It’s weird to me how the core creatives more or less bailed on this book with only a few issues left. Pat Olliffe gone to do 3 whole issues of MTU, Vol. 2, then who knows what. Kurt Busiek ceding script duties. And, sure, he’s got a lot of much more high profile gigs coming up at this point. But if they were gonna end it, anyway… I guess there’s only so many hours in the day. Well, anyway, bringing this title home will be Kurt on plot, Tom DeFalco on script, Bob McLeod penciling & inking, and ever-reliable Steve Mattson on colors. I haven’t seen that guy’s name on anything else, but he colored everything with the word “Untold” on the cover no matter who else was working on it, so salute. I am an avowed fan of Mr. McLeod, but the change to him drawing these teenagers is abrupt and jarring.
Flash is suddenly older here than he is in the mainline books of 1997. If that guy walked into a high school, security would jump up.
Spider-Man has no idea why his former friend is attacking him, and tries to just flee, webbing his eyes, but Batwing follows him using sonar. Our hero swings into an active construction site, letting the noise mask him and making Batwing fly on without him. He decides capturing him would only make him panic more. He decides to call Curt Connors, who was taking are of our batty boy last we saw him in UTS , to find out what’s going on. That night, Flash Thompson goes home to his drunk dad, who’s not abusive or even mean, but at least drunk, so as to sort of match up with his depiction in DeMatteis’ stuff. Then we go see Peter wishing Aunt May a fun time at Anna Watson’s house while he “stays home to study,” aka calls Curt.
McLeod seems to be making an effort to draw a somewhat Pat Olliffe-y Spider-Man, if no one else. Boy, Jimmy’s mom still sucks. She says that thing is a creature of sin and can’t be her son. Spidey leaves, saying her son needs her. Meanwhile, Flash is thinking back to the first time he saw Spider-Man, in Amazing Fantasy 18, fighting Supercharger. He’s hiding in an alley waiting for the fake Spider-Man to show up, and after Liz scares him be sneaking up on him, his plan works for some reason, as the fake Spidey graffiti’s a store across the street. Meanwhile-meanwhile, Spidey finds Batwing eating fish out of a fishing boat by following and then overtaking some cops. Batwing is hoping they’ll kill him, and obviously, Spider-Man is not. He desperately tries to reason with the kid, but it’s no use, and then the cops catch up. But before we see any of that…
I mean, it had to be somebody, and Jason has been getting weirder and weirder since Sally died.
Liz sure is dressed like an early 1960s teenager. Sheesh. As Liz tries to talk Jason down, he gives an emotional speech about how Sally’s death has haunted him ever since and it’s tearing him up. Jason says he began framing Spider-Man in an attempt to make everyone hate him, so he could convince himself Spider-Man was responsible for Sally’s death, too, but it’s not working. I mean… no surprise there, buddy. Flash spends the whole time thinking about how he should be punching Jason out like Spider-Man would. But…
I really don’t think something as momentous as a Green Goblin fight should be in Untold Tales, but no one asked me, and I guess you want to try to go out with a bang. We’re back to ASM before we see that, tho.