcast. He also pens the "Gimmick or Good?" column at Comics Should Be Good blog.
