So! Following the events of last issue, Puma’s gonna kill the unconscious Spider-Man.
Whew! Puma sizes his new foe up, his heightened sense picking up a weird aura around her. He figures there’s only one way to find out of it’s dangerous, and lunges at her, misjudging the distance, missing, almost falling off the roof, and bonking himself on the head. As he begins to recover, the roof just collapses under him. Bad luck powers, man! Defalco has a victorious Felicia make her first “a black cat crosses your path!” reference in awhile, and then she checks in on her man.
They manage to swing back to Peter’s place. Puma is easily able to pick up their scent, but he’s deemed Black Cat more dangerous than Spidey, and he’s only been paid to kill one of them, so once he sees where Spider-Man lives, he retreats. Inside, Peter is alarmed to find his costume refuses to come off! He finally wills it off himself and onto a nearby chair.
The Kingpin finds out The Rose put a hit on Spider-Man without consulting him. He is not happy, and thus, soon The Rose won’t be, either. Elsewhere, at a fancy hotel, Thomas Fireheart has just finished a shower. After checking in with the home office, he calls The Rose to give an update. But The Rose has to hang up, because he’s been visited by Kingpin’s right hand man, The Arranger. Fireheart puts on a backup of his Puma suit and gets back into his furry mode to go finish his business. He gets back to Peter’s place right as Felicia can no longer stand to look at his face and apartment and makes up a flimsy excuse to leave. But just then, there’s a knock at the door.
I do not appreciate Ron Frenz turning MJ’s traditional bangs into a mullet. The newly be-mulleted MJ refuses to leave even as Peter tries to demure, and as his Spider Sense ramps up, he runs out of options and just grabs her and shoves her out the door, right as Puma smashes through his window! Here’s the thing, though: due to the manner in which they last encountered each other, Peter’s never even see this dude, and somehow hasn’t put it together that maaaaaybe this isn’t a random home invasion. The suit leaps onto Peter, and he knocks Puma to the floor. Which actually doesn’t help him too much.
Spidey & Puma thoroughly destroy Peter’s apartment as MJ begins shoulder charging the door. Spidey forces the Puma through his one unbroken window and out where he can better maneuver just as MJ breaks in to find them gone. How’s Peter gonna maintain his secret through this!? I’m sure some of you know. At that moment, across town…
Back at the fight, Spider-Man still doesn’t even know why they’re fighting, and Puma is not willing to tell him. Then the art team reproduces the cover…
I guess when you really like a composition, make the most of it. Spidey catches them with a web from his bad arm, smashing them through a window into a fancy gym, where they keep on going until…
Obviously, DeFalco really wanted to get this plot point into the ongoing mystery around the suit, but like… why would you assume that? Just feels awkward. An infuriated Puma throws a huge exercise machine at Spider-Man, missing and sending it through a window and out to the street. He’s upset that he’s endangered people below, but come on, our guy is on the case.
Spidey barely survives his fall, but Puma is glad to see it. He says Spidey is courageous and deserves a better death. With that he just leaves, saying he’ll be back some day to claim a victory worth savoring. Spidey sees him go and is in no shape to argue about it. Later, Thomas Fireheart is visited by Varley & Johnston, and then…
You ever plan beneath a mask? The only way to plan. But wait, this issue has two shock endings!
POW! The biggest bombshell since Gwen died. A pretty significant change to the status quo of one of the oldest relationships in the book! More on that next post, in addition to… a lot of other stuff!