So, this is a wacky one. I guess Peter David had recently seen Rashomon or something, because this is him riffing on it. And, man, they didn’t have to go this hard on the art! We got John Romita, Sr., John Buscema, Bob McLeod, Alan Kupperberg, Keith Williams & Mark Texiera on line art. That’s wild, 2 architects of the Marvel Universe pitching in on this. Nel Yomtov colors. It begins with Robbie walking into a bar and being shocked to see and be beckoned over to come sit with JJJ, Peter & Mary Jane.
THE ROSHOMON BANK AND TRUST. Very aggressive!
I have to admit to being a sucker for the kind of joke in panel 2. And we’re off. To hear MJ tell it, they went into the bank, JJJ was being “his usual charming, witty & urbane self,” and then a gunman burst in. After braining a guard with his rifle, MJ says he “encountered the one thing on which he had not counted.” Herself, naturally, as the gunman is stopped in his track by her beauty.
I’ve been coming to grips with this as it goes. At first, the goofiness of it felt wrong for the 1986 Mary Jane. But she did always want to be in theater, so her hamming it up in the telling works for me. Anyway, Spider-Man burst in, and in shooting at him, the gunman hit an innocent bystander. This is becoming a very frequent problem for Spider-Man!
Great landing, MJ. Robbie is obviously skeptical of this telling. JJJ says MJ got it wrong, and after having Peter order them more drinks, he prepares to tell his version. He says MJ doesn’t have his years of being a trained observer. So his version starts like this:
Suitably JJJ-ish. We cut into the bank, where a teller is admiring the smell of JJJ’s cigar when the gunman bursts in, now barely verbal, and, in a nice visual touch, with a different haircut and different gun. Once again, he knocks out a guard, and in this version, when he sees MJ, he tries to kiss her, but, JJJ says, his course was clear.
All this and a Looney Tunes quote, too. In JJJ’s version, when Spider-Man arrives, everyone, including MJ, tells him to go away, but he’s frozen in fear, so JJJ knocks the gun from the robber’s hand, and it bounces on the ground, firing and hitting a completely different woman.
In response to this version, Robbie asks how many drinks JJJ has had, which is entirely the right answer. MJ says, thinking about it, JJJ’s version is probably more correct than hers, since he has all that experience. When Robbie asks what Peter thinks, MJ says “I’m sure Peter, who isn’t even a reporter, wouldn’t do anything silly like contradict the man who pays him so fairly,” in case her angle wasn’t fully obvious. Peter finally offers to give his version, saying it’ll be the best he can remember, “after all, I have had 3 Cokes.”
So they go to the bank, and the teller is very put off by JJJ’s cigar, but Peter doesn’t mention it, and then the gunman bursts in, accidentally knocking down the guard with the front door. He’s a scared and nervous schlub, and the giant rifle he had in MJ’s version that became a sub machine gun in JJJ’s version is a tiny revolver now. He even asks the guard if he’s ok. Peter claims he froze in panci because he’s no hero as we see him sneaking off to the bathroom to become Spider-Man.
Art duties are a bit hard to pin down. It’s clear Romita did at least layouts for most of the “present” pages (And having the parts that are definitely true be in his style is very clever). And clear Bob McLeod drew or inked-with-a-heavy-hand the JJJ version. But one of the “present” parts looks like Buscema to me. I believe he drew or did layouts for MJ’s version. I think maybe Kupperberg drew the Peter version. It could be less cut and dried than that, tho. I’ll never know for sure. Pretty fun issue, regardless.