$10.75! That’s expensive! I believe this is one of several comics my uncle bought me. I can’t recall the particulars (It was over 30 years ago, gimme a break), but he was at a flea market or something and called my mom asking for a list of stuff I might want. Talk about a nice guy! We have yet to reach the point where I came in as a reader, but it’s getting close. Once I was in for monthly comics, I really wanted to fill in this run. Shout out to my Uncle Denny! I believe I read this issue long before the previous one, as confusing as that would be. If you thought Prowler looked an awful lot like Spawn last issue, strap in.
David Michelinie really liked pun titles. I’m not sure I picked up on that much as a kid. “The Magnificent Seven” are Mark McKenna, Ken Lopez, Rodney Ramos, Joe Rubenstein, Pat Redding, Chris Ivy and Hector Coliazo. But page one was inked by Jim Sanders, so the name doesn’t even make sense. Where’s Spider-Man?
He recaps last issue as he signs autographs before taking off after The Black Fox. He catches up just in time to see his old pal Prowler taking the chalice from him.
Not a great hand on Prowler in panel 2. Spidey is ready to turn Prowler over to the cops, but he surprisingly says the chalice is the key to keeping his wife out of prison. Spidey wants to believe Hobie is on the up and up, so he agrees to meet him at his hotel tomorrow to find out what’s going on. He switches back to Peter and rejoins MJ at the party, saying he really wants to help Hobie & Mindy if he can. So the next day, he finds his way to Hobie’s hotel as McFarlane begins another of his running gags: sticking Felix the Cat in the background of random panels.
Much weirder than the newspaper thing. Spidey crawls in the window of Hobie’s room only to find it vacated. He scares a cleaning lady and gets chased off by the landlord, who says the tenant checked out last night. Spidey thinks he’s been played. Meanwhile, Black Fox wakes up tired, complaining that he never used to get so worn out on jobs like this, and glad the chalice will fund his retirement. Yadda yadda. We check in on Peter & MJ at the beach for some gratuitous cheesecake art, and then at his book signing in the afternoon, Peter finds out a guest cancelled, so he’s going on The Tonight Show!
Boy, the issues with the art on this page. Also, I realize this is a crazy thing to notice, but I’m a crazy person: the Peter in panel 4… why does he look like Joe Simon’s first-ever drawing of Captain America?
It’s a weird pose. Could it be intentional? Am I getting off topic? Prowler mentioned TransCorp in their last meeting, so Spider-Man stakes out their building in LA, and soon enough, catches The Prowler climbing up the side. Hobie again says he couldn’t take chances with his wife’s fate at stake.
“Hammer” like Justin Hammer, from Iron Man 2, and this isn’t the last time he’ll come up in this run. That’s a convoluted reason for Prowler to be after the chalice, but ok. Spidey’s on Prowler’s side again, so they climb down to put a bug on the office window of TransCorps’s local boss, and hear they’ve located the thief who took the chalice and plan to kill him and take it. Spidey swings himself & Prowler over to Long Beach to stop the hit and get the chip. On the docks waiting for a ship back to the UK, Black Fox notices he’s being tailed by goons and hits them with his smoke bombs just as the heroes arrive and hear the gunfire. Spidey goes after the Fox while Prowler deals with his assailants.
Prowler’s inexplicable hand in the top right panel has haunted me almost my whole life. I thiiiink that’s his wrist blast with his hand folded back behind it? Your guess is as good as mine. Spidey catches up to Black Fox as he’s trying to hide in the famous Queen Mary, so Fox yells “it’s Spider-Man” to make a crowd form to cover his escape. Doesn’t work, though.
We’ve only got one page left to wrap this up, so look at this truly bizarre page layout to do it:
With that weird looking but mostly happy ending, it’s time to check in with Spectacular. See ya there.