The Sons of the Tiger! I know absolutely nothing about our new guest-stars except at some point, they all get killed or something and The White Tiger takes their gimmick. Mightiest, you say? Mightier than Shang-Chi and Iron Fist? I say thee nay, cover blurb! The internet sez they made their first appearance in Deadly Hands of Kung Fu #1, the black and white magazine Shang-Chi was the star of. I’m sure we’ll learn more as we go. For now, we got all sorts of mobsters, The Sandman, ⅔ of The Enforcers and who knows what else staring down Spidey and The Human Torch from last issue. The opening splash sez this is the Sons’ “first full-color appearance anywhere!” Anywhere! Pages 2 & 3 are a double-page splash of the 2 heroes engaging an entire room full of dudes in combat. Crime-Master is here to show The Big Man he’s the better mob boss. The Big Man just wants to kill Spider-Man. I think Sandman is literally just here for fun.
Sandy covers Johnny in sand, dousing his flame so The Big Man can pistol whip him, too, and goons begin to dogpile onto Spider-Man. But, like, he’s Spider-Man, so he throws them all off him. But the 2 previously-thought-dead crime bosses and Sandman have The Torch pretty well hemmed up, and use that to force Spider-Man to let The Big Man beat on him awhile. But the two mobsters can’t decide who gets to kill him, because they’re still not buddies. Hey, how bout them Sons of the Tiger?
It’s Bob, Lin & Abe, The Sons of the Tiger! Good names. Lin and Lotus stumble into the plot, where Spidey is now tied to the ceiling somehow and Johnny is in a glass tube (Where’d they get that?) and as The Big Man is about to shoot Spidey in the face, Lin kicks his way into the story.
I hope when they unmask the new Big Man, it’s the guy from Bruce Springsteen’s band. What a timely joke! Well, maybe it was for the period, I dunno. Anyway, love that racial slur up there, super classy. Can’t seen to avoid them when any Asian guy appears in a 70s comic. Super gross. I’m so excited to finally see Fancy Dan vs. Bob Diamond. This is not the most exciting issue of MTU. Lotus frees Spider-Man, Sandman is beating on 2 of the Tigers when he gets webbed and has to turn into a sand pile to get loose and then when he reforms, Spidey clocks him in the face, knocking him out. Crime-Master sees where this is going and throws a smoke bomb so he and his former rival The Big Man can escape together.
Johnny’s history of just being like “Nah, I’m done” in this title is pretty funny. Spidey goes to see his new pal “Mosquito” from last issue, still up on the roof, and from there, sees Sandman, Big Man and Crime-Master coming up out of the sewer. How lucky!
Spidey’s out for pigeon justice! The Big Man getting shot in the gut is a bit of a surprise since he only just came back from the dead, seemingly. Sandy and The Enforcers agree to do things Crime-Master’s way, and then Spidey kicks back into the room, freeing the Tiger folks so they can have another free for all.
Nice for Lotus to finally get to do something. Spidey & The Sons punch the crap out of Sandman simultaneously, taking him down, and then we see the two badly injured mob bosses fumbling toward a sad fight with each other until Spidey webs them up. Time for some hurried exposition!
That is patently absurd. What a ridiculous premise! The amount of coincidences in this single issue is truly stunning. Hopefully things won’t be quite so absurd next issue, as we get into an unusually long story for this title.