Frank Miller got him looking more like Lil’ Petey Parker on the cover. Penciler Luke McDonnell joins Deny O’Neil and inker Jim Mooney for this issue, which opens with Spider-Man breaking into Ryker’s Island? During the big mega-arc the last few issues, several people made note of the fact that criminals seem to break out of the prison with ease, so Peter Parker has decided to do an expose on the topic.
Within seconds, he finds Grey Gargoyle, Jonas Harrow and a mysterious figure in mid-prison break! He’s got a point about this place. He throws a prison bar at them to mess up their escape, but the Gargoyle turns it to dust, and then the guards notice Peter instead of the escaping villains.
They toss Pete in a cell, and the villains return to theirs to try their escape again later. The guards take Peter’s camera to the warden, who leaves it in his office to go to some appointment. And the second he’s gone, a janitor comes in and steals it. Top notch security. The next day, Peter is in court, Matt Murdock arguing he should only be charged with trespassing. But then the prosecution produces one “Armand Du Brow”, seemingly the mystery man from earlier, who pins last night’s escape attempt, and all the prior successful ones, on Peter. The judge holds Pete for trial and sets his bail at $50,000. Now… wait a minute. What prison break? The wouldbe escapees just went back to their cells after Peter stumbled on them, and the janitor stole the camera. There’s no evidence that a prison break was even attempted, let alone that Peter led it. Ah, well, we’re committed now.
Kinda hard to argue with Jonah on this one. Peter is returned to the prison, where he thinks about it and realized DuBrow was the guy from last night, and the photos he took will prove it. Except the camera was stolen, of course. Matt Murdock tries to have it found, but he’s not gonna, because…
Poor Aunt May, having to deal with this. Pete sends Aunt May back to the nursing home, feeling invigorated by her support, but his Spidey gear is in a bush at Ryker’s and he has no idea where his camera is. But he does have the faded costume he ruined several issues ago, and his oldest webshooters from high school, so, after an encounter with his country singing neighbor…
…Peter changes clothes, and The Faded Spider-Man swings off into the night. Meanwhile, at Ryker’s, the 3 villains are interrogating the janitor, realizing he’s the only one who could have the camera. He tells them where he pawned it. Harrow & The Gargoyle just leave the prison to go get he camera, while DuBrow says he’ll handle the warden. You really can just walk out of this place. As they’re leaving, Spider-Man is arriving…
Could he not just put them in a webpack and wear them on his back like he does his regular clothes, like, all the time? My bad for asking this issue to make sense. Spidey soon notices the two villains leaving the island in a boat. So he follows them. Back in the prison, some important exposition…
…and then we cut to the villainous pair entering the pawn shop. They find the camera, and then are found by its owner, and it’s fightin’ time.
Harrow tries to destroy the camera, but Spidey stops him. The Gargoyle comes at him again, though, and while Spidey’s busy putting him out of commission, Harrow gets loose.
That sure was an abrupt ending. So is Peter Parker a hero for exposing the situation in the prison? Who is Armand DuBrow? What’s the warden’s terrible secret? What… happened? I just flipped through the next issue, and I don’t think we’re going to get an answer. Wild.
At this time, Tom Defalco is editing ASM and writing MTU, while Denny O’Neil is editing MTU and writing ASM. That’s weird.