Review by Ian Keogh

Here There Be Monsters was a slim four chapter collection, and so is Disassembled, although it adds an extra chapter. After all these years it no longer matters, but based on promotion associated with the title in 2004 readers would naturally have assumed it was connected with the Avengers breaking up. Any such connections are extremely vague, and this is a standard Spider-Man teaming with Captain America.

It seems at first as if Paul Jenkins has stretched a slim plot too far over two chapters. Spider-Man experiences his Spider-Sense going into overdrive, and that’s due to the presence of an attractive woman in an evening dress able to control great numbers of people from distance. Captain America knows who she is, but readers don’t as she’s created by Jenkins and artist Michael Ryan (sample art). There’s a surprise ending, but in a shrug of the shoulders way.

However, despite the changing roster of artists, it becomes apparent that Jenkins hasn’t intended Ana Soria’s presence just as a mystery villain to fill pages and be disposed of. She has an entire back story to be rolled out over subsequent chapters, and it’s actually rather good. There’s a reason Captain America is aware of her, and her presence transforms Spider-Man in a really creepy way.

Ordinarily, three artists on a single five chapter story would be undesirable, but due to the ongoing transformation process it works really well. Ryan’s chapters are a standard superhero story and drawn as such, but the wild exaggerations of Humberto Ramos ideally suit the changes that subsequently occur. Paco Medina is bequeathed a strange, tragic composite creature, and Ramos is back for the finish.

Jenkins has a clever solution to what’s going on, involving supposed political expediency and conspiracy theory, while also making changes to Spider-Man. Don’t pick up Disassembled because you think it ties in with the Avengers, but because it’s a good superhero story. The next series volume is Sins Remembered, which stands alone and isn’t written by Jenkins. He’s back with The Final Curtain.