Well, that escalated quickly. I can’t wait to see how this Z-lister manages to get over on both heroes like this. “My two greatest foes-slash-only foes!” We finally made it to an ASM in this block. It’s still Len Wein and Ross Andru bringing us the webslinger’s monthly adventures in this period, with Mike Esposito currently inking. We pick up where last post left off, with Captain Steele recapping the events of last issue into a tape recorder “while it’s fresh in his mind.” The splash said not to read this until you’ve read Nova 12, but then they go ahead and recap it, anyway. The recap ends with the cops carrying the body of Manners the butler out of the house. A cop runs in to say they’ve set up roadblocks, but a train left before they could check it for the missing suspects, so Nova zooms off to check it out, providing further details about the suspects in case you missed Nova 12.
Blue blazes! Just what all the hip young 70s teens would say! As you can see, Ross Andru is still drawing the most awkward possible Spider-Man, now possibly with 2 left hands down at the bottom there. Kinda hard to tell. We cut away to check on Harry Osborn and Liz Allen, a couple now and even talking about getting married. Things sure seem to be going great for them… except for the mysterious figure stalking Liz, of course. Egads, who could it be? Who. Could. It. Be? With that tease out of the way, we rejoin out heroes zooming toward a lighthouse where the 3 missing suspects are all hiding out. Nefarious businessman Franklin Risk reveals he’s the one who turned out the lights and allowed them to escape because he’s interested in doing business with each other man’s criminal organization. Gotta take opportunity where you find it, I guess. That “hydrofoil” Nova’s following arrives to pick up “Happy Daze” right on schedule, but it brings some surprise guests.
I really just wanted to get Spidey’s ridiculous kick in there. Coma-guns? Sure, why not? All 3 suspects have fled in the chaos, but as Nova flies off to look for them, Photon finally reappears, zapping him and, his words, “turning my brain to JELLO!” Haha, ok. Photon manages to take out Spidey, too, which is just ludicrous, and then the 2 heroes wake up chained to a big anchor like on the cover just in time to get tossed in the drink.
Chains popped, Nova flies Spidey to shore and the 2 heroes rest and commiserate a bit. They discuss who could be Photon, but come up empty, so they head back to the house to try to get more clues, but guess what, AIM is there to continue Harry Daze’s mission to get the device, so it’s yet another battle with the world’s most evil beekeepers. Steele and the cops show outside, drawing a lot of the AIM goons into a firefight, and then Photon shows, and it’s time to wrap this thing up.
Like, zoinks, Scoob! I have to say, I did not care who was behind the mask of Photon. This was a weird thing. I mean, ok, so it’s Jason Dean… who’s that? All these guys were made up for this story and only given as much personality as they required to be suspects, unmasking Photon and just sending Photon to jail have the same amount of drama to me. But ol’ Photon must’ve gone away for a long time, because the internet sez he didn’t appear in another comic until appearing in a Nova short in the anthology comic I Am An Avenger #3 in 2010! Not a lot of call for Photon stories, then. I do kinda wonder what the angle was for his return. Alas, I’ll never know.