And we are back to 1991. And look who’s joined us! Yes, not too long after his departure from ASM, Erik Larsen is here for a fill-in, which is really a dry run for his upcoming brief tenure as this title’s regular writer/penciler/inker. Bit odd how Larsen kinda followed McFarlane around. Almost certainly not his idea, but took over Hulk from him, took over ASM from him, taking over SM from him. Gregory Wright hangs in there on colors. And I believe this will be Larsen’s first pairing with letterer Chris Eliopolous, who he will have a long collaboration with on Savage Dragon. He’s here! Beast! Like we were all clamoring for him! The splash is Spider-Man thinking he’s on a mission to find The Beast before we flash back to why…
The zip-a-tone on Peter’s face made things weird there. This is an awkward conversation. Not really the subject matter, just the construction. I’m not sure I have any idea why MJ says “I know, I was there, remember?” Where? Your previous sentence? Peter pushing for kids seems odd too. He frets some more than the doesn’t know enough about his biology and about mutants til he says, “But I know someone who does,” and soon we’ve caught up with the Spidey on the splash. Just in time to cut away from him one panel later to a hospital room. A doctor and nurse look down at an unseen, “mysterious” patient, who promptly gets up, knocks them out with big yellow hands, and leaves. Elsewhere, Spider-Man’s arrived at a lecture Beast is giving at ESU just in time for a fellow mutant to wreck it, attacking Beast for “making nice with the oppressors.”
This mutant lady is The Savage Dragon’s girlfriend. I mean, not really. But she’s basically the exact same character design Larsen will use when he debuts Savage Dragon a year from now, only in blue instead of purple. And this isn’t the last time he’ll take a run at a design in Spider-Man that pops up in Dragon later. I just think that’s really interesting. Anyway, she wallops Beast, who realizes she was able to absorb and redirect his kinetic energy. Spidey shoots a bunch of webs at her as Beast gets his feet back under him, but he doesn’t slow her down much. And then this other guy’s suddenly there?
(Not an Erik Larsen comic without gratuitous butt shots) So… “Masterblaster” showed up to wreck the talk because he hates mutants, and the still-unnamed lady showed up to wreck the talk because she loves mutants? Busy night! Those 2 panels are his whole part in this story, too, that is just very odd. Spidey is getting whupped by the lady who really out to get a name, at least, so Beast leaps back in to lend a hand. When he, too, is zapped, Spidey puts all he’s got into one big hit, and sends the woman crashing off into the distance. As the heroes compliment each other’s efforts, police sirens sound in the distance, and Spider-Man swings Beast away to talk.
The boys go leaping into the fray in a splash that features an oft-reused Spider-Man. I think they even made a t-shirt of it. Ya know, I don’t think of Spidey and Beast as being best pals or whatever, but I’ve got 7 other stories on the blog where they meet, and that’s not all of them, for sure. He may be the X-Man Spidey’s hung out with the most outside of Wolverine.
This big, lumpy monster is very Larsen. It charges Beast through a wall, putting him down for a minute, and as Spider-Man quips incessantly at it, it smashes right through the pavement and send them both crashing into the sewer. Beast recovers and follows, somewhat reluctantly. He finds Spider-Man encasing the big thing in a cocoon of web, thinking he’s done, when it breaks loose and immediately KO’s Beast. Again. He sure is getting jobbed out a lot in just 22 pages.
All valid points.
Morlocks, one assumes? Beast tells them there’s a place called The Nursery for children like theirs where he’ll be safe, from the world and from himself, and the parents eventually agree to send him there. Beast notes to Spidey that that’s the upside of being a parent, that you love the child no matter what. It’d be nice if that was always true, Hank. Spidey heads home with more to think about than when he left. And there’s just enough time left for more exploitation.
For a guy so obsessed (SO obsessed) with drawing sexy women, Larsen sure draws them with some weird faces sometimes.