Oh, ho! Dr. Strange and Clea! Maybe that business in MTU 77 & 78 is going to pay off here. Ok. Let’s see. Chris Claremont remains on as writer, with Mike Vosburg & Gene Day on the visuals. Page one brings us the actual debut of… Cissy Ironwood. Remember Pete mentioned her last issue? Well, here she is:
Yeah, yeah, big monster, we’re talking about Cissy. That’s all you get! That is her introduction. They are on a date already in progress. Where’d she come from? Who is she? No one is going to tell us, I guess. We gotta deal with this monster, who is a werewolf, and leaps on Peter on the next page. He puts up the best fight he can, but the monster throws him into a tree. Cissy, probably reasonably, assumes Peter is dead, and runs for it.
Pretty intense stuff right out of the gate. Peter tackles the monster into a nearby lake, and finds himself being drowned by it. So he grabs a web cartridge off his belt and splatters webbing all over its head, causing it to freak out and run away. But if Peter thought wrestling a werewolf was going to be the weirdest part of his night, he’s wrong.
Whaaaaa? At Strange’s place, Clea answers the door, acting weird, and turns him away. Then he flashes back to MTU 76 & 77 just in case, and focuses in on a particular detail:
WHAT. This does not feel right at all.
Keep it in your pants, Parker! Now’s not the time! The next page shows us the tarot layout Strange had, and Ruth takes Peter through it.
I wonder if this was a temporary obsession for Claremont or if he’s all the way in on this stuff. Clearly more than just a story hook, this is quasi-Alan Moore time. Quite abruptly, Spider-Man is hanging out near Strange’s house, and sees him walk inside looking normal, but his Spider Sense goes off as soon as Strange gets inside. Strange starts yelling at Clea and breaking stuff, and when a chair goes out the window, a Spider-Man comes in. Spidey starts wailing on Strange, but it’s not fazing him.
Spidey manages to knock him out. Then he finally gets to tell Clea (and the newly arrived Wong) what happened last night, and give her the Eye back. She uses it to probe Stephen’s mind, and finds out, sho nuff, he’s a werewolf now. Wong sez there’s a place he knows in Tibet who should be able to cure him (wut), sooooo they rent a 707 and Wong & Spider-Man take him to Tibet. Clea is curiously not going. But, guess what, it’s a full moon, and the plane barely gets off the ground before it explodes! Dr. Wolfstrange walks away from the wreckage. Spidey and Wong help get the crew of the plane to safety, but they aren’t able to follow Strange. Meanwhile, back at the house, a mysterious visitor has arrived:
I know next to nothing about Satana, as a character, but my first question is: How does that outfit even stay on? Come back next issue and maybe it will be explained.