Back on John Romita, Jr.’s home turf, and look who’s decided to join the manhunt. HOW many times can Punisher be tricked into going after “that awful criminal, Spider-Man?” The Jackal has done it twice by himself! Across 3 really atmospheric pages, Norman Osborn explains the story so far to a guy getting his arsenal in order…
Earlier in the decade, when Punisher got so popular he warranted THREE monthly titles, the 3rd one, War Zone, launched with our man, John Romita, Jr. on pencils, inked by Klaus Janson. Terrible, stupid, gorgeous comics. Jr has said repeatedly over the years that he actually prefers to draw guys like Daredevil and Punisher to Spider-Man, which is unfortunate given how much Spider-Man he’s wound up doing. Here he gets to draw Frank and Spidey and his old pal Shotgun all at once! Well, I guess Frank has an excuse for being duped this time. This is after he, himself, was hunted so bad he got plastic surgery to get turned into a black guy for awhile (Cringe), and then got changed back pretty quick, but I don’t know why he has amnesia here. Speaking of Shotgun, he is using his shotguns.
Shotty’s new look is pretty evocative of Bishop’s in X-Men, dark outfit with light accents and a stripe down his leg, guns, etc. As Spider-Man runs from Shotgun, people on the street start shooting up at him, too, forcing him to change tactics.
Solid gag. He smashes through another apartment, this time a woman in a shower, which is a lot more cliche, then smashes out her window, only to have his webline shot by Punisher and plunge into the drink. We trek over to NYU Medical Center, where The Stacys, MJ & Shantal are all visiting Jill as she recovers from being shot. Paul is watching the news about Spider-Man loudly and refusing to turn it down ‘til MJ rips the remote out of his hand.
Like a bad penny, this guy. Although, this is nothing compared to 2008 or so. But, getting ahead of myself, as usual. Meanwhile, one Clarence Fielding, a nerdy lookin’ guy out to collect the Spider-Bounty like everyone else, finds himself lucky, stumbling on the unconscious form of the Five Million Dollar Man. But then he realizes out hero’s not breathing, and gives him CPR, bringing him back.
What a great little bit of business in the middle of this crazy story. I’m tellin’ ya, this was THE Spider-Man book in this period, as far as I was concerned as a teen, and that feeling has not changed. All the assembled tough guys start shooting at each other, the mob splitting up to shoot at the 2 named fellows, Spider-Man just trying to make sure Clarence walks away from this. He makes a big web shield and uses it to guide Clarence away from the fighting. Then starts trying to web some of the idiots to keep them from getting killed. But then a big crate smashes down on the guys he was facing off with, a crate thrown by…
Spidey figures webbing the doors should keep the rabble out, leaving him to only face the named guys, and he’s right, as they both blast their way in from opposite sides of the roof. Shotgun says it’s weird to see Punisher coming after Spider-Man, since last he checked they were both good guys. This was, perhaps, a mistake.
Is that Goblin Harry? With the “gotcha” and everything? Only one way to find out.