We’re back with our time-tossed heroes, witchhunts, and actual historical figures in part 2 of Superheroes Vs. History. Spidey, Scarlet Witch & Vision recap last issue at each other for awhile as the crowd gets good and worked up to burn them as witches and/or demons, and then one of them throws a rock at Vision. This makes Wanda unleash… a plague of locusts on them. You know, like a witch! Really baiting them here.
I like that random citronella joke. Spidey gets so distracted by Vision’s rampage that he lets a bunch of the towns folk pile onto him and knock him out (lol wut?), and then one of them manages to shoot Wanda in the head! Don’t worry, she’ll be fine, it’s a glancing blow (How do people in comics constantly manage to get shot in the head in a way that won’t really hurt them?), but Vision doesn’t know that, and he flies into a rage. If Spidey thought he was trashing these old timey bigots before, well, that was nothing. But then Cotton Mather zaps him with his all-purpose zappin’ cross, and now all 3 heroes are out and ready to put tied up for the traditional trap.
Spiey in the 70s can be held by pretty much anything. It’s like he forgets how strong he is every day of his life. “Wait, I coulda broke out of here the whole time!” John Proctor is another real life person who was convicted of witchcraft in this time. Pretty unusual for a dude to be caught in the histeria, but he was. Proctor tells Spidey a summarized version of what happened back then, pretty much, and then Spidey remembers he can free himself and snaps his chains.
Why did he leave Wanda chained up??? Spidey just tears the door off the hinges and drags the guard into the cell, webbing him up. Hey, why be subtle? Proctor’s wife begins seeing to Wanda, and Spider-Man suggests they all make a break for it, but Proctor won’t go. Spider-Man, who is suddenly an expert on this story, recalls that Proctor will get hanged, and he can’t change history. So Spidey and Vision take off alone to find Mather and, more importantly, the time platform. Vision remarks on how Spidey seems unflappable in these crazy situations, and wonder why he never became an Avenger. Spidey says they tried him once and it didn’t work out (As seen in ASM Annual 3), and then they spot a glow in the woods and go to investigate.
Vision belts Mather across the clearing as only Sal Buscema can draw a guy getting punched at the reader, but then The Dark Rider siccs his bird on them, and…
Doctor Doom! Now it’s a party! Can this get any weirder? It sure can, buddy! Come back next time and I’ll prove it. And guess what, this issue’s Marvel Value Stamp is A-ok!