Before getting back to the whole “Spider-Man adopts 4 new identities” business, I’m looking at 2 comics that came out much earlier that I held back. This I held back just so I could do the Untold Annual you can see, this is the sequel, bringing whatshisname into the present day after his defeat in the 60s era. Like I said talking about that annual, it’s a gag you don’t want to do too often, but it’s fun to do once. Surprisingly, Roger Stern handles the modern day sequel, but Tom Lyle & Robert Jones hang in there on line art. Matt Webb colors. Kurt Busiek is credited as “Unindicted Co-Conspirator.” The former Sundown is walking out of prison on page one.
He recaps the previous annual in a remarkably small 4 panels, and then a limo pulls up, and inside it’s…
Donald Menken! Roger Stern sure loves his bit players.
Lowell burns the card and flies away, to the consternation of the guys in the other car, who didn’t know he could do that. Soon, he’s flying over Manhattan, wondering how things have changed in his old neighborhood. Which presumably cut to, and find a guy stealing money from a deli, only to be accosted Spider-Man.
The ventriloquist joke is great. Stern is the best. Spidey swings off, lost in his thoughts, and almost swings right into Lowell, hovering in mid air. Lowell assumes there will be trouble, but Spidey doesn’t recognize him at first, and just curiously asks him how he does that. Lowell decides he doesn’t want to talk and just leaves. Spider-Man decides he should probably figure out who this familiar face is and tries to catch up, only to get caught in Sundown’s field of darkness.
Spidey gives up looking after an hour and heads home to go to school with MJ. She asks what happened and he gives a more in-depth recap of the previous annual. He says it seems Lowell’s changed a lot, and MJ says who wouldn’t in 10 years? She hopes it’s for the better, and we move our scene to the office of Lucky Lobo. Still in the mob game! He hasn’t appeared in a comic since ASM 23! Those guys following Lowell were his, and they are in trouble for losing him. Lobo tells them and us that he met Lowell in prison, saw some guys try to shank him and get blasted across the yard for it.
Lowell’s out looking for a job, and getting turned away from place after place for various reasons. It’s making him think maybe he shouldn’t have burned Menken’s card. Then he flashes back to the day they cleared his lab, and how he fought with them, spilled his miracle chemical on himself, fell on some “solar lamps” and that’s how he got his powers. He’s gotten temp work and vows he’d never work for Menken. A week passes. We see Pete & MJ having a nice afternoon, and then Lowell wandering his own neighborhood, seeing how much has changed.
Peter asking himself that question is pretty funny. Whoops!
Not to speak ill of the dead, but if someone told me to remake the “face it, tiger” panel, and I did it this bad, I would never recover. Peter contacts Charlie Snow, one of the less seen Bugle reporters, and the next day, they meet up to go interview Lowell. Snow’s got his address and everything, he’s an old pro. They catch him coming out of the building, and he’s really not interested in talking to them. Snow pushes too hard, and Lowell blasts them into a pile of trash and flies away. Peter thinks he’ll talk to Ben Urich next time. Good call! He runs off with an excuse about trying to get some photos.
MJ says Lowell must be living a nightmare, and at this moment, Lobo and some goons are waking him up in his apartment, trying to make him an offer he can’t refuse.
Really having a rough go of it. Spider-Man sees Lowell getting into a car with Lobo, and pokes his head in the sun roof. And so, the battle Lowell absolutely didn’t want begins.
We see the goons from the beginning now training a sniper rifle on Mary, having been instructed to wound, not kill her, if Lowell didn’t go along with things. Then Sundwon flies by with Spider-Man held by the throat, and when the goons tell Lobo, he’s thrilled. He tells them to stay put and keep out of sight, so they just settle in to watch the battle.
Well, Spidey, you’re wrong, this is his final appearance. I do think he had potential, tho. Interesting (If a bit all over the place) powers, unusual situation. A good underdog story. But new characters are a hardsell in comics, so he probably would’ve had to be on a team or something. Ah, well. Oh, here’s the back of the wrap around cover. Weird how they put all the mobsters on there considering they’re not in this. Ready to get back to the whole Identity Crisis story? Too bad, we got some detours first…