Man, 3 issues of UTS in a row between ASMs. Kind of feels like a lot. But clues within the books make it clear this is how it goes. As we begin, it’s late at night, and Spider-Man meets up with his new pal Batwing from back in issue 2 to bring him some food and supplies. He tells him he really can’t keep living like this, and asks again if he can take him to Reed Richards, but Batwing is too afraid.
How could they possibly have gotten that far? Did they get a hot tip that this is where Spider-Man meets his fugitive bat friend? The next day at school, Jason is telling the story, making it sound more dangerous than it was and declaring that he could tell Spider-Man wanted to kill them, but Flash won’t hear that. When Jason tries to pivot to implying his friendship with Batwing is proof he’s evil, Liz says she read about how Batwing’s just a sad kid who wouldn’t hurt anybody. Sally gives up the act, but Jason rants about how Spider-Man is a menace and they will discover his identity as Peter walks by. He thinks those 2 could be trouble, then a kid puts a flyer in his hand for a new eye doctor. Peter thinks if he sees someone he doesn’t know, maybe he can put Aunt May at ease, and if something goes wrong, he just never goes back.
I shoulda posted the page where they accidentally called him “Peter Palmer” in ASM 1, that’s funny.
This is gonna be a wacky scheme for sure.Electro coming back so soon is an odd choice. Peter goes by The Bugle to pick up Betty for a date, and JJJ is ranting about how he needs photos of this mysterious Big Man and his Enforcers who’re heading up a crimewave all over the city. Reporter Frederick Foswell suggests maybe The Big Man is just a story, made up by hoods to throw people off the scent, and JJJ immediately decides Spider-Man is the real villain, naturally. This Big Man stuff in recent issues of Untold is a lot of good setup to make the next issue of ASM seem a little less abrupt. Pretty smart.
Instead of going home, Peter becomes Spider-Man and goes looking for The Big Man & The Enforcers. Instead, he finds an armored car robbery. He’s breaking it up, and realizing these guys could be goons of The Big Man’s, when he has another episode. And then, Spider-Man starts sleepwalking through stealing the loot from the armored car himself. Naturally, Sally & Jason are somehow on the scene yet again (They kinda make Peter’s story that he just happens to get Spider-Man photos seem more plausible), and as he springs away, they follow him, Jason even more into the idea that he’s a menace. But they soon find various other hypnotized people carrying valuables, as well, walking through the street toward an abandoned theater.
Electro taunts his mostly unconscious foe, recaps his origin real quick, and then announces his plan to unmask and kill Spidey. Jason & Sally are on the scene, of course, and Sally is not excited about the prospect of murder. She lets the flash of her camera go off, and it snaps Spider-Man out of it. He’s pretty confused, but knows enough to get out of the way of Electro’s blasts. Then Winkler sends his various other pawns to attack Spider-Man, still under his hypnotic command.
That Jason’s a real charmer. The people start to “wakes up,” and Winkler flees the scene. Spider-Man never got a good look at him, so he doesn’t know it’s his eye doctor, but that doesn’t matter right now, because Electro is really juiced up from crashing into that machine, and Spider-Man’s not back to normal, and he’s about to get zapped. Until…
Sally’s idea is probably not good news, but it’ll have to wait. Busiek has done a lot of work to set up ASM 10, and now it’s time to finally get there.