“A solo adventure of Solo.” Who thought that was funny? In 1990 or 1991, Marvel got really into these annual crossover events. It worked best with the X-Titles, since crossing them over made so much sense already. As we saw, the 1991 Spidey annuals were sort of a crossover with Black Panther and Iron Man, except Iron Man’s book didn’t participate and Panther didn’t have one at the time. This time, tho, it’s a 4-part extravaganza as Spidey meets The New Warriors. Strangely, this runs through annuals for 3 of the 4 Spider-Man titles and then one for New Warriors. Not only did Adjectiveless Spider-Man not rate an annual this year, for some reason it never had one at all in the series’ 98 issue run. Who knows? Anyway, with the 2 monthly titles Bags draws in this period crossing over, you might expect him to be involved, but if he is, it’s not in this issue (I’ve never seen any of these). The main feature is David Michelinie, Scott McDaniel, Keith Williams and Bob Sharen. It opens with a 2-page splash of Spider-Man fighting some goons trying to steal computer parts at the airport, but then immediately switches scenes.
Well, that looks bad for Speedball. I didn’t know Night Thrasher quit the New Warriors. He was their leader. Elsewhere, Spider-Man is in a hurry to get to New Jersey, but still stop a purse snatcher on the way. We don’t know what he’s up to yet. Back in Manhattan, Night Thrasher is worried about Speedball, but then the search he’s doing pulls up a mysterious memo warning employees of his company to avoid Fortune, NJ, or suffer fatal consequences. That inspires him to call up his team, even though he’s not on it anymore. A lot going on in just a few pages.
This story’s already gone to 2 states and another country by page 14! Spider-Man has now arrived in Fortune himself, I guess he knows what’s going on, and in a van somewhere in the town, we find out, too.
Aaaaalright. Spider-Man’s danger sense leads him to the van, which he rips open, but a 2nd van opens up to reveal a small army of guys in futuristic armor with laser guns. A local cop gets involved, and the baddies give him a small dose of what they have planned for the town, turning him into a decaying husk instantly. Rude. But before the can do any more damage, The New Warriors appear.
Spider-Man’s 3rd team-up with Nova in a space of a couple months. Funny to me that Namorita’s already skimpy bathing suit costume has now been reduced to a bikini. The 90s! So, one of the bad guys, Caldwell, who had cold feet about killing a whole town, is still there, and wants to surrender. He tells the heroes about the thingie rigged to blow the dam, allowing Nova and Namorita to go yank it out of the water and blow it up in the air.
We quickly cut to a meeting of rich bad guys that includes some of Michelinie’s favorites, Carlton Drake and Justin Hammer, as well as the current boss of Roxxon, called together by a mysterious, shadowed leader who’s behind Speedball’s kidnapping and makes vague allusions to taking over the world. Meanwhile, Spidey, Nova & Namorita had reached Target, and are slowly sneaking in, but also noting how there’s no guards, and of course, walk into a trap.
You also fought one in MTU 139, Spidey. I guess it didn’t make an impression at the time. At any rate, the heroes are soon facing a bunch of them, and begin slowly taking them apart. One of them shoots some kinda cold beam, hitting Namorita’s hilarious little ankle wings, preventing her from flying, but they manage to scrap 2 of the Dreadnoughts pretty easily, all things considered.
You might think Spider-Man could tell the weight difference between a real boulder and a fake one, but since he can life a bus, I actually buy him not noticing. Namorita finds an experimental laser gun that cuts one of the robots in half, but it only has 1 shot in it. We briefly cut away to Night Thrasher Batmanning his way through investigating Speedball’s disappearance, then back to the fight in time to see Spider-Man trick 2 robots in to blowing each other up. That leaves one opponent for 3 heroes that haven’t had much trouble with any army of them, so they easily down it. But then an unseen voice pipes up to thank them for disposing of “old, clumsy, ineffectual” Dreadnoughts…
Very 90s redesigns. Will our heroes survive? Will Thrash find Speedball? I mean, probably. Where are the other Warriors? Justice and I think her name is Silk?… are on the cover, and Justice didn’t even manage that. Maybe Justice is in prison, I think that happened once. Maybe they’ll turn up later. But for now, it’s time for a Venom story. It’s Michelinie, Aaron Lopresti, Bruce Jones and Kevin Tinsley on deck, with a flashback to the moment Eddie Brock met the symbiote, about to commit suicide in that church when it dripped down onto him.
As Eddie learns the alien bonded with him over their shared hatred of Spider-Man, goons show up next door to attack the Mendezes for not selling the valve, and Eddie comes over and gets involved.
Right-o. Then there’s that solo Solo story where, guess what, some guys are terrorists, and he shoots them, because that’s his entire deal. Not exactly leading man material. Then there’s the Bullpen Bulletins page, which I meant to bring up in a previous issue, due to its particular contents this month…
That’s fun. Then there’s a weird 3-pager where Spider-Man handily defeats The Looter while telling him how much less threatening he is than various other villains, which just seems like an excuse to have Aaron Lopresti draw said villains in single panels. I dunno, not essential. And then a Cloak & Dagger serial that’s gonna run into next issue, but as it doesn’t have Spidey in it, I‘m not gonna write about it. So there.