Trogdor was a man! The early 2000s, y’all, what a time. Dragon Man again. Weird that he’s been on a Spider-Man blog already. Here he is again, only earlier. It’s like a Quentin Tarantino movie. The mid 90s, y’all, what a time. The usual suspects as Spider-Man freaks out atop the Empire State Building, fresh from the mob turning on him last issue, wondering if they’re right to hate him. He gets more and more worked up, says Aunt May was right, that no man should have this much responsibility, and throws his mask into the growing storm, yelling that he quits. Quitting being Spider-Man is a quintessential part of being Spider-Man. But…
What indeed?
Surely that’s a miscolor on The Mandarin up there. Surely he wore a shirt and/or pants to this meeting. Is Spidey the only one to avoid destruction? Seems unlikely. Doom storms off to be Doom, while Wizard unveils Dragon Man. He is once again under The Wizard’s control, and he really is sending him after Spider-Man like a bloodhound. Magneto gets a gold star. Dragon Man sniffs the mask and he’s ready to roll. Its owner is taking a shower. There’s a bunch of maudlin text about how he’s crushed under the burdens of his responsibilities as he dresses and heads to meet MJ & Kristy for dinner.
Boy, Liz, that hair. Dragon Man has followed Spider-Man’s scent to the Parker residence, and as Peter waits for his subway train, Dragon Man crashes down into the subway, sending Peter’s danger sense into overdrive. DM is sniffing the whole time, clueing Peter into the bloodhound bit and he leaps into the tunnel to draw his foe away from people. We cut away real quick to see Loki (I mean, that mystery man) spying on Doom and learning he plans to steal Spider-Man’s new power and then betray everybody (His go-to!), then we’re off to see MJ & Kristy in the hospital cafeteria. Kristy talks about how she’s had some revelations since last we saw her, about how awful her parents are.
This is a nice turn for cousin Kristy. I do not remember how she turns out. One day, as far as I knew, she just wasn’t around anymore, probably because Gerry Conway moved on. I guess we’ll see. Back in the subway, Spider-Man attacks Dragon Man, mask and all. Which might seem odd, but…
A train comes, and the child like Dragon Man is distracted into trying to fight it. While he does, Spidey uses his new Can Do Anything Web to cushion the entire train and everyone in it, then webs a shield in front of DM to harmlessly blow his fire at. He breathes fire until he seems to run out of gas, and then Spidey is there.
Well, that’s nice. That high school teacher crack may come back to haunt him. Love The Wizard actually thinking “Gasp!” We move to Doom, seconds away from getting the energy TESS-One absorbed transferred into him, when his machine overloads and explodes.
WHO could THAT be?? WHO has been introduced JUST LIKE THAT in most of is appearances?? Impossible to guess. The last page of this one is an ad for The Saga of the Alien Costume on sale now. So I guess I got it sometime after this. I even remember what store I bought it in, strangely vividly. Anyway, the big finish for this particular saga is the next issue of ASM, so come back next time for… not that…