‘Ello, guvnah! Looks like we’re off to Jolly Old England this time! The tape on the back of this comic back was packing tape. That’s a lot to get up when opening it. This one’s torn from today’s headlines, is it? Let’s see what that means. We begin with Spider-Man swinging around, all broken up about losing Gwen and not sure how he could talk to her even if she were still around. He decides the only thing for it is to go to London and find her. But this is Peter Parker, he doesn’t have travel money. He probably doesn’t have $5. And he’s not been selling pictures for awhile, his life’s been too crazy. He finds himself at The Daily Bugle as Peter, thinking of asking for an advance, knowing Jonah would never give it to him. But Joe sees him Charlie Brown-walking down the hallway…
MJ’s never been one for subtlety. Especially not in that outfit, good grief, she’s a feather away from being a racist Halloween costume. The outfit is apparently for a show she has coming up. Aunt May’s been helping her out… somehow… but Peter has no time for small talk. He lets Aunt May know he’s going to London to find Gwen, then he’s off. MJ downplays every hint of genuine emotion, as usual. Harry Osborn drives our man to the airport, and then he’s off. On the plane, he thinks back to George Stacy’s last words to him and frets in true Peter Parker fashion.
Well, if we’ve taken the time to meet a degalate to peace talks, I suspect things are about to go left for our hero. And as soon as the plane lands, they do just that. The passengers are informed that a bomb has been placed under the landing ramp, and the whole plane’s being held hostage.
Take that, plane! Spidey gets down to the business of un-bombing the landing ramp as the terrorists spot him from their vantage inside the airport. Spidey kicks the whole ramp as hard as he can, making it fly off and explode harmlessly. With that done, the emergency slides deploy and the passengers escape. But, of course, not all of them. The delegate & his son from earlier get kidnapped off the tarmac. Spider-Man takes off in pursuit of the car they were thrown in, goons shooting machine guns at him as he swings.
Spidey’s doing ok up there, but then a guy opens the car’s sunroof and starts shooting. Spidey flips away, and the terrorists think they shot him. He knows he can find them now that his tracer’s on the car, but his more immediate concern is the cops running up to him…
Spidey gets short with the cops, eager to find the terrorists so he can get on with his real mission in London, and ends up not leaving on the best terms. Classic Spider-Man/police interaction. He just swings around London, hoping to get a ping from his tracer. But as he’s swinging around, while he doesn’t find the terrorists, he accidentally swings by the window of a certain young lady from the States…
Rough stuff. How can Pete think he’ll ever make this right? Also Gwen’s Uncle Arthur is weird looking. He looks like some one with a much more cartoony style drew him. Elsewhere, Spidey finally spots the car, and its drivers spot him, too, and they’re so distracted they crash into the railing of a bridge. That’s a pretty nice opening for Spidey.
Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, the hostages aren’t actually in the car anymore. Spidey threatens one of the goons, but he’s told that unless the British government releases some other terrorists, thee guys will blow up the hostages at 7pm.
Spidey once more swings all over London, desperate, until he remembers the goon saying their fate is sealed by time itself. He plays the long shot, heading for Big Ben, and it’s a superhero comic, so of course that’s where they are.
Spidey brings the hostages down to the waiting cops. The inspector says there’s no way the guys the terrorists were trying to free will get pardoned now, and then the delegate guy gets weirdly poetic about Spider-Man…
Good luck explaining it to everyone back home, but a reasonable thought. Or is it?
Ah, starcrossed lovers. How sad. Wait, when Peter found out Gwen went to London, he was swinging to her house to admit he was Spider-Man. Now he’s in London and can’t see her because Spider-Man was here? Wut? Ah, well. And, I just wanna say again: Arthur. Right? He looks like a Scooby Doo villain before the mask comes off. I’m not getting this. Next month: The Green Goblin! That can’t be good for anybody. Come back next time for A Very Special Issue of The Amazing Spider-Man.