We’re bringing all the monthlies to the May cover date issues so they can all clear the deck for a crossover event. ASM was closer than the others, so we only have 2 issues this block. And all my least-favorite Michelinie characters are in them, how nice! They’ve finally stopped with the parents banners across the tops of the covers, at least. It was a little much. These 2 issues have some help, with Steve Grant scripting over a Michelinie plot (He’s all over the Spider-Office all of a sudden!) and a fill-in art team. Jeff Johnson pencils and Dan Panosian & Al Milgrom ink, while Bob Sharen gets a hand from Kevin Tinsley on colors. Whew. Johnson drew a solo Wonder Man comic around this time, and I really liked his work on it as a kid. We shall see directly that his Spider-Man face could use some work, tho. Very directly, as Spidey is already fighting Styx & Stone in a warehouse on page one. They call him a trespasser as he dodges Stone’s blasts, and Stone says they have a job to do, telling Styx to do his thing.
Styx kills the security guard, being the unstable murderous looney and all, and Spider-Man is very upset, obviously.
Spidey thinks Stone is right, thinking if he hadn’t blundered in here looking for photos, none of this would’ve happened. We still don’t know where “here” is or what’s going on, tho, this is rather choppy. Then Stone shoots the wrong container, causing an explosion and trapping the owner guy under some stuff that’s on fire, forcing Spider-Man to help while they flee. But not far.
The gang’s all here by page 9! And someone finally bothered to tell us what’s going on. Cardiac mixes it up with Styx & Stone for a couple pages, at one point blasting Stone through a chimney. When Stone gets up, his mask has been shredded, and Cardiac is shocked to recognize him. Stone blasts a hole in the roof under Cardiac, dumping him into the wreckage, and they flee. Cardiac sees the studio has been destroyed and thinks he more or less got what he wanted, and also departs. Hey, whatever happened to Spider-Man?
Holy smokes, Mary Jane’s getting a plot point! When’s the last time that happened?? I still like Johnson’s work. It’s got an airy feel that very much stands out in the Image era. Too bad about his Spider-Man, but everything else looks really nice. But I have interrupted Cardiac giving what I think is his first full origin.
Too bad it’s being told in a very difficult to read green! Sheesh! In those nigh-unreadable boxes, he says his heart has been replaced by a “compact beta particle accelerator” which empowers his muscles and his power staff, and he mentions his skin is a Vibranium mesh now. Cardiac’s fake skin never made any sense to me, and still doesn’t. Cardiac sets out to track down Stone without telling us why he recognized him. Elsewhere, Styx & Stone are pushing that guy from earlier to pay them, and the threat of Styx’s power does the trick.
We see ESU more for Peter’s parents than for him lately. The guy flipping on Styx & Stone is pretty good. At his place, Cardiac gets the info he needs on Stone, and we casually hear he used to be a “bio-technician,” and Cardiac sets off to get him. So, naturally, Spider-Man is already arriving at Styx & Stone’s fancy home. Stone is just out of the indoor pool when Spidey drops in. Stone runs off to get his gear, leaving the weirdo to tangle with our hero.
Johnson’s doing a lot of figure-in-motion panels in this issue, this is the 3rd at least, and they’re all pretty good!
Well, seems like Spidey’s dead this time. Styx kills people with a touch, how’s he gonna get out of this one? I guess we’ll see. As is so often the case, I don’t really remember this one. The only real evidence of the switch in inkers is Al Milgrom thickening the eyes.