Now this seems like it could be a good idea. Giving the new crime boss about to appear in ASM a little more lead time so he doesn’t just crop up out of nowhere. Note that Untold has moved to the new trade dress. This month, Tom DeFalco is once more onboard to script over Busiek’s plot, Olliffe does breakdowns and Scott Hanna inks. One master inker to another for this title.
Somebody did steal Flash’s Spider-Man costume last issue. Like the shout out to classic letterer Artie Simek.
Smash cut to a very comic booky splash of The Crime-master looming over New York and thinking that soon the entire underworld will be forced to serve him. But it’s not just symbolism…
I believe the identity of The Crime-master has already been spoiled on the blog, but it was a long time ago, so I’ll pretend it wasn’t, why not? While his goons deploy, Peter Parker is walking to Betty Brant’s place to try to straighten things out between them. She awkwardly says she has to take care of her Mom and can’t talk. Peter thinks she seemed very sad, and wishes he could help but then somebody robs a bank right across the street from him, as someone often does, and soon, Spider-Man is leaping into said bank, where Crimemaster’s programmed goons are at work.
The penciler/inker dynamic is so interesting to me. You can clearly see Olliffe in this art, but with Hanna doing finishes, it’s very different from the usual. Hanna’s line is a little bolder, less hatching. The merging of 2 art styles is so unique to comics (Tho less so these days when it’s usually a single artist drawing digitally). Spidey is beaten nearly unconscious, but then his attackers just leave. Crime-master is upset, but Carson says neither of them anticipated this scenario, and the goons are only programmed to subdue opposition. Spidey get a tracer on one of their legs. Crime-master demands better control of his goons, and reminds Carson his daughter is being kept safe but drugged unconscious until he’s satisfied. It’s a weird choice to have Peter covered in visible cuts and bruises again so soon after ASM 19, but that’s what they do. He encounters Liz & Flash on the street after selling his photos to JJJ, and once again, he’s made fun of him for it. He even points out this is the 2nd time in a week. Then Spider-Man dumps garbage on him and Liz. Well, the guy in the suit from earlier, anyway. Flash, of course, knows it’s not the real Spider-Man. Peter takes the chance to leave and goes home for his tracer tracker, and is then on the hunt for his assailants. He finds their hideout quickly.
Spider-Man grabs the doc and bolts, saying they’ll go get his daughter, too, but they escape under a hail of gunfire, and the goons keep up with them pretty well as Spidey dives them into a stairwell. In trying to find an escape route, the wind up trapped in a small storage room. Spider-Man webs the door, and then asks what’s going on. Carson says it all began when he was studying the human brain…
Science saves the day (That it also imperiled). The goons go down, and Carson is reunited with his daughter. Spider-Man finds Crime-master’s office, but it’s been abandoned. He did find a phone to call the cops, tho. And with Crime-master gone, the easiest person to pin all this on is Carson himself. But as he’s handcuffed, Spidey tells him not to worry…
It’s crazy how the entire story of Betty and having to care for her sick Mom and now this are only in this title. That’s a big thing to happen in the margins, but they pull it off. And with that, Pat Olliffe is mysteriously off this book and over to Marvel Team-Up, Vol. 2. I wonder if that was his idea or editorial’s. Especially considering this title only has 2 more issues, it’s a shame he didn’t get to see it through. But next 1964 block, we’ll see that his replacement is not a disappointment. But first, it’s back to the 90s.