Slyde! No one asked for this. Well, probably not no one. I didn’t, anyway. A Michelinie plot, a Len Kaminsky script, Jim Fern pencils, Vince Colletta inks, Bob Sharen colors. I don’t think Michelinie would’ve been pulled off this title to start doing ASM yet, but I don’t know, either. Maybe. There’s 6 months of content in ASM after DeFalco & Frenz get fired before Michelinie steps in. I dunno. To my immense frustration, this issue picks up with Joy & Peter flying home from the UK. This is like DeMatteis in the 80s, man, just totally off in its own world. Don’t worry, its placement here will make sense eventually. This must be the second issue I’ve looked at published after Christopher Priest was fired as Spider-Man group editor and replaced by Jim Salicrup, according to the credits, and I didn’t notice in Web 22. Oh, no, that was one of the ones with no credits at all, of course. More on that situation later. Peter is telling Joy JJJ is gonna flip over his photos and asking if she thinks he’s getting the hang of this, and she simply says “no.”
The honeymoon is over!
These are some very Vince Colletta images of Joy. And we’re finally resolving this. All those times Joy seemed to think Peter was Spider-Man, she was just mad at his professional laziness. Which, you know, fair! He has, indeed, talked about his deal with Spidey to get out of a jam in the past (Despite more often claiming they don’t know each other, which is awkward).
Well, that’s a wrap on that. I guess they’ve had time to pave over their differences by the time I came on the scene in a few years, since I didn’t ever get the feeling Joy disliked Peter. We’re told the next scene is later that day, but Joy has completely changed clothes. I dunno. They’re at The Bugle, and JJJ is furious that they spent so much money overseas and went to Belfast. But, rather confusingly, he is just then brought the prints of Peter’s film, and tho’ no one explains to him what’s going on in the pictures, he completely changes his mind and talks about what a great job they did. Seems like this coulda used different dialogue. I wonder what Michelinie woulda done. Boss satisfied, Peter & Joy go their separate ways. Peter wonders if Joy’s right, and he’s not cut out to be an international news photographer. Probably because this book is losing its mandate to make him that.
What if Peter’s Spider Sense was set off by the price of a tuna sandwich? That guy, whoever he is, calls security, who Slyde easily, well, slides past and eludes. The guards call for backup, and Peter’s elevator passes Slyde’s going in the opposite direction, which is what set off the danger sense.
Meanwhile, in a kind of baffling choice, Spider-Man’s swinging through Manhattan and finally opens the Bugle he grabbed at work, seeing Silver Sable’s ad. So he goes off to be in ASM 280 & 281. And the rest of this issue takes place after them! Good grief. Well, whatever. That’s why I moved this issue to where it is in the chronology. We jump to days later, with Peter getting frustrated trying to make webshooters that could get through airport security, and wondering why he’s bothering, since he’s gonna quit being Spider-Man aaaaaaany day now, for sure. He realizes he has no food in the house, and thus shows up unannounced at Aunt May’s with 2 bucket of chicken. The obscured labels say “COLDA- SANW-” which… is very confusing.
The house is looking pretty empty, what with the boarders moving out. And yet, most of them are back by the time I started reading. Curious. Elsewhere, Slyde recaps his less-than-thrilling origin for us while trying to crack the no doubt deeply secure password on the floppy disk he stole. Which he stole from “the top financial reporter on the East Coast” to get info about a shell company that the guy he ripped off last time we saw him in (ASM 272) runs, which he hopes to now rip off in order to finance starting his own company. Ok! Next day, Peter gets ready at Aunt May’s, she invites him to Atlantic City this weekend with her senior citizens group, and he heads back into the city to buy chocolate for Mary Jane. He better hurry if he wants this issue to have a fight scene, because Slyde commits a daring 2-page raid on his target and is off.
I would very much like to stop seeing references to that man in my comics.
Backup arrives in the form of Spider-Man. He tries to grab Slyde, having forgotten that being ungrab-able is kind of his deal, and then also fails to web him for good measure as he slydes off.
These are some conspicuously empty backgrounds, Vince… Slyde survives his fall somewhat miraculously and is scootin’ for the exit when Spidey realizes that, while he can’t web Slyde, he can web the briefcase, and does.
You have got to be kidding me! SEVEN consecutive issues of Web bleeding into each other!? Good grief, man, come on! Well… I guess I’m reading #24 next…