Oh, I wouldn’t dare, don’t worry. Ominous corner box. Ya know, I struggle to recall how and why I read this. It would’ve been in 2018. I thought it was in an Epic Collection, but it’s not. Maybe, as I was filling in the late 200s on ASM, I saw that this kicked off a stunt and ordered it. I dunno. Anyway, not my first time through. We make the jarring transition from Kyle Baker to Vince Colletta on inks this month. Will Vinnie cut corners? Will we be able to tell? Magma’s shooting what I assume is magma at Spider-Man as he recaps last issue on the first 3 pages, and then…
I have recently come to know that Colletta was a star of 1950s romance comics, and was known for his drawing and inking beautiful women. Joy suddenly looking like the drawing on the side of a Barbie doll box makes sense in this context. I’m still not over “Charla” as a name. Magma takes them to his control room and instructs Seth to continue his work, which is complex math, because Rain Man, while explaining the term “idiot savant” to Joy. Time for some exposition.
I hope that doofus who wrote that letter about the poor, innocent corporations several posts ago saw this.
That should complicate Joy’s suspicions about Peter, one assumes. Peter borrows a knife Joy has strapped to her leg (Did you guess she had to achieve a few very suggestive poses to produce it? I bet you did), and is able to jimmy their cell open and then charge and knock out a guard, pretending it really hurt his hand. Joy takes the guy’s rifle, and they eventually find Charla and Seth. Peter says he’s mapped a way out, and they manage to find a way out. But while climbing, Peter “slips” and falls back down, altering guards and telling the others to run for it. With the hostages gone, he can get serious about superheroing. He goes and gets his costume from where he stashed it, not knowing Joy has kept her and the others from leaving to see what happens next. Not cool, Joy. The baddies are almost ready to to their thing, but someone says he can’t let them do that.
Magma’s goons desert him immediately, but he doesn’t seem to need them as he and Spidey battle through the compound. Magam beats our man up pretty bad with some good luck, but then Spidey kicks his gun arm away at a crucial moment.
Joy and the others are still here, of course, and they soon realize Seth has started climbing back down to help his friend, Pete. Goons see them, but Joy opens fire with her rifle. What is it with Bugle reporters and shooting at people in recent issues?
Spidey sizes up the situation and makes a desperate gamble to swing him and Seth out of there. Manga shoots at them, but only singes the web. However…
And so, Spider-Man is dead. Forever. For real. Oh, wait, what’s James C. Owsley, aka Christopher Priest, saying in his monthly letter box?
Yes, this issue kicks off a stunt called “Where Is Spider-Man?” We’ll see more of what that means next post.