Ed Hannigan inked by John Byrne on the cover there. Looks like Byrne spent all of 5 minutes on it. Weird cover in general. 1983 brings us back to the JM DeMatteis, Kerry Gammil, Mike Esposito & Bob Sharen era of MTU. In this issue, we join The Vision, awake in a big fancy house in New Jersey late at night as The Scarlet Witch sleeps. He turns intangible and wafts off to “a seemingly deserted New Hampshire village” following an impulse he can’t explain. But as he drifts underground, the village gives way to a science-y room, and then, bursting through a wall comes a big robot (I guess).
Oh, hey, it’s Peter Parker. And I guess he’s about to wander into a slasher movie?
Andrew Pauncholito had a tiny cameo in ASM 223 that I don’t think I even mentioned. This is his 2nd appearance, and he’s already retiring. Peter has snuck a mini-camera of some sort in to get a shot of the suspect, but then the sheriff bursts in cartoonishly hating “smug, slick New Yorkers” who “get his goat” and kicks everyone else. Paunch says his reporter instincts tell him that man is innocent, but we can’t worry about that right now, because The Vision is making friends.
Pfffft, ok. Seems like Team-Up issues during the DeMatteis run that don’t tie back to his time on some other book are kinda rare. He wrote that Cap story, of course. Meanwhile, the murder suspect in the prison just kinda snaps on, rips his way out of jail and escapes, while elsewhere, ol’ Paunch suddenly realizes why the suspect seemed familiar.
Kerry Gammil may not be the flashiest artist of his day, but these pages are just super solid. Storytelling, figure work, shot calling, everything is really nice. The mob heads out into the woods, the sheriff indicating we’re all headed to the town Vision is in, as Paunch finds Peter has disappeared. Spider-Man is now on the case, trying to catch up to the great Russian author before the lynch mob does. He spots him just in time to see him meet Twain, Vision and the others. Twain says this one must’ve wandered off when SHIELD raided the place, and his memory circuits are damaged. He’s trying to fix Dostoyevsky when…
Visions’ attempt to reason with the mob goes as well as you’d expect, and one of them picks up the thingie Twain was trying to use to fix Dostoyevsky and zaps Vis with it, messing him up good. Spidey decides he can’t hide anymore, but then the big robot from the beginning of the issue comes smashing out, routing the mob pretty efficiently.
Why… did this cop… call in his reporter friend… to look at a case wherein he is the killer? That doesn’t add up at all. Rubens compares humanity to the big robot, saying society is monstrous and no one deserves to live. Spidey says there’s always hope, and asks Rubens if he’ll let Paunch go if Spider-Man can prove one man can make a difference, and he says yes. So now it’s a knock down, drag out fight. Spidey talks a big game about one man making a difference, but things aren’t going his way.
Even though that seemed pretty solidly like an ending, it looks like this one continues into next issue, so come back for that next time.