First question: Why is the chain around his neck a different color than the rest? Second question: Seriously, what’s up with his crotch area? That doesn’t look right at all. This one gets going right on page one:
We’ve all been there. Peter is furious he was made a witness to the subterfuge, and recaps last issue as he gets in his Spider-suit and heads out to get justice. He heads down to check out Baxter’s boat, recalling that Crippen called him a cheat. Maybe he can find evidence of that cheating. But the boat is being guarded by, you guessed it…
I mean… probably quite a few blokes, I have to assume. Gerry Conway loves interludes, so it’s time for 3 of them that will have an impact on future stories. They’re all 1 page, let’s see ‘em.
Egads, the twists! So, you can probably guess The Lobo Brothers are responsible for the blood message. MJ’s cousin Kristy is going to hang around being Poochie for awhile. And Robbie looks like he’s not gonna fight. All this and more coming your way this season on The Spectacular Spider-Man! Speaking of whom, he’s chained up like on the cover, and Boomerang is taking him out to sea in a boat. The boat, he explains, is full of explosives, and the boat is going to be set to hit a buoy during Baxter’s race and explode, killing Spidey, and…
So, then. The race is on, Boomerang is flying above it (No one seems to notice? Isn’t this being watched and filmed and stuff?) and poor Spidey is on a collision course with death. He manages to strain enough to break the chain around one leg, but that’s not gonna help much when he hits the buoy. Back at the race, Baxter’s rival is gaining on him, so he activates a “cloud machine” that will obscure the other boat’s vision. Boomerang is impressed flying overhead, thinking how close Spidey came to finding it. For his part, Spider-Man has managed to wiggle around so he can kick the steering wheel with his free foot, narrowly missing the buoy. Now he’s gotta get loose. He knows Boomerang will have seen that he didn’t blow up and be on his way, so he figures he better do something…
Boomerang is Australian, you see, in case you forgot. Meanwhile, obscured by his fog bank, Baxter activates his 2nd cheat: Turbo-jets! SURELY someone would notice this! What does his crew think?? Boomerang is still throwing his stupid boomerangs at Spidey, who keeps clinging to the bottom of the boat to dodge, unable to do much else. Then he thinks he’s hit Spidey and killed him, but when no body floats up, he has to go in for a closer look, and of course, he gets webbed once he gets in range. Spidey uses Boomerang’s boot jets to steer them toward Baxter’s boat…
Justice is served. I suppose. Those guys on Baxter’s boat didn’t really deserve this, seemed like. Anyway, that’s that, and as the box sez, Inferno is coming. What’s that? We’ll get into it. We gotta jump back to this month’s ASM (Which would’ve been published before this) first, though.