Quicksilver, eh? It’ll be interesting to see how he fits into this. Innovator & Illustrator credits continue. Since last issue, our man’s gone home, and the bullet holes in his shirt have disappeared, as he mopes and recaps. In the process, he throws his shirt in the living room as Harry is arriving home from his night out, so he has to act fast.
He couldn’t take 2 seconds to pull off his Spider-Boots?
I’m not up on any of this, but I guess Magneto reformed The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants with the rest of them as unwilling participants this time, and now Quicksilver is in New York to try to convince his former allies in The Avengers that he, his sister Scarlet Witch, and The Toad are all victims instead of villains. Unfortunately for him, The Avengers are in Wakanda on Black Panther-related business in Avengers #62 (It’s the first appearance of M’Baku from the movie, in fact), so when Jarvis tells him this, Quicksilver doesn’t know what to do, until the morning papers are tossed out of a moving truck as he walks down the sidewalk. Seeing that Spider-Man is blamed for stealing the tablet, Pietro resolves to catch him to prove to The Avengers that he’s a still a good guy. Random way to get Quicksilver & Spidey fighting, but it’s the 60s. Robbie goes home (Where his wife also calls him “Rob,” where did this come from?), and Martha is finally named on-panel. Robbie is worried about Randy still, worried that his attempts to change the world will fail. The next morning, Peter brings his Kingpin pix to Robbie, but to his credit, the first thing he wants to know is how Jonah’s doing. Robbie says he’ll be ok, and then really likes the pictures.
Look at that zip-a-tone on the photos! They look awesome. Nice choice, Jim Mooney! So robbie’s excited, and PEter’s excited, but JJJ sure won’t be when he finds out about this pro-Spidey story about to go out. Speaking of whom, Spider-Man is soon swinging away, looking to tie up one last loose end and get rid of the tablet. And he’s finally figured out what to do with it: He’s taking it to his sympathetic ear in the police force, George Stacy. The fact that he’s not actually in the police force anymore is, as usual, beside the point.
With all his troubles gone, it’s time for Two Heroes Fight Over a Misunderstanding, because this issue went 12 pages without a fight scene. Pietro zooms past Spidey and accidentally stops his web from connecting to the next building, sending him plummeting to the ground. He really didn’t mean to, and attempts to save him. But Spidey save himself and ducks under an awning, trying to hide, but that only works for a second.
Quicksilver finally admits he’s only bothering Spider-Man to try to prove to The Avengers that he’s cool, which doesn’t sound too heroic. Spidey lunges for Quicksilver, but he’s very speedy, so he zooms around punching Spider-Man like on the cover, and our hero is looking about unconscious. But then we check in on JJJ, recovering nicely… until Ned Leeds shows up with the new Bugle.
That happened even faster than I expected. How does Ned know what Robbie paid for the photos? I guess there’s no secrets when the entire staff of a newspaper is just 5 people. But, hey, the pointless fight. Quicksilver’s ploy almost works, but Spider-Man finally realizes he can just stick out his arm and clothesline Pietro, so he does. Traveling at superspeed, seems like he should broken Spider-Man’s arm, but instead, he takes a hit in the gut and is immediately subdued, because there’s only 1 page left. Just as Quicksilver goes down, the cops show up, and Spidey flees with his unconscious enemy under his arm.
Yeah. It’s gonna be a return for The Shocker. That took a while, actually. In the letter page, among all the usual type of letters, there’s this…
Good to see the kids having fun. Come back next time for more shocking developments (I can do it, too!)