Here’s a villain we’ve not seen in awhile. That gag with the logo is not quite working. You can always tell a Tom Lyle drawing from the hands. From those weird, meaty thumbs. Tom’s on interiors, too, with the usual gang in the other roles. As Mr. Hyde breaks into a clothing store and steals stuff, we’re told he recently had to jump out of a crashing plane in a Hulk comic and lost his luggage. That’s kinda funny. He escapes with his ill-gotten gains to plot his revenge. And we escape that scene to find Peter, MJ & Shantal visiting Jill in the Hospital.
That wasn’t all that funny, Jill. Must be the meds.
Is Dante that little guy who works for Black Tarantula with holograms or something? I do not know. Oh, he’s not, that guy’s hiding in a closet across the hall. Pete & MJ have the now-usual discussion about him giving up being Spider-Man due to the bounty as they leave, and lil’ guy maybe hears them? I dunno. Peter says he’s trying, that he’s not even wearing the suit tonight. Then we’re off to The Robertson home, where they’re getting ready for Joe’s farewell party at The Bugle, and seem very happy.
Billy Walters sure is integrating into the cast well for a guy I don’t remember. I bet he vanishes in the reboot.I bet almost everyone but people who were around before 1997 vanish in the reboot. Zabo checks in, and Peter is trying to follow him when MJ wrangles him back to the evening’s event. He runs into Phil Urich and a Meredith Campbell sneaking in. As former interns, I guess they don’t rate a real invite. Who’s Meredith Campbell? Ah, she mostly appeared in Phil’s short-lived Green Goblin book, got it. Peter somehow mentally turns “aiding and abetting party crashers” into more evidence he should quit being a superhero (???????), and then we move into the actual party. Joe and Martha are talking to Ben Urich and his wife, Doris, about Norman Osborn. Then JJJ saunters up with Marla.
Has ASM ever had this many women in it? Like, ever? Martha, Doris, Marla, MJ, Meredith, Jill, Shantal… Highly unusual! Peter & Ben talk about the situation, and even Ben is thinking of quitting. Then Peter asks him who Calvin Zabo is, and is horrified by the answer. He decides that, even badly injured and without a spider-suit or webshooters, he has to try to do something. About… something. Can a man not check into a hotel room? What crime has he committed? Peter steals a sweatshirt out of the coat check and gets to climbing the wall outside. He eventually manages to find Zabo’s room. The villain is just trying to call the Hulk bad guys he’d be working for, The New World Order, but all their phones have been disconnected. This is hilarious to me. Then he spots someone looking in his window, assumes the receptionist did recognize him and called the cops, becomes Hyde and chucks a dresser out the window. Peter has literally created a problem where there was none.
“I can’t allow him to endanger anyone else now that I have directly caused him to begin injuring people!” They somehow fight in an elevator even though Hyde is basically as big as it is, then pour out of it into, guess what, Robbie’s party. What a coincidence! MJ recognizes her husband, and Phil Urich recognizes his sweat shirt. Then, there’s a good bit:
Even wearing the right color hood. To pay off Martha’s awful, stilted dialogue, Hyde throws that piano right at them, forcing Peter move really fast since he has no webs and dive them to safety. They keep on fighting until Hyde gets tired of it.
“Are you saying that, since the costume is the problem, I should get rid of it?” Duuuuuuuuuuh! That has been the obvious solution for like 2 months, buddy! So, are they really gonna make up a new superhero? Is Spider-Man gonna become someone else? We’ll see!