The death of a hero, eh? Seems extremely unlikely that a New Warrior would die in Web of Spider-Man Annual 8, and I rather doubt it’s Spider-Man, so… Hm. Same gang as the previous 2 issues. Another 2-page splash to open, of Spidey and Silhouette vs. Bombshell, Stiletto and Rhino. Has Stiletto ever been on the blog? I didn’t think so, but I’ve begun to wonder. Seems not. Kind of a funny name. On the 3rd page, Spidey recaps to himself while dodging the villains until it seem Silhouette has been trapped and blown up by Bombshell.
Boomerang and Blacklash may be kinda lame, but Thrash is just a guy with some sticks, so he’s pretty overwhelmed until he’s able to distract them and just run for it. Back at Spider-Man’s fight, no one’s bothering to try to explain why Rhino is here when he’s spent a very recent appearance still trying to get out of the game. I guess you don’t say “no” to Justin Hammer. Spidey takes down Stiletto because obviously, but then Bombshell throws a flashbang at Sil as Rhino is charging her.
I am ready to believe Mark Bagley did uncredited layouts on this. McDaniel’s figures have randomly started feeling a lot more like Bags’. Well, Nova & Nita handily stunt on Speed Demon and Beetle, leaving “Discus” to run away, and Speedy follows. They tie up Beetle and go looking for their friends. Back at Fight #1, Spidey takes down Bombshell by webbing one of her grenades and letting the lessened blast go off pretty close to her, then takes off after Rhino, who has absconded with Silhouette’s unconscious form. But we haven’t even checked in on Firestar yet.
Not a bad showing for the one-time Amazing Friend. Still weird to me that Firestar was created for a Spider-Man cartoon but she and he have nothing to do with each other in comics. Firestar shuts the door behind her and finds herself in a creepy room with one of the kidnapped heroes on a slab, hooked up to various machines, and worries what’s happened to Speedball. Then we cut to the various rich guys behind this, who are just being told Speedball has been prepped for their procedure. Elsewhere, Spider-Man is tracking the tracer he put on Silhouette when he stumbles on some computers and tries to learn more about what’s going on.
Bad odds for those 2.
Nova & Nita run afoul of Hydro-man and Constrictor, who sweep them down a hall on a tide of Hydro-man toward Thrash and Firestar and the other villains. It’s very crowded in this comic. So, Nita is taken down by Boomerang, Thrasher takes out Speed Demon, Constrictor takes out Nova, Blacklash sneaks up on Firestar as she’s fending off Bombshell and gets her, and Night Thrasher is run over by a stampeding Rhino. Whew.
The villains retreat, having successfully goaded the heroes into smashing through the door they were guarding, which, it turns out, is exactly what their shadowy boss wanted to happen. Inside, they find Auric’s sister, Silver, stuck to machines but alive, explaining they were trying to figure out how her powers work and saying they took Speedball down the hallway.
The heroes helpfully walk into the trap, which is some kind of giant bubble that encases them quickly.
Wow, so the “death of a hero” was Auric, a character who’d appeared in exactly 2 panels of this story before dying. Very dramatic. Well, I know exactly nothing about this villain. Maybe he’ll explain his deal in the final chapter. For now, we get to the end of this Venom serial. They’re still trapped by fire, but Eddie assures the alien he won’t abandon it, and they smash the floor Hulk-style, making it cave in.
When guards arrive with Markham in tow, Venom has webbed the kid to the ceiling and hidden, so he can jump out and tear into everyone present.
I mean, there’s murder and there’s murder. This is a lot more justified than the various security guards he’s killed escaping from The Vault over the years.
Brazenly retconning Venom’s mission from “kill Spider-Man” to “violently help people and also kill Spider-Man” is really awkward. But they wanted to start pushing him toward “anti-hero” instead of “villain” due to his popularity, so there you have it. Next is the Black Cat story promised last issue, as Felicia is hired to test rich guy’s security system, only to have Hydro-Man sneak in behind her to rob the place for real. 2 tales of Hydro-Man in a single issue! She beats him, don’t worry. Then there’s another list story, “Spider-Man’s Top Ten Team-Ups” As Peter goes through some of his old photos, the team-ups, not presented in an numbered order for some reason, are The Human Torch, Punisher, Silver Sable, Captain America, Daredevil, Dr. Strange, Black Cat, Wolverine, Cloak & Dagger, and The New Fantastic Four, putting Wolverine on the list twice, because 90s. Sure, whatever. And then the end of the Cloak & Dagger serial I am diligently not talking about. Had to wrap all this up, because one assumes the New Warriors annual won’t be full of Spider-Man-related stories. We’ll see how that goes next time.