Mr. Negative (6-8). Mr. Negative is one of Slott's most interesting characters, a villain who really feels like he was created in the Spider-Man mold. But for this story, he might as well be a blank slate. All of his old nuance is gone, and now he's just a drug-pushing mind-alterer. Sadly, Cloak and Dagger don't get much better attention, nor does the setting of Shang-Hai [3*s]. 
 Scorpio (9-11). The second storyline, focusing on Mr. Negative, is much better. We get the humor that was missing from the Mr. Negative arc and lots of fun action-adventure. More importantly, though, we get the return of Scorpio and a really nice conclusion to plots dating back to the '60s. Every wonder what the Zodiac Key really does? Apparently Slott did too. [4*s]. 
 Unfortunately, Slott's downfall in this volume is too little attention on his supporting cast and too much focus on big fights. When he looks at subplots or supporting characters, he offers up great scenes, but they're too few, which is why I decided to drop my average rating of 3.5*s for the two stories to the 3.