For the big 50th anniversary, Roger Stern is joined by… John Romita, Jr.? And Jim Mooney swaps to inks. Man, the personnel on these books is impossible to keep up with right now. Stern & Romita have the 2nd best run of Spider-Man comics ever made in their near future, so this is a momentous first pairing. Spidey still has The Smuggler tied up with nowhere to go as we get going. Spidey decides he’ll just have to carry him all the way back to Manhattan. Smuggler’s goons try to ambush Spider-Man, but only succeed in smashing their boss as he throws Smuggler through the door they’re waiting behind. He gets to work mopping up the goons, occasionally using their boss as a weapon…
How lame of a villain do you have to be to get used as a club to beat up your own employees? Since Smuggler was knocked out by his own dudes, Spidey uses the chance to refill his empty webshooters… except he only has one cartridge left! He webs up the goons and then ties up Smuggler’s legs and just carries him off. He hitches a ride on a train headed back to Manhattan, but it’s been long enough by now that the webbing binding Smuggler’s arms has weakened, and he’s able to break it and push himself and Spider-Man off the train. His legs are still tied up, though, making for a weird fight between the two of them.
Spidey accidentally flips Smuggs on the train tracks, though, where he hits the 3rd rail and starts getting zapped. Spidey quickly webs him loose, and is shocked to find him still alive, but totally knocked out now. He webs him up and leaves him for the cops two transit workers say they already called. That was a wacky bit of business. Back at the crib, a worn out Peter considers sleeping for the rest of the weekend, when he remembers he promised to meet Aunt May’s fiance tomorrow… and to bring a date. “Who in the world could I get to come with me at this late notice?” Who, indeed? Who would let Peter Parker push her around any way he likes, all the time? Y’all know who.
Yes, Deb Whitman, the “friend” Peter has been romancing for weeks now, is all too happy to go. And so she does, so she’s there to meet one Nathan Lubensky…
Uh-oh! Who could those jokers be? At lunch, Aunt May & Nathan seem really happy, but Peter feels conflicted about Aunt May liking someone other than Uncle Ben, which somehow leads to him recapping his origin for us, in case you forgot. I guess they recapped the origin so often in the old days because it wasn’t so easy to get ahold of old comics, and there weren’t any collections. But it does seem kinda overkill sometimes. Peter is snapped from his reverie by his Spider Sense, and notices just now that the entire restaurant has emptied out except for their table. He can’t slip away before a bunch of the servers come over acting suspicious, and Peter notices they’re wearing masks. He leaps forward and whips one of their masks off, and…
I mean, the cover promised aliens. Ya can’t be too surprised. And lookit Nathan rushing into the fray, no fear in him. He gets knocked over pretty quick, but Peter tells him to hit the lights, and then he goes into action. Deb has been noticing that Pete is way better at fending off an alien invasion than you’d think, so the darkness is probably helping more than he knows. Then the lights come back on, and the aliens lay out what they want:
You can tell where this is going, can’t you? Peter tells them he’s the only one who knows anything about the treasure, so they tie him up and lead him away.
Nathan’s alright. Pete gets herded into a spaceship and they take him to their leader, and guess who it is?
Oh, boy. At least it’s not Kraven. Well, I bet you have it all figured out already, but come back next post for the aforementioned fearful conclusion!