Around this time, people got embarrassed by Electro. I, in turn, an embarrassed by their embarrassment. The lightning bolt mask was too much, too silly, no longer acceptable in the 1990s, and stayed that way pretty much forever. Wolverine walks around with a mask big enough to be a pair of pants on, but Electro was too much. The rings on Havok’s mask, too, have been deemed too silly in recent years. And yet, no replacement for either Electro or Havok’s mask has ever been as good as the original, and everyone involved knows it. All of which is to say, this “rebirth” is more of a downgrade. But let’s see it. Joe Bennett tags in for a couple months on pencils.
As Max Dilon is about to get electrocuted, his life flashes before his eyes. Revealed here, I think for the first time, are his humble origins, and it’s the 90s, so obviously he grew up in a household with an abusive father! OBVIOUSLY. So tired and gross. We learn his dad left his mom when he was 8, and his Mom became overprotective, like an aggressive version of Aunt May always worrying Peter would catch a cold. And then we jarringly jump to a different scene in the present with the exact same narrative text boxes making it difficult to tell what’s going on for a minute. And that’s not the only problem:
That cop being JJJ for a panel is not helping! Why and how has this random cop wandered into Fortunato’s home to tell him he’s gonna get him? Dopey. Then we’re back to Electro’s life story, wherein he told his Mom he was going to go to college to study electrical engineering or something, and she, being overprotective, told him he’s too fragile to go off to college and study such difficult things and literally through his college prep books out the window. Sheesh, lay it on a little thicker, why don’t you? Speaking of college:
Sooooooo, look, I know it’s pointless to even think about this, I do. But if 1975-1994 was “5 years” according to the Spider-Office, and then 94-97 was a year, and Peter dropped out of school in 1984, which is now roughly 3.5 years ago. Then he went back to school in 1989, I guess more like 3 years ago, so… why isn’t Peter back under Dr. Sloan or Dr. Swann? Did they “retire” off panel? Seems silly. Anyway, Peter has run into Phil Urich, who says he’s studying journalism. We briefly look at Meiko, who’s gonna go by “Dragonfly” even though that wasn’t totally clear last issue, training and waiting for Madam Qwa to let her go fight people, and then it’s back to Electro’s sadsack origin.
I wonder if this is where Electro also started to be characterized as a crude, simple guy. Earlier appearances had him the scheming, calculating type, which, paired with his genuinely dangerous powerset, made him a candidate for a real A-list Spidey villain. But no one ever seemed to want him to be one, so even though he’s way more dangerous than almost all of Spider-Man’s most famous villains, he’s always been treated like he’s C-list. I guess because of the outfit. Just weird to me, always has been. Cut to Fortunato now meeting with The Rose, telling him that cop is after him and offering to help him with Black Tarantula. The Rose says he has the situation under control, and Fortunato lets us know he’s one of the few who knows who The Rose really is. Whoever that is. I don’t know. Could be the original Rose, could be a new guy, no idea. What’s MJ doing?
Oh, just having fun, cool, cool. But speaking of Little May…
As previously discussed, Marvel Editor-in-Chief Bob Harras decreed that Spider-Man #75 would imply Little May was stolen rather than killed, and also that she would never be spoken of again, an incredibly stupid decision that no one, creators or fans, could be happy with. But it was done. And then… and then this. This literally can’t go anywhere. No one involved wanted Spider-Man to be a dad. So why is this happening? I cannot imagine. And when they get around to resolving it, it is going to be a stunning disaster. But that’s for later. Back at Electro’s recap, he thinks about how he designed a suit and decided to be a villain, but Spider-Man whupped him time and again. He thinks about their “last confrontation,” a story not yet posted, but he’s appeared in 4 Spider-Man comics since then. But he seems to think that was their last meeting, so I guess not! We cut to Peter Parker failing to pick up a photo assignment, which seems like kind of a waste of a page, and then back to Electro, who…
…totally isn’t about to be executed! What a stupid bait & switch! Also: “The Electrical Force.” Around this time, The Flash over at DC was having his powers explained as being part of “The Speed Force,” a universal power that sounds tremendously dopey to me, a non-Flash reader, so by all means, let’s do that stupid crap here, too! He gets zapped. We cut to The Black Tarantula telling Madam Qwa he wants her to have Joe Robertson killed and make it look like The Rose was responsible. He also refers to Robbie as “an old colleague of mine.” Which makes total sense coming from an Argentinian mob boss! Sure to be a satisfying reveal!
I can only assume Rose’s shocked expression comes from wondering where Electro’s mask is, as it makes no sense. Well, it’s gone. Gone til about 2004, and then re-gone almost immediately thereafter. And that’s lame. But next time, we’ll see the new, maskless Electro do his thing.