Ed Hannigan’s art already has a rather Frank Miller-esque feel, but teamed up with Miller’s long time inker Klaus Janson? You could be forgiven for assuming it was Frank. This is the first time jump on the blog to not start with an issue of ASM, but the reason for that will become clear directly. It’s 1984 now, and Tom Defalco & Ron Frenz are about to start their long run on ASM. But first, the beginning of a 2-parter in MTU written by Bill Mantlo & Tom Defalco, with breakdowns by Ron Frenz and finishes by Mike Esposito. What? Yes. The new ASM team is also here. Sort of. And tonight in New York, it’s a blackout! It doesn’t take long for looting to start in the darkness.
Spidey’s not getting through to anyone, and suddenly the pawnshop owner reappears with a shotgun, intent on killing his wouldbe robbers. Now Spidey is left trying to get everyone not to shoot each other, but…
Sad times. The next day, our old pal The Black Widow swings across town. She was supposed to have lunch with Matt Murdock, but all the looting last night has filled the courts with new cases, and he had to cancel. So she decides to go visit him at the courthouse.
Ben, of course, is referring to the shooting Spider-Man was at last night. Peter is pretty freaked out by this. He figures if he couldn’t tell who shot the guy, and he was there, how can the courts decide? The cops have brought in one Juan Santiago for it, and Matt, Peter & Ben all converge on him. Juan knows the score. He’s got a record, but he went straight, and has been set up by the gang he used to be a part of, and the cops are all-too happy to believe it since he’s got a criminal past. Matt can tell by his heartbeat the he’s telling the truth.
At the kid’s arraignment, the judge is not in the mood for Matt’s version of the story, and sets a court date for next week. Juan still thinks he’s as good as gone, but Matt swears he’ll get him out of this. However, with his overstuffed schedule, he can’t run off and become Daredevil to search for evidence. Natasha comes back over and volunteers to help.
That night, Natasha stakes out the neighborhood where the murder happened, and soon runs into Spidey. They agree to team up, no fight or anything(!), and swing off into the night.
Almost had it, Spidey! I might as well be honest off the rip and say I am not really a fan of Ron Frenz. I am not really a fan of Sal Buscema, and Frenz is… pretty much a Sal Buscema impersonator. Behold the Buscema hand in the bottom right, even. Like he seems to have learned everything he knows from Sal Buscema comics in all areas except one, which will come up later. It’s not my favorite era of Spidey art, and he’s gonna be around for awhile. Ah, well. Spidey and Widow find the gang from the night before, and decide they need to a get someone to confess, so they… just start beating everyone up. I mean… That’s a method, I guess. A dude flees immediately, and Spidey goes after him while the Widow takes out the rest of the gang.
The fleeing dude is able to carjack a whole family, and Spidey is scared to do anything too reckless after last night, so he just follows them. Eventually, the guy dumps the family out of the car on a corner, except for a little girl he keeps as a hostage. Spidey shines his spider signal ahead of the car, and the guy panics and drives off a bridge.
What was SUPPOSED to happen? “I’ll just let this nice fellow know I’m still chasing him, probably he’ll just pull right over!” Spidey dives in after them and saves them both. He webs the guy to a tree and goes back in for the murder weapon, which he finds in the car.
Black Widow is sure this will clear Juan. Spidey is still beating himself up about the shop owner’s death as he swings away. The next day, Peter is minding his own when he gets a massive jolt from his Spider-Sense. It leads him to Central Park…
Spider-Man’s off to Secret Wars! In a pretty unprecedented move, I do believe all 3 Spider-titles ended with this same scene this month, because Secret Wars was that big a deal, and so was what was about to happen to Spider-Man. More on that next post. What about this issue’s story, though?
A superhero’s work is never done. We’ll check back in with DD & The Widow soon enough. First, though, come back next time for the most radical change to Spider-Man up to this point at least since the death of Gwen. Maybe ever (up to this point).