Yes, what a… mysterious character. DOES Spider-Man know Elektra? I’m not so sure. She’s so mysterious she’s named on page 1:
Elektra already feels out of character. Joe Bennett still on the job. He’s drawing a whole lot of pages of Spider-Man in a short time here. Bud LaRosa & Ralph Cabrera on inks. Spider-Man, for his part, is falling to his death, having been hit by one of his headaches and let go of his web. Some less-than-graceful acrobatics get him to the safety of a roof after grabbing onto an antenna and expecting to hold his weight for some reason.
How has this dumb dumb not addressed this problem yet? Meanwhile, at The Bugle, JJJ is crowing about how good the story of Robbie being targeted by ninjas is, as if his old friend almost getting killed isn’t a serious problem. Ben Urich points out that maybe the ninjas aren’t done, and could come after their families, and that finally shakes Jonah a little. But they’re not the only ones looking at today’s Bugle…
Boy this is off-putting. Meanwhile, Peter Parker is almost caught in his Spider-Suit by Aunt Anna once again trundling into his bedroom unannounced. He dives under the covers and plays sick, tho’ it’s not really playing too much. Is this all Anna’s good for in this book? She’s been positioned as a new Aunt May, making it obvious May shouldn’t have died, but all she does is almost see Peter’s Spider-Man costume all the time.
Delilah’s special fonts are insufferable. Is that supposed to sound like something? I can’t imagine. Why would “YOUR” be the special word in “Or was it your life?” rather than “LIFE?” Anyway, as the pantsless ladies presumably lower their various weapons, we learn Aunt Anna has been feeding Peter chicken soup. Somehow. Even though he has his Spider-Man suit on under his blanket, gloves and all. She finally leaves to go visit the senior center, and he masks back up to go looking for Electro. Meanwhile, at Angela Yin’s apartment, Angela accidentally guilts her cousin into not killing her, and the big bruiser guy from before watches Meiko run out of the building.
What a ridiculous setup. For whatever reason, Spider-Man takes this tip without question. Meiko is there, about to get skewered by the yano guy for disobeying orders, and Elektra is closing in on them when she’s lit up by the Spider Signal and called Xena, Warrior Princess by…
Whatever. We cut to The Bugle to see Jonah is fleeing town with his wife, and encouraging Robbie to do the same. And as they argue, Martha Robertson calls up, and when she hears what JJJ’s doing, she says Robbie should do the same and stop putting the paper before his life. With that subplot advanced, we return to the impending battle, as Meiko submits to be killed by Yano, who says he’s still gonna kill Angela, too, but then Spidey and Elektra show up. Meiko challenges Yano to “ritual combat,” and it’s fightin’ time.
Ok. Meiko wins her fight and Elektra is observing that she’s pretty skilled when everyone stops to see the enraged Spider-Man about to drop a whole train car on a lone ninja. Elektra shames him into not turning a man to paste and then it’s over. Elektra wants to know what Meiko’s intentions are.
About time. Not that it’s gonna be terribly exciting when he does finally get involved in his own business. Would you believe this is Meiko’s final appearance? I guess no one cared enough to ever bring her back, even DeFalco. You’d think he was going somewhere with this, but apparently not. Maybe the soon-to-kick-back-in machine got in the way. Less than 20 issues to go before the end of ASM Vol. 1, after all, and when Vol. 2 starts, Tom DeFalco will once again be off the title. But that’s obviously for later.