I have mentioned often on this blog how JM DeMatteis only has 2 settings: sad and silly. We’ve seen the awful, stupid depths of sad in his 90s Amazing Spider-Man. Time to see the polar opposite, aided and abetted by Kerry Gammill, Mike Esposito & Bob Sharen (Whose last name is spelled wrong in the credits). Because literally no one demanded it, least of all me, Frog-Man is back on the blog. And… The White Rabbit. Ok. We can get through this, sure. Whitey is robbing a fast food spot as we get going.
A villain so ridiculous even her own goons are calling it out. Yes, it’s Eugene, last seen in MTU 121, where he took up the terrible superhero identity, Frog-Man. He has his frog gear in a duffle bag, and runs into the bathroom to put it on. The goons see him, of course, but somehow he manages to change before they get to him.
So this is the same fast food place from MTU 125. That’s kinda funny. Funnier than any of the rest of this so far. Whitey and her gang run out, and Frog-Man follows, but Whitey sets off a flare from her can-do-anything umbrella and hops in a van and takes off. Leaving her gang? Frog-Man hits his head on a building and is pretty out of it. One of the goons is about to shoot our foolish frog when Spider-Man shows up. He handily webs up the gang.
Ugh, this character. Spider-Man swings on to his destination, the apartment of his former lab partner, Roger Hochberg. Roger asked him to come visit and sounded distraught. I guess with good reason.
Well, ok. Random. I guess we’re doing both silly and sad this issue. Speaking of, we turn back to Eugene, whose dad is furious with him for being Frog-Man, and also stressed because their bills are piling up. Everyone’s got it rough this issue. While Eugene’s dad heads out to do something stupid, Eugene lets us know he, too, has heard of the reward for the capture of The White Rabbit, so he, too, is going out to do something stupid. With the stage set like that, what could Eugene’s dad, a desperate former villain, be doing for money? Well, after meeting with Joe Face (You know, from Kraven’s Last Hunt, sort of)…
So there’s the backstory on White Rabbit. Thrilling. Spider-Man is swinging around looking for Whitey, but instead finds Frog-Man almost getting hit by a truck and saves him again. Once Frog-Man tells him he’s out for the same reward, White Rabbit & her gang literally just drive by on the way to their job. Spider-Man tries to go after them while telling Eugene to go home, but Eugene doesn’t listen. The goons alert Whitey that Spider-Man and a guy in a frog suit are chasing them, which gets Eugene’s dad on edge, and Whitey decides to stop and fight.
Gasp. Meanwhile, Roger Hochberg is visiting his sick mom, and we learn this fight is literally happening outside her window. How did they even fit this many coincidences in a single issue? Spidey takes care of all the goons except Eugene’s dad, who is busy trying to convince his son to take Spider-Man and leave so he won’t have to hurt them. White Rabbit sees her gang’s down and suddenly reveals she can fly. Yeah. She has boot jets like Iron Man. The cops show and surround Spider-Man, which is something that’s happened to him a thousand times, but somehow, this time it keeps him from going after Whitey. So Frog-Man can do it, of course.
Turns out, when Joe Face contacted Eugene’s dad, he called the cops, and they asked him to wear a wire and infiltrate the gang. So he’s cool and it’s all good. Spider-Man disappears, because somehow Joe Face got away, and Spidey catches him real quick. Bit random, but what isn’t about this issue?
Well, fine. Happily ever after. Sadly, we haven’t seen the last of Eugene or The White Rabbit. In the letter page, far more amusing than anything in this story, Tom DeFalco re-runs a very critical letter that first appeared exactly 100 issues prior, in MTU 31, sent in by one Ralph Macchio. The same Ralph Macchio who, by MTU 131, is a seasoned editor at Marvel. Then they give Ralph room to respond to his own letter, which he defends. Pretty funny.