So you see, John Byrne’s covers for this issue and the previous one are one big image, which sort of makes it look like Spider-Man is teaming up with himself if you put them together. An interesting choice. The regular ASM creative team is back for more fun with gold and government conspiracies. It’s the next day now. The site has been blocked off by big tarps hiding the building. Spider-Man is swinging by while recapping the previous installment.
What, exactly, is he supposed to be eating? I haven’t even a guess. There’s no explanation for what’s going on available to the news yet. Peter wonders if he has a responsibility to tell the truth, how that would mess up the world economy, and just how much of the US government is ok working with Kingpin, then goes to sleep. The comic then spends a pretty surprising 4 pages showing some of the process of chopping up the gold, shipping it to the docks, loading it on a ship, sailing it out into the ocean and dumping it in a trench, but that’s only part of the building. As the process continues, a congressman quite illegally sends satellite footage of the dump site to The Arranger, who brings it to Kingpin, thinking he’ll want to know where the gold is going. But he already knows from last night. I would assume Arranger would’ve been privy to all that. Weird. But that burns 2 more pages. I wonder if DeFalco didn’t have much to say on this topic.
While Spidey wrestles with his conscience some more (Twice in one issue on the same topic, this is seriously padded), Kingpin reveals his plan to the reader: He’s sent a crew of his dudes to take over one of the drop ships and use it to steal what he considers his fair share of the gold. This is finally gonna go somewhere. He got his plan rolling just in time, because the final pieces of the building are being sent to the docks, and Anderson, the fed from last issue, is riding along, so Spider-Man follows. At the docks, one of the army guys notices the crew on the ship suddenly seems unfamiliar, and spots one of them wearing dress shoes and argyle socks, but for now, no one’s interested in his concerns. Anderson boards the ship, so Spider-Man sneaks on, too, neither of them yet knowing it’s crewed by goons.
Isn’t the government in bed with Kingpin, tho? Reagan himself was in the briefing that let Kingpin take control of the site last issue. Ah, well, Spidey doesn’t know that. He just knows he’s picked a fight with a whole boatload of goons. He takes out 6 dudes just in that hallway, then pursues the fleeing Arranger up onto the deck, where more goons are waiting. Unfortunately for Spidey, his fight is seen by one of the fighter jets guarding the ship, and now the Coast Guard has been called to deal with him. Whoops!
Spider-Man smashes in through the window before they can drop it. We skip ahead in time to the Coast Guard boarding the ship, which has stopped moving. They instantly realize the men they find webbed up aren’t their own dudes (Not sure how).
If you wanna see maybe the most infamously bad Spider-Man story of its time, you do not want to miss next issue! And this is only the beginning of Secret Wars II tie-ins, there’s at least 3 more that I know of after this. 9 months is a long time, and Spidey’s got 3 monthly comics at this time, he could have had even more. This issue’s letters are about ASM 264. Strangely, they print multiple people asking who “Paty” is without telling them it’s Paty Cockrum. So was her name redacted? How strange. One letter is from Beau Smith, future writer of comics and columns about comics. Been awhile since I saw a future pro in a letter column.