Not sure there’s ever a fine night for dying, cover copy. That distinctly 70s Kirby Iron Man in the corner box is a little jarring. His 70s style is so different. Seeing it applied to the stuff he did in the 60s always feels a little off. Poor Iron Man being attacked by tiny planes! What could this be? It be Bill Mantlo, Sal Buscema & Mike Esposito, for one thing. This gets popping on page one, as Spider-Man, swings past Stark International just in time to see a tiny toy plane drop a bomb on a huge fuel container. This issue has 2 titles, for some reason? Page one says “A Fine Night for Dying” like on the cover, but the 2-page spread of the explosion says “ENTER: THE WRAITH!” Why settle for one? Anyway, the shockwave from the explosion tosses Spider-Man high into the air, and suddenly he’s falling to his death, as he so often does, but he was swinging by Stark International, so…
While I certainly see why Iron Man would think Spidey’s toy plane story sounds absurd, jumping to blaming him is a bit much. Iron Man produces a cut up ransom note looking piece of paper (From where? Why was he carrying it?) that warned him of the explosion, hence the evacuation. The heroes keep arguing about whether Spider-Man is a good guy or not until they’re interrupted by a very special debut:
Captain Jean DeWolff! We’ve sadly seen her end, but now we get to see how she came in. In spite of being kind of the disposable Spidey comic, MTU still has its important moments.
The tiny plane explodes, but not before Spidey can tackle Jean out of the way. As DeWolff convinces the heroes to help her investigate (And Iron Man even apologizes), a mysterious figure descends into one of the mausoleums in the cemetery they’re all standing in. But then we’re off, for the debut of DeWolff’s ridiculous car.
Don’t mess with her! In Jean’s office, she unveils some sophisticated film projection gear she says she got in return for a favor she did Nick Fury once, designed by Tony Stark himself. Iron Man is suddenly very curious about that story, but there’s no time for that, because Jean is reviewing the previous bombings.
DeWolff tells them no one knows who the mystery man is, or why no one ever remembers seeing him. In addition, all the warning notes are on police stationary, using letters cut out of the police newspaper, The Gazette. Well. As Spider-Man talks his way into a theory that all this is in response to new reports of corruption in the industries that have been hit so far, the mystery man appears on a nearby roof and chucks one of his planes into the window. Boy, this is weird. This is like a much sillier version of The Death of Jean DeWolff. I wonder if Peter David did that on purpose. Anyway, the plane smashes through the window, and Jean and Iron Man start shooting at it, with IM zapping it out the window before it can explode. While Iron Man dives down to get it before it can explode on the street below, Spider-Man has other plans…
We cut away to Iron Man grabbing the plane and flying it up away from people, only for it to explode with a much bigger impact than the last one, knocking out his systems and send him crashing to the ground. And then…
Goodness. Who is The Wraith? I know. Has it come up on the blog yet? Don’t remember. We’ll find out soon enough. Rather humorously, the back of this issue is advertising the same kind of planes used as a murder weapon inside.
