I’m glad SMTU is over. 2 oversized quarterly titles was 2 too many, but at least it’s back to 1. This time out, Glenn Greenberg steps through the revolving door on the writer’s seat to apparently bring Robot-Master back from the dead for the 2nd time in 6 months, which seems hilarious. Same art team as it’s been recently. To start, a mystery man leaves a big box in front of Manhattan Hospital in the middle of the night, and then we cut to mid-day, as Spider-Man is late to meet Betty Brant for a big scoop. She is very unhappy with him for being late since she asked for him specifically on this. SMU is kind of her book lately.
The box contained a bunch of totally unique, “fully functional” toy robots that kids are just loving. And so is Peter, he’s nerding out maybe a little too much as he takes photos for the story. It’s noted that all the hospitals got the same type of stuff. Peter notes a shy nerdy kid playing alone who reminds him of himself and decides to say hello.
Come on, “One of my most dangerous enemies?” Says who?
Really just gonna keep bringing up that kid. They went through all the trouble of replacing Peter with a clone in part because they thought a divorced Spider-Man wouldn’t represent youth as they think he should (Again, if you just stopped talking about it…), and yet being the grieving father of a stillborn child is ok for appealing to the kids? Doesn’t add up. Look at this Spider-Man, tho:
I feel like you’re really seeing Joe Bennett improve in every issue he works on. Knowing what a great artist he would become, it’s interesting to see the development. Spidey takes a couple pages to recap his 2 whole encounters with Stromm (“One of my most dangerous foes!”), once again ignoring the Robot-Master incident in TAC 68, before reminding us he doesn’t know Norman blew Mendel up in ASM 416. So he’s on the hunt, worried Stromm might know who Spider-Man is.
Oh good, this again. This nowhere plot does nothing for me, Arthur Stacy randomly mad at Spider-Man 30 years after his brother was killed. Blah. As he meets JJJ, Peter Parker stumbled onto the scene. He just came to The Bugle trying to get info about Stromm, but Arthur wants to have lunch with him to talk about Spider-Man, and JJJ is so into this he insists on paying for it (And the pulls Peter aside to say, “Take him someplace CHEAP!” which is great).
Why Peter doesn’t lean all the way into “I know Spider-Man, he was a close friend of George, he for sure didn’t do it” is beyond me. Everyone knows he has a relationship with Spider-Man, Arthur knows George liked Peter, he’s got no reason to lie and he’s the primary source for what Spider-Man thinks. But we gotta drag this out. Peter is happy Arthur’s taken an interest in this so they can talk about something else, and explains the details (Minus knowing Stromm is involved). Arthur offers to help, and they talk about it some more.
But oh, how I wish it was! Peter apparently went right home and went to sleep so he could get up in the middle of the night to stake out the hospital. And he finds MJ hasn’t been to bed yet, still up studying for her classes. She’s really thrown herself into it since she has no other plots going on. MJ is worried that Peter’s been bottling up his feelings about the deaths of Ben and little May, and that just the thought of seeing Stromm again is unhealthy for him. She tells him to keep a cool head and be safe. He appreciates it and takes off. His stakeout is long and boring, until…
Stromm says he’s done with the toys, and asks Spider-Man if he’d come back to his place to help him learn more about his identity. Naturally, Arthur shows up, hoping to ambush Peter with more questions about George, and sees Spider-Man and Stromm leaving in (And in Spidey’s case, on top of) a cab. Arthur thinks this is too good to pass up and abandons his search for Peter, which… super smart, Arthur. “I’m suspicious of Peter not wanting to talk about his friend Spider-Man, who I have just seen with the man I’ve deduced is behind the toy dropoffs Peter was investigating. I wonder where Peter is?” He follows their cab.
Naturally, Stromm comes charging back in with his old robots from the 60s and in a new, but also very old, suit of armor. He didn’t remember Osborn til Spidey stupidly mentioned him, but now he sort of remembers Osborn is responsible for his woes, and that Spider-Man played some part of it, too. He now assumes Spidey’s with Osborn and has to kill him. Great work, Peter!
I can’t get over how much better Bennett’s Spider-Man is here. I mean, this is a quantum leap even from his previous issue. Stromm’s attack starts a fire in the lab. Spidey takes comfort in Stromm not seeming to remember who he really is, but is soon surrounded by robots with little room to maneuver. He manages to dispatch the robots, and as the fire spreads, it’s a showdown between him and Stromm. Outside, Arthur’s seen the fire and jumps into action. For some reason. What’s he gonna do? I thought he was gonna go call 911 or something, but…
Arthur does the right thing eventually. Spidey tells him to get Stromm out of the building and then escapes in another direction to avoid talking to Arthur. Instead, he says he has to make a call. Soon, as Arthur watches firefighters work on the building, Betty arrives, saying she got a call from “a reliable source” saying Arthur was here and he’d solved the story. Then Peter shows up, saying he got a similar call. Betty says she’s going to interview some cops, and the fellas are left alone.
Kafka casually says “parts of his brain were irreparably destroyed,” like that’s not an insane thing to say about a guy who seemed to be totally fine. He remembers almost nothing about the last 9 years. If ol’ dumb dumb Spider-Man hadn’t mentioned Osborn, it would’ve been all good. Kafka wonders why Stromm is so obsessed with a dead man, and that’s Spidey’s cue to leave. So, later that day, he returns to the hospital where he borrowed the toy…
Referring to bringing back a guy who was pretty conclusively blown up only to seemingly write him right back out of the book as “tying up a loose end” is hilarious, but ok. This is Stromm’s last appearance in a comic for 4 years, and by the time he returns, no one involved in the clone nonsense is on the books anymore. I have apparently read his next appearance, but I don’t remember it at all. Kind of a theme on this blog lately. This issue’s letter column says there are no plans to assign a regular writer to this title, while also proudly reassuring readers Joe Bennett is its regular penciler. Why? That’s wld.