Oh my goodness, is Spider-Man going to lift a heavy thing?? Now with 500% more bacon! Ernie Chan is now embellishing and Sam Kato is coloring as we head into the finale of this ridiculous story. Man-Beast and such, you know.
Chan sure is making his presence felt. Heavy inks. Oh man, Man-Beast is really gonna explain himself.
Lemme just casually tell you there’s a 2nd Earth in your solar system, and the entire planet was created by a dude named Herbert. Also, me, too. Warlock spent a lot of time on Counter-Earth, as I recall. Even got himself an evil double there, I think, who will soon be surprisingly relevant to the Marvel Universe in the early 90s blocks.
I mean, “and now I wanna make a hate ray” or whatever really pales in comparison. “Ok, so, what does any of that space stuff have to do with me getting thrown through this wall?”
A 2nd plan in a row that involves blaming a dead Spider-Man for something? Get a new shtick, Man-Beast! No wonder you suck at conquering worlds. Why on Earth he chose to be The Hate-Monger… in order to spread a fake religion of love… is impossible to parse. This comic is just dumb. Up top, Brother Achmed is trying to get the crowd going crazy while Sister Sha-Shan is trying to calm them. Man-Beast is loving the confusion. Below, Spider-Man has his Heavy Thing braced, but his feet are going to smash through the walls he’s stuck to due to the pressure and it’s all gonna collapse, anyway, so he starts yelling for Razorback to wake up and help him. Buford braces his feet… sort of… it’s not very convincing… as the people above flee the area. Achmed tries to get them to find and kill the people responsible for the cave in, but they don’t seem too interested. And then Spidey and Buford’s job starts to look like it’s not holding up.
Not as cliche of a “Spider-Man Must Lift A Heavy Thing” as the cover suggested, but still counts. The mob closes in. Sha-Shan thinks maybe this is the event her father foresaw, so maybe she’ll actually do something soon. Man-Beast chews more scenery. Razorback volunteers to hold off the mob while Spidey and Flash run to go try to end this mess. So they do, and he does, and the mob drags Razorback up onto the field (Somehow?) where they are entreated to kill him. Man-Beast thinks it’s time for his grand unveiling.
“That giant floating werewolf head has a point, I SHOULD kill somebody!” Sheesh. Spidey starts whuppin’ the goons while Sha-Shan tries to get everyone to chill. Some of them listening, inspiring Man-Beast to let Achmed use his zaps without her. And then they start fighting Spider-Man fights other guys and Razorback fights the mob and, you know, fight fight fight. Flash hits Spidey’s guys with a fire extinguisher, and then Spidey webs them up, allowing them to move on to the next boss. Flash decides that’s going to help Sha-Shan, while Spidey is off to fight our primary villain. Sha-Shan resists Achmed without fighting back while Buford rallies against the goons and Spider-Man bursts into Man-Beast’s lair.
No matter how much Ernie has sublimated Sal’s style much of this issue, that’s a Buscema punch.
They did something, alright. What a mess. Is it weird that Razorback was so stupid I ended up kind of liking him? Feels weird. Well, that’s over with. Next post: something different.